The cultural highlights in our region this weekend include Richard Marx at the Colonial, Lydia Lunch and Bibbe Hansen at Spotty Dog Books, Jason Walker at MASS MoCA, the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus Winter Cabaret at Club Helsinki Hudson, an exhibition of iPhone photographry, and a whole lot more…
Grammy Award-winning pop-rock singer Richard Marx performs at the Colonial Theater in Pittsfield tonight at 8pm. Marx’s eponymous debut went to number eight on the album charts and spawned four Top 5 singles, including the chart-topping “Hold on to the Nights,” with “Don't Mean Nothing” earning him a Grammy nomination. The follow-up, “Repeat Offender,” was even more successful, hitting number-one on the album charts and going quadruple-platinum, with two number-one singles in “Satisfied” and “Right Here Waiting.” Marx now reigns as one of the kings of the “adult contemporary” music format.
Vocalist Jason Walker brings his singular brand of gospel-infused folk-soul to Club B10 at MASS MoCA in North Adams on Saturday at 8pm. Walker combines jazz, gospel, classical, and soul in a manner that connects Mahalia Jackson to Mick Jagger and Bernice Johnson Reagon to Philip Glass.
A large scale iPhone photography exhibition, iMotif, is being presented by Sohn Fine Art Gallery in Lenox in collaboration with Hotel on North in Pittsfield. The exhibition features 75 artists and over 350 photographs, and is on view at two locations: Sohn Fine Art Gallery in Lenox, with a reception on Saturday from 4 to 7pm; and at the Gallery at Hotel on North in Pittsfield. Different work is exhibited at each location, so make an afternoon of it and visit both; some of the work is truly spectacular.
Famed rocker and poet Lydia Lunch and performance artist Bibbe Hansen read in Beautifully Twisted Takes: A Spoken Word Performance at Spotty Dog Books & Ale in Hudson, tonight at 8pm. Lydia Lunch is often called the “Queen of No Wave.” A writer, musician, poet, spoken-word artist and photographer, she has released numerous musical projects, has toured for decades, has published dozens of articles, half a dozen books, and, as she says, “simply refuses to just shut up.” A performance artist, musician, and actress, Bibbe Hansen is the middle of three generations of alternative artists. Her parents were bohemian poet Audrey Ostlin Hansen and Fluxus artist Al Hansen, a participant in the Andy Warhol Factory. Her children are alt-rock superstar Beck, artist Channing Hansen, and poet Rain Whittaker. Bibbe Hansen appeared in Andy Warhol films; danced with the Velvet Underground, recorded an album with Jan Kerouac, son of Jack, and is now an artist represented by Gracie Mansion Gallery in NYC. She is currently writing her memoirs, which as you might imagine, are a kind of secret history of the experimental art and music scene since the 1960s.
Hudson’s own Bindlestiff Family Cirkus continues its wintertime tradition of hosting a monthly cabaret, featuring a variety of circus, theater, comedy and musical entertainers, at Club Helsinki Hudson on Saturday at 9pm. The show features Peter Bufano, musical maestro for the evening, who has composed and performed for Ringling Brothers, Big Apple Circus, Circus Smirkus, as well as his own project, Cirkestra; the Ivory Fox — Pinup of the Pole, doing acrobatic twists and turns on the stationary pole; Cowboy AJ Silver with trick roping, bullwhip artistry and physical comedy; Carla Rhodes, the world’s foremost (and only) rock ‘n’ roll ventriloquist, who has been throwing her voice since age 9; and Trixie Little, the Burlesque Hall of Fame’s reigning Queen of Burlesque; as well as Bindlestiffcofounders Keith Nelson and Stephanie Monseu.
Seth Rogovoy is editor of Berkshire Daily and the Rogovoy Report, available online at rogovoyreport.com