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Larkinville Ice Festival

[FESTIVAL] Larkinville will hold their third annual Ice Festival this Saturday, January 28. The festival will be held at various locations around Larkinville—Larkin Square, Hydraulic Hearth, Flying Bison, the Buffalo Distilling Company, and The Filling Station. Larkinville and the Filling station will feature an ice throne—presumably for selfie-taking—a sledding hill, games, face painting and other activities for kids, pickleball, kan jam, a winter market, and much more. There’ll also be a fleet of food trucks on hand and an outdoor bar.

Artists Talk: Caitlin Cass

[DISCUSSION] A regular contributor to The Public, artist Caitlin Cass will be the subject of an Artist’s Talk at Hallwalls on Wednesday, January 25. The artist will talk about the figures and inspiration behind her visual storytelling projects, which tend to focus on failures throughout local history. 

Alter Bridge

[ROCK] Alternative rock band Alter Bridge return to Western New York for a show at the Rapids Theatre this Tuesday, January 31. The Orlando, Florida-based post-grunge band are on tour in support of their fifth studio album, titled The Last Hero, which was released in October. They’ll be joined by Nonpoint and Weapons of Anew.

Ponzo Houdini, Don Scuzz, King Jester 716, Rizzo & Jaycee, and GKG-Boy

[HIP HOP] Five elite local hip hop artists converge at Mohawk Place this Saturday, January 29 for a showcase headed by Ponzo Houdini. Ponzo Houdini lists influences such as Jay-Z, 50 Cent, and Dipset among others who have inspired his street rap style. He’ll be joined by Don Scuzz, King Jester 716, Rizzo & Jaycee, and GKG-Boy, presented by For the Music Productions.

Amber Canavan: Foie Gras, Animal Liberation, and Jail.

[PRESENTATION] In 2011, animal rights activist Amber Canavan allegedly stole a pair of ducks. In doing so, she helped expose Hudson Valley Foie Gras in Ferndale one of the nation’s largest producers of foie gras—the fancy duck liver dish—for animal cruelty and neglect. She spent a night or two in jail for trespassing, but in the process saved a few ducks from a grotesque fattening up and eventual slaughter for their livers, considered a delicacy.

Beethoven’s Fifth

[CLASSICAL] How did Beethoven’s hearing loss affect his composition of his masterpiece, Symphony No. 5? How was the composer able to overcome, or even transcend, his physical limitations? Experts from the UB Medical School will attempt to answer these questions with a special multimedia presentation that focuses on Beethoven, his hearing loss, and his fifth symphony. Thursday, January 26 at Kleinhans Music Hall. 

Bert Kreischer

[COMEDY] Bert Kreischer is the kind of guy who shows up to a radio interview naked. He’s also the kind of guy who goes by a nickname like “The Machine” and inspires, but does not star in movies like National Lampoon’s Van WIlder. It’s hard to say if Kreischer, now 43, ever really left his college days behind him, but that’s ok, because he’s made a career out of it—hosting shows like the Travel Channel’s Bert the Conquerer, on which he visited water parks and played unusual sports.

Tapestry: The Carole King Songbook

[FOLK] A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a multi Grammy Award winner, and an influence to artists and musicians of all genres, Carole King deserves all of the tributes. This week the BPO will give King their symphonic treatment for a concert that will focus on her seminal 1972 album, Tapestry. The orchestra will perform songs such as “It’s Too Late,” which Rolling Stone listed as one of the top 500 songs ever written, and “You’ve Got A Friend,” which won a Grammy for King and James Taylor, for his famous version of the song.

Will Hoge

[POP] For a few minutes, it looked like it might be all over for singer/songwriter Will Hoge when, back in 2008, his scooter collided with a van on Nashville’s east side. Hoge underwent surgery for a broken sternum, knee cap, shoulder blades and ribs along with numerous lacerations and a shattered femur. His ensuing recovery is nothing short of miraculous. But Hoge is a survivor not only of his accident, but also of a fickle music industry that’s bounced around artists of his ilk for the last 15 years, uncertain of how best to market them.

Scathed

[GRUNGE] It’s an unplugged assortment of local talent at Babeville’s 9th Ward on Friday, January 27 featuring Scathed (grunge), Lost Connections (ska-pop) and young’uns Psychosis Glory. Come out to support some of the city’s up-and-coming bands on Friday night. Doors are at 7:00 p.m., $5/$7.
  

Peter Asher

[ROCK] As many of our rock heroes enter their later years, the word “legend” gets bandied about all too easily. But Britain’s Peter Asher, now 72, is truly a rock and roll legend, his humble beginnings in the duo Peter and Gordon almost being beside-the-point.

Daniel Bachman

[ROCK] Not yet even 30 and Daniel Bachman is often compared to guitar visionaries like Jack Rose and John Fahey for his dexterous finger-picking. But a closer listen reveals that the Virginia-raised musician is very much up to his own tricks. Bachman first learned to play the banjo, which informs his guitar work insofar as his finger-picking styles and patterns are concerned, as well as the alternate tunings he prefers. The slack-strung lower end on many of his compositions lends a droning, Appalachian-influenced tone.

Marco Benevento

[INDIE] Marco Benevento refuses to sit still. He tours relentlessly, and when he’s not on the road, he’s either writing/recording new material or lending his jazzy instincts to side projects like re-interpreting the work of Led Zeppelin, playing in the trio Garage a Trois or participating in a Grateful Dead cover band (Joe Russo’s Almost Dead).

Frankie Ballard

[COUNTRY] “Life is about living,” might be country music singer Frankie Ballard’s life motto. “Life is not about who gets out the cleanest at the end, or who’s the most well-preserved and healthiest. I refuse to believe that is what life is about,” he said in a recent Rolling Stone interview. His latest album, El Rio, which was released in June of 2016, pursues this philosophy.

Buffalo Film Seminars

[FILM] Another Tuesday night, another terrific movie at the Buffalo Film Seminars. It’s been that way for years, so many that you may well not remember a time when you couldn’t depend up on it to give you a chance to discover or revisit a film classic on the big screen, the way it was meant to be seen. Each film is presented by UB professors Bruce Jackson and Diane Christian, who introduce the film and conduct an audience discussion afterward. 

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