IN BRIEF
THURSDAY 5/8
At 7 p.m. at the Argenta Community Theater, the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra will present “Pan’s Midsummer Night’s Dream,” a program featuring music from Debussy, Torke and more, $20. Anti-folkers Matt Pless and Francie Moon will be at the Afterthought with local math rock trio Fitra and singer-songwriter Mike Earl, 8 p.m., $4. Geriatric soft rockers REO Speedwagon (“Can’t Fight This Feeling”) will play the Robinson Center Music Hall at 8:30 p.m., $52-$88.50. Aaron Sarlo’s Duckstronaut, the local space rock band featuring electric dulcimer and a washboard player, will be at White Water Tavern at 9:30 p.m. with fellow locals The Coasts, who have a new record due out May 20, $5.
FRIDAY 5/9
HAPPY VALLEY: The Little Rock Film Festival will kick off at the Ron Robinson Theater Monday, 7:30 p.m., $60-$300.
MONDAY 5/12 – WEDNESDAY 5/14
LITTLE ROCK FILM FESTIVAL
7:30 p.m. Ron Robinson Theater. $60-$300.
This year’s Little Rock Film Festival, which we’ll highlight in much greater detail in next week’s issue, will officially kick off Monday night with a screening of “Happy Valley,” directed by Amir Bar-Lev, the documentary filmmaker behind “My Kid Could Paint That” and “The Tillman Story.” The film focuses on the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal and the reactions of and aftershocks throughout the Penn State community
that resulted, examining, as Variety explains, “the assumptions of an entire community, as well as the football-first culture that allowed evil to flourish in its midst.” Bar-Lev will be in attendance at the screening, which will be followed by the LRFF Opening Party at 9:30 p.m. at Ron Robinson Theater, featuring food provided by The Fold and music by Trey Johnson. Tuesday night’s schedule will feature three programs of short films, Shawn Christensen’s “Before I Disappear,” Kim Swink and Chris Spencer’s Arkansas-made “Valley Inn” and an
after-party at Stickyz featuring music by Randall Shreve and the Sideshow, The Salty Dogs, Amy Garland and others. Wednesday’s lineup includes Alejandro Fernandez Almendras’s “To Kill a Man,” Emilio Aragon’s “A Night in Old Mexico,” Zachary Wigon’s “The Heart Machine,” Katy Chevigny and Ross Kauffman’s “E-Team,” Robert Greene’s “Actress,” and more programs of Arkansas-produced short films, with an after-party at The Fold. We’ll devote next week’s issue to a preview of the rest of the festival.
ing the Seas of Cheese,” “Tales from the Punchbowl,” “Antipop,” “Suck On This,” “Miscellaneous Debris,” “Animals Should Not Try to Act Like People” and, maybe most importantly, “They Can’t All Be Zingers.” The history of the West Coast funk metal group is studded with Claymation music videos, appearances on the soundtracks for “Bill and
Ted’s Bogus Journey” and “The Beavis and Butthead Experience,” collaborations with Phish and Fred Durst and the nightmarish faux-country theme song for “South Park.” According to their Wikipedia page, they’re hard at work recording an album-length cover of the original soundtrack for “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” Godspeed.
musical called “Million Dollar Quartet,” about a jam session between Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash, but only because of his decades of unassailable redneck-rock credentials as a co-founder of Nashville altcountry institution BR549. Mead, who was born and raised in Lawrence, Kan.,
has since struck out as a solo act, occasionally performing with his backup band The Grassy Knoll Boys. His new release, “Free State Serenade,” is a tribute to his upbringing, lined with regionally informed Western swing and honkytonk stomps like “Reno County Girl” and “Neosho Valley Sue.”
WEDNESDAY 5/14
PRIMUS
7:30 p.m. First Security Amphitheater. $32-$47.
An incomplete discography of the American rock band Primus, a list of titles that taken together could also conceivably serve as a poetic summation of the band’s ethos, would include “Sail-
WEDNESDAY 5/14
CHUCK MEAD
9 p.m. White Water Tavern. $10.
It’s basically accurate but also misleading to say that Chuck Mead has spent his last few years on Broadway. He was enlisted as the musical director, arranger and supervisor for a hit
Tibetan Buddhist author Anam Thubten will give a lecture at the Unitarian Universalist Church at 7 p.m., $10-$15, and will lead a meditation retreat on Saturday and Sunday at the Ecumenical Buddhist Society at 10 a.m., $75. The Little Rock-based record label Thick Syrup will kick off a string of anniversary shows Friday night at Stickyz featuring Bear Colony and The See, 9 p.m., $7 (there will be two more dates at White Water next week, followed by a show at Maxine’s on May 24). Funk-tinged New Orleans group Tyler Kinchen and The Right Pieces will play the first of a two-night stand at The Afterthought, 9 p.m., $7 (the second show will be Saturday night).
SATURDAY 5/10
The Seventh Annual Women of Excellence Awards, presented by Sister Friends United, Inc., will be held at the Wyndham Riverfront Hotel, 6 p.m., $25. The Youth Poetry Slam, hosted by the Pulaski County Special School District with a $600 grand prize, will be at Philander Smith College at 6 p.m. Arkansas country singer-songwriter Matthew Huff will play at Revolution at 8:30 p.m. with Maybe April and Cheyenne Nicole, $10. Local favorites Amasa Hines will play a show to commemorate the vinyl release of their album, “All The World There Is,” at White Water Tavern, 10 p.m., $7.
SUNDAY 5/11
“War in the ’60s,” the last film produced by the late Arkansas documentarian Jack Hill, will screen for free at the Ron Robinson Theater at 1:30 p.m., followed by a panel discussion. Bluegrass singer-songwriter Rhonda Vincent, who’s collaborated with Dolly Parton and been called “the new Queen of Bluegrass” by the Wall Street Journal, will be at South on Main with her band The Rage at 3 p.m., $35-$45.
WEDNESDAY 5/14
Continuing their “Arkansas B-Movies” series, local film collective Splice Microcinema will screen 1987’s “Stay Tuned for Murder,” a VHS non-classic shot in Little Rock, at Vino’s at 7:30 p.m., donations encouraged. www.arktimes.com
MAY 8, 2014
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