Rogovoy Report 12/9/16

The weekend’s cultural highlights in the region include a seminal grunge-rock trio; an exhibition of Japanese woodblock prints; a rock legend singing Xmas songs; a jazz couple singing Silly Love Songs, a literary reading by four women authors; an art gallery show featuring a half-dozen women artists, and a whole lot more.

Dinosaur Jr, the Amherst, Mass.-based rock trio that in the mid-1980s laid down the format that Pacific Northwest bands including Nirvana would popularize as “grunge-rock,” will drive one hour northwest from their home base to perform in the Hunter Center at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Mass., on Saturday at 8pm. The group’s innovation was to combine the crunchy, distorted guitar sounds of Sonic Youth and hardcore-punk with catchy melodies by way of the Replacements, sung in a hyper-personal manner by founder and frontman J Mascis. Think Neil Young and Crazy Horse on steroids.

Also at MASS MoCA this weekend, “Club Diamond,” a multimedia theater piece, will have a work-in-progress showing in Club B-10 tonight at 8pm, as part of the annual Sundance Institute Theatre Lab at the venue. “Club Diamond” paints the story of a young woman traveling alone from Tokyo to New York City in search of fame, rendering a single narrative through silent film, illustration, and live animation, paired to Tim Fain’s delicate violin composition. The hour-long piece, performed in English and Japanese, is scheduled to premiere at the Public Theatre in New York City in January, 2017, but you can catch it beforehand here tonight at MASS MoCA in North Adams.

More than a century of Japanese printing traditions, represented by seventy-three color woodblock prints, will be presented in the exhibition “Japanese Impressions: Color Woodblock Prints from the Rodbell Family Collection,” at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass.,  opening on Saturday. The exhibition explores the complex and changing relationship among artists, woodblock cutters, and publishers from the mid-19^th century through modern times.

Rock singer-songwriter and activist Melissa Etheridge brings her Holiday Trio to the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington, Mass., to perform fan favorites and Christmas classics, such as “Merry Christmas Baby,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” and “O Night Divine,” tonight at  8pm. And at the Mahaiwe on Sunday, at 7pm, husband-and-wife jazz duo John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey will sing “Silly Love Songs”, both literally and figuratively, in their “Midnight McCartney” program, based on the legendary jazz guitarist and singer Pizzarelli’s “Midnight McCartney” album, featuring jazz versions of numbers from Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles solo career. The album, and presumably the concert, includes languorous and swinging versions of tunes like “My Love,” “No More Lonely Nights,” “Coming Up,” “Let ‘Em In,” “Maybe I’m Amazed,” and the holiday smash, “Wonderful Christmastime.” I love that one.

Singer-songwriter Joan Osborne brings her blues-inflected original pop-rock compositions to Club Helsinki Hudson tonight at 8pm. Osborne has rightfully earned a reputation as one of the great voices of her generation — both a commanding, passionate performer and a frank, emotionally evocative songwriter. Osborne is widely known for her beloved hit song, “(What If God Was) One of Us,” – never mind the grammar - as well as her live performances of “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted” and “Heat Wave” in the Grammy Award-winning documentary “Standing in the Shadows of Motown.”

Writers Hallie Goodman, Dani Grammerstorf French, Anna Victoria, and Annie Bielski will read from their works at Spotty Dog Books & Ale in Hudson on Saturday at 7pm, as part of Volume, the free monthly reading and music series every second Saturday of the month. The readings – a showcase of emerging writers in Hudson - will be followed by a music set by DJ Andy French.

Works by six female Hudson Valley artists working in a variety of media are featured in a new winter exhibition at Carrie Haddad Gallery in Hudson, opening with an artists’ reception on Saturday from 5 to 7pm. Artists featured include Kate Hamilton, Andrea Moreau, Louise Laplante, Elizabeth Coyne, Laura Von Rosk, Allyson Levy, and Eileen Murphy. Their work offers unique commentary on the political, personal, and environmental observations of what it means to live in a global community today. The work remains on view through January 22.