MUSIC REVIEW | Damien Rice nails it at Northrop Auditorium

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If there was a single line or moment that perfectly captured last night’s performance at the Northrop Auditorium, it was towards the end of the show when Damien Rice said with a smile after a particularly light-hearted moment, “We’re not supposed to be laughing, it’s a sad concert.”Anyone with a particular interest in Rice’s music could likely see how a “sad concert” is what a Damien Rice show would be on the surface. There really aren’t a lot of upbeat tracks in the Rice collection, a collection overflowing with heartache and longing, the audial equivalent of a rainy day. Rice’s songs are raw, emotional, and terribly intense. They are beautiful, but they are rarely, if ever, “fun.”It is a testament to Damien Rice’s strength as a performer, then, that for almost two straight hours he could work his way through those tracks, bringing to life that illusion of emotional openness that makes you believe that there is a man in terrible pain on the stage right in front of you, sharing something secret and personal, while also managing a wit and charm in between those tracks that allows a large audience to laugh along.Rice’s musical performance throughout the night was fantastic, intense, beautiful, heartbreaking, the list can go on and on. While it seems there is much in music that loses something in the translation from recording to live performance, Rice’s songs are better live, are better with proximity to the performer. Continue Reading

Al Milgrom’s long to-do list: Second of two parts: Film Society founder becomes filmmaker

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Al Milgrom, who founded the first long-lasting film society in Minnesota, has become a filmmaker himself with his first feature length film, “The Dinkytown Uprising,” on the demonstrations to stop construction of a fast-food restaurant. [Link to great trailer: https://vimeo.com/121387504]During the takeover, the protestors – some of whom were university and high school students – cooked their own food in the former diner, published their own newsletter, and created a “hotel” for staying on site, where one of Milgrom’s subjects admitted to losing his virginity. The film “Easy Rider” was listed on the marque of the Varsity Theater across the street.In 1970, Red Barn, a chain that folded in the 1980s, would have faced competition in Dinkytown from Burger King, which went out of business in Dinkytown in the late 1990s, and McDonald’s, which has been in Dinkytown since 1960. Bob Lafferty, who owned five Twin Cities Red Barn franchises, met occasionally with protesters and Milgrom shows some tense but friendly banter between them.With speakers on a megaphone in the background, Milgrom caught some of the personal exchanges. “You need fast food on a campus,” Lafferty said. Continue Reading

Circus Juventas hits the international high wire

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Weather in Minnesota may be flirting with winter and spring at the same time, but across the Atlantic some Twin Cities ambassadors are heating things up. The occasion? The Waldoni Circus Festival in Darmstadt, Germany. The ambassadors? Charlotte Richardson-Deppe, Jenna Ober, Rabiya Sehgal-LaRocque, and Shayna Rutledge ­– four area high school students who are also members of Circus Juventas.The Waldoni Circus Festival is an international venue for amateur circus performers to train, perform, compete, and mingle; participants come from as far away as Asia and the Americas, often to see acts and routines that they’ve only heard of by word of mouth – and, often, to model some of them firsthand. Continue Reading

THEATER REVIEW | “Shooting Star” asks “if only” at Park Square Theatre

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Reflections on the divergent roads taken by past lovers are explored in Steven Dietz’s play Shooting Star which opened at Park Square Theatre on March 27. Director Leah Cooper’s direction of the former lovers meeting at a snowed in airport removes the “fourth wall” to reveal the play’s humor and the characters’ pathos.At a non-specific, large middle-America airport shut down by a blizzard, Reed and Elena meet for the first time in decades. The two were lovers for 22 months at the University of Wisconsin-Madison when they were young and in college. Reed has married, has a child and became a middle manager for a corporation. In contrast, Elena has remained a free spirit, never married, meditates and does consumer survey phone research to support herself. Continue Reading

The Minneapolis/Saint Paul Film Festival is upon us!

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The 2015 Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival (MSPIFF), the biggest film festival in the Midwest, starts Thursday, April 9 and runs through Saturday, April 25, with the looming probability of hosting another week of “Best of the Fest” picks, continues to make odd decisions year after year. Around a month ago, MSPIFF announced its closing night film, before its opening night film (?), the Beach Boys/Brian Wilson biopic, Love & Mercy,  directed by Bill Pohlad, on Saturday, April 25, following its Minnesota premiere the night before at the Walker Art Center. This announcement came across as no surprise, but the bigger surprise is why on earth would you use your closing night slot on a film that is premiering a mere four miles away the night before? Was there not another film available to close with, say, director James Ponsoldt’s terrific David Foster Wallace film, The End of the Tour? Continue Reading

THEATER REVIEW | Billy Mullaney creates engaging theater at the Uncreativity Festival

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I hope the Uncreativity Festival becomes a regular event, that’s how much fun I had watching this grab bag of exercises in taking words out of context to create new meaning. Even though the show easily qualified as a full evening’s entertainment at 90 minutes long, the friend who came with me was genuinely disappointed there wasn’t going to be a intermission and then still more of it (I’m not kidding, there was actually an elongated “Awwww” involved). I have to say I agree but it was nice to have my enjoyment of it all immediately reinforced. Curator Billy Mullaney has struck a pleasant nerve with the collection of performance art he’s gathered together under the banner of Uncreativity. What Mullaney and his Fire Drill partner Emily Gastineau do for movement performance in their fascinating showcases like Bring In The Indigo and Absolute Bliss, Mullaney does here solo with the art of the word. Continue Reading

Sarah Rasmussen new Jungle Theater artistic director, Children’s Theatre Company receives grant

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The last two years have seen several high-profile personnel changes at Twin Cities-area theater companies as a series of founding leaders have stepped aside to usher in a new generation of leaders. Mu Performing Arts and Penumbra Theatre announced succession plans last year; this year, the Guthrie Theater’s search reached fruition with the announcement that a second Joe, Joseph Haj, would take the helm after Joe Dowling steps down. On Tuesday, the Jungle Theater joined these ranks with the announcement that Ivey Award-winning director Sarah Rasmussen will succeed Jungle founder Bain Boehlke when he retires this summer. Continue Reading

MUSIC REVIEW | Candid Kid EP release at the Turf Club

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You have to appreciate a band that plays a few new songs at an EP release party. The new songs are post-EP (Turtleneck) production. That’s a group with a lot of ideas and enthusiasm for the music. That’s Candid Kid.Candid Kid includes two founding members vocalist and guitarist Benjamin Muller and guitarist TannerUselmannand two excellent additions, bassist CooperDotenand drummer Reese Kling. They have the loudness and best of a rock band and the pensive twist of a more alternative band. Continue Reading