[ the agenda ]
the Blockley, where the volume and the drinks — not to mention the band’s vigorous, only incidentally virtuosic party music — should help appease Jain’s calls for audience participation.
quickinterview By Patrick Rapa
—Shaun Brady
[ rock/pop ]
✚ CROCODILES
MARCO RAPISARDA
San Diego’s Crocodiles are dependable sorts. They’ve turned out four solidly enjoyable, if ultimately unspectacular, albums in just over four years, and while they haven’t exactly made any great leaps beyond the buzzy, noirish jangle-rock that made their name and earned them thousands of shrugging Jesus and Mary Chain comparisons, they’ve steadily brightened and broadened their approach
➤ CAVE DWELLING
BLEDDYN BUTCHER
Fri., Nov. 22, 8:30 p.m., $15-$18, with West Philadelphia Orchestra, the Blockley, 3801 Chestnut St., 215-2221234, theblockley.com.
Nick Cave generally doesn’t do interviews, so it was funny to watch him sigh, eye-roll and eat a croissant during a “live video press conference” with alt-weekly partners last week. Here are some highlights (read the rest at citypaper.net/music). On keeping songs in the set list ➤ There are some songs that just seem to be infinitely playable. They always kind of reveal something new. And some songs just don’t have that capacity. They sound fine on record and you take them out, you play them live, you feel them die after a few plays. On the purpose of songs ➤ Songs, to me, are kind of memory machines, and the purpose of them on some level is to aid my memory. And they are a very effective way of being thrown back to earlier times. On interpreting his lyrics ➤ The meaning of the songs is not so important to me. It’s more where the songs actually take me. … I can kind of reconvene with the ghosts from my past in some kind of way. That can be quite a beautiful thing. On how his voice has changed ➤ It’s changed a lot. It’s deeper. It’s more versatile. My intonation, my famously individualistic intonation, is better. You know, sometimes I actually hear myself on stage and it sounds almost enjoyable to listen to, rather than filling me with absolute horror as it has for most of my career. (pat@citypaper.net)
with each release. Album number four is no exception, and its bright pink cover doesn’t lie: Crimes of Passion (Zoo Music/Frenchkiss) is the duo’s poppiest, most immediate work yet, occasionally taking some beat-looping, gospel-infused cues from the Madchester-reviving likes of Jagwar Ma (or, more likely, they’ve just been adding some Primal Scream and Stone Roses records to their usual steady diet of Echo and Spacemen 3), the better to illuminate the tuneful blend of sweetness and nihilism that, any year now, is gonna be distinctive enough to call their very own. —K. Ross Hoffman Fri., Nov. 22, 9 p.m., $12, with Wymond Miles, Boot & Saddle, 1131 S. Broad St., 267-639-4528, bootandsaddlephilly.com.
[ dance ]
Nick Cave plays the Mann on July 25, 2014. Go to citypaper.net for two free songs.
you so profoundly it changed your idea of the world, or inspired you to make a big decision about who or what kind of person you wanted to be? It’s a moving experience in the abstract — and for Sharp Dance Company, also in a literal sense, as they present Perceptions, a new work based on letters from members of the community who wrote in to tell about how someone changed their views on life. Of course, not all influences are positive; there’s conflict along the way. That puts the subject matter right up Sharp’s alley — the company makes art to get you to think and feel, not just watch. Be ready for an emotional ride. —Deni Kasrel
✚ SHARP DANCE COMPANY Ever met someone who touched
Fri.-Sun., Nov. 22-24, $15-$25, Christ Church Neighborhood House, 20 N. American Street, 215-880-2306, sharpdance.org.
SATURDAY
11.23 [ theater ]
✚ LIZZIE Fresh from winning an “Evolving Theater” Barrymore Award, 11th Hour Theatre Company continues its Next Step Concert Series with Steve Cheslik-DeMeyer, Alan Stevens Hewett and Tim Maner’s musical about America’s favorite axe murderess, Lizzie Borden. The Massachusetts Sunday school teacher was acquitted of killing her parents in 1892, but no one else was ever arrested for the crime, fueling more than a century of speculation, infamy and children’s rhymes. Kate C I T Y PA P E R . N E T | N O V E M B E R 2 1 - N O V E M B E R 2 7 , 2 0 1 3 | P H I L A D E L P H I A C I T Y PA P E R |
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