The Black Keys continue their North American arena tour with sold-out shows at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC, and the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia ... Adams's The Death of Klinghoffer concludes at ENO ... Laurie Anderson brings Delusion to NYC ... Carolina Chocolate Drops are in Maine and on NPR ... Richard Goode plays in Kansas City ... Guettel's Floyd Collins is in London ... Kronos Quartet, Billy Childs, and Bill Frisell are in LA ... Brad Mehldau Trio tours Germany, Italy ... Natalie Merchant gives anti-fracking benefit show in upstate NY ... Randy Newman is in Utrecht ... Punch Brothers are in LA ... Steve Reich joins Bang on a Can at MIT ... and more ...
The Black Keys continue their North American tour with special guests Arctic Monkeys, playing a sold-out show at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC, tonight and the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on Saturday (the poster for which, at left, was illustrated by Jeff Proctor).
"The Black Keys are selling what Obama sold four years ago: hope. (Albeit a very different brand, this one’s all about the promise of rock ‘n’ roll)," writes the Boston Herald's Jed Gottlieb in a review of the band's recent sold-out show at the TD Garden. "This humble two-man band from Akron is selling the idea that American rock music can once again fill stadiums ... Yeah, a new band playing heavy blues and maximum r&b filled an arena built for Springsteens and Stones." Gottlieb predicts: "They’ll be in arenas for decades to come."
One such arena, New York's Madison Square Garden, hosts The Black Keys on Monday for the first of two shows at the venue this go-around. The band returns for a second show on Thursday, March 22.
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Tonight marks the final performance of the English National Opera's production of John Adams's opera The Death of Klinghoffer. The Times of London gives the production four stars, calling it "absorbing and provocative." The Guardian, also in a four-star review, calls it "a major achievement." The Financial Times calls the piece "Adams at his best."
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Laurie Anderson brings her performance piece Delusion close to home this weekend with two nights at Pace University’s Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts in downtown New York City, tonight and Saturday.
On Monday, Guild Hall in East Hampton, New York, presented Anderson with the Academy of the Arts Lifetime Achievement Award for Performing Arts Guild Hall in a special ceremony at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City. Anderson's husband, Lou Reed, introduced her, calling Anderson “a woman who can do anything.”
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Carolina Chocolate Drops continue their US tour this weekend with a stop in Brownfield, Maine, for two sold-out shows at the Stone Mountain Center, tonight and Saturday. The band creates "a stomping, virtuosic music that’s totally engaging," writes Boston Phoenix reviewer Jon Garelick, further citing their “phenomenal stage charm."
The Chocolate Drops are all over the public-radio airwaves this weekend, appearing on NPR's Here and Now today and Weekend Edition tomorrow, and PRI's Studio 360 tomorrow as well. Tune in!
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Richard Goode performs at the Kauffman Center for Performing Arts’ Folly Theater in Kansas City, Missouri, tonight. The program features works by Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, and Chopin. On Saturday, Goode offers a free master class at the Grant Recital Hall. Reviewing the pianist's concert in Toronto earlier this week, the Globe and Mail exclaims: "Richard Goode was at the top of his legendary game."
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Adam Guettel’s debut musical, Floyd Collins, recently opened a month-long engagement at the Southwark Playhouse in London. The new production of the musical, which was applauded by both music and theater critics following its off-Broadway premiere in 1996, earns a perfect five stars from the Sunday Express, whose theatre critic Mark Shenton raves that Guettel's score "has an authentic emotional depth and is thrillingly well performed ... We will be lucky to see a better musical all year in London." The production runs through March 31.
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Kronos Quartet performs at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California, on Sunday in a concert featuring Bill Frisell and pianist/composer Billy Childs and his Quartet. Frisell opens the show with his drum/viola trio Beautiful Dreamers, featuring Eyvind Kang and Rudy Royston, followed by solo sets from Krono and Childs. Finally, Kronos Quartet and Billy Childs Quartet unite to perform Music for Two Quartets, a piece Childs wrote for Kronos for the 2010 Monterey Jazz Festival. The Los Angeles Times predicts "a captivating blur between whatever lines separate jazz and classical music."
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The Brad Mehldau Trio, featuring bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard, continues its tour through Europe, performing at Burgerhaus in Backnang, Germany, tonight, and Teatro Sociale in Italy on Sunday. The Trio’s new album, Ode, due out in the UK next week and the following week in North America, is available for pre-order now in the Nonesuch Store with an instant download of the title track.
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Natalie Merchant gives a special benefit concert at the Broome County Forum in Binghamton, New York, on Saturday presented by The Finger Lakes Clean Waters Initiative. The event also feature special guests The Horse Flies and biologist/author Sandra Steingraber. Proceeds go to support a ban on hydrofracking.
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Randy Newman continues his tour through Europe, playing at Vredenburg in Utrecht, Netherlands, on Saturday.
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Punch Brothers continue their North American tour, playing at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles on Saturday. They are joined on this leg of the tour by special guest Aoife O’Donovan. The band was recently featured in Salon, where writer Seth Mnookin “strongly recommended” readers catch their shows. “I imagine that in time folks who passed up a chance to see the band strut its stuff will feel a little like those New Yorkers who were offered tickets to see the Allmans at the Fillmore East 41 years ago," he writes, "and decided they had something better to do with their time.”
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Steve Reich returns to MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, this Saturday for a performance at Kresge Auditorium with Bang on a Can featuring the Boston premiere of 2x5, as well as Electric Counterpoint and Clapping Music, with the composer himself joining percussionist David Cossin for the piece. The concert also includes a preview performance of Bang on a Can's Field Recordings with special guest Nick Zammuto of the Books. Ticket holders are invited for a talk with Reich before the concert begins.
Bang on a Can gave the world premiere of Reich’s 2x5 to a sold-out concert at the Manchester International Festival in 2009 and give the first recording of the piece on Reich’s 2010 Nonesuch album, paired with eighth blackbird's performance of his Pulitzer Prize-winning Double Sextet.
Read more about this weekend's program in a feature article on Reich and the concert in today's Boston Globe at bostonglobe.com.
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Allen Toussaint plays at the Dosey Doe Café in The Wooodlands, Texas, tonight.
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