[FESTIVAL] East Aurora is celebrating the upcoming holiday season at the Knox Mansion. The Knox Farm Holiday Art Festival will feature local artists and craftsman showcasing their pieces for purchase on Friday, November 20 through Sunday, November 22. You can view a brief list of the artists attending the event online. Admission for this event for the opening night is $20 and $5 for the duration of the event.
[CLASSICAL] Violinist Jennifer Koh, who solos with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra under Music Director JoAnn Falletta this Friday morning, November 20 at 10:30am and Saturday evening, November 21 at 8pm at Kleinhans Music Hall, is a native Chicagoan who began her undergraduate studies at age 16 at Oberlin College as an English major, which may account for her literary approach to the work she performs this weekend, the relatively seldom heard Violin Concerto
[CELEBRATION] Only a year ago our staff of seven was crammed into its first office: a windowless bunker on the fourth floor of John McKendry’s Hi-Temp Fabrications in the Cobblestone District. The unheated room was filled with ephemera from Harley Spiller, the famed collector of Chinese menus, among other things, and it took some trials-by-error to figure out which space heater could be plugged in to which outlet without catastrophically shutting down our computers and server.
[POP] While there have been numerous other so-called “important” double albums, Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life remains unmatched in both its musical and ideological scope. Yet it almost never happened. By the middle of 1975, Wonder was fed up with living in the United States and felt the country was in decline. He’d repeatedly expressed an interest in emigrating to Ghana where he planned to work with handicapped children—indefinitely.
[COUNTRY] The Cadillac Three might be wearing mesh trucker hats and aviator glasses, but under their worn leather jackets you’ll probably find Dead Kennedys t-shirts. The self proclaimed “country fuzz” band bring an edge to their poppy-country tunes like their latest, “White Lightning,” which was released earlier this year by Big Machine Records— a that has released music by pop and country superstars like Taylor Swift and Tim McGraw. Think a younger, hipper version of Rascal Flatts.
[ELECTRONIC/DANCE] There’s no doubt that Pittsburgh’s Buku knows how to craft a tone. The round bass drops and zipping synth sounds that whiz through his bouncing productions, especially on his latest EP Might Be, are like the artisanal cheese’s his hometown is known for—handcrafted and sharp.
[AFROBEAT] Made popular by artists like Fela Kuti (and bandmates like Tony Allen) Afrobeat music is a heavily percussive jazz/funk fusion. The Buffalo Afrobeat Orchestra, a local supergroup of musicians including Preach Freedom of One World Tribe, Zoe Scruggs, DJ Milk, and members of the Rockaz and 12/8 Path Band, will put the music of Fela Kuti and others on display at Nietzsche’s on Saturday, November 21 with support from the 16-piece ensemble, BAO.
[ROCK] Psychedelic rock band Second Trip are closing out the crowd funding campaign for the first full length album, and they’re doing it in style with a night-before-Thanksgiving show this Wednesday, November 25 at Mohawk Place. Joining them will be Malarchuk, Deadwolf, and Rochester’s Fox 45. The band, which formed 13 years ago, have finished recording the record, but are asking for fans to help them bump up their budget to market the album.
[FITNESS] Join IMPACT Sports in the HARBORCENTER for the first ever Buffalo Fitness Games. This intense, high speed event will showcase local athletes in an array of events: sled pushes, medicine ball curl-to-press exercises, a Versaclimber sprint, hurdle jumps, plate pushes, a treadmill sprint and a sled pull. Teams of three can register in one of three divisions and will have the chance to compete for prizes. Cost is $135 per team and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Roswell Park Cancer Institute.
[ELECTRONIC] Papadosio is part electronica, part jam-band and 100% fresh to death. Since their 2006 inception, the Ohio-based quartet has been on a mission to create a powerful sonic sensation that captivates. They’ve succeeded in spades, flaunting a live show in the same vein as a Pink Floyd spectacle.
[FOLK] Known to some as the “first name” in folk music, Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul and Mary) has enjoyed a career that’s stretched across five decades and counting.
[CLASSICAL] For those of us—and by “us” I mean anyone who was in their 20s in the 1970s—who recall the record Virgil Fox: Heavy Organ Live at the Fillmore East, you may remember, after taking a couple of tokes, cuing up a disc that you expected to sound like the usual San Fran fare who played that citadel of rock ‘n’ roll.