57 Things To Do This Weekend
Prince Rama, Dr. Dog, Secret Cinema and tons more.
- How To Let Go of the World — and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change @ Gershman Y Filmmaker Josh Fox, director of Gasland, will be on hand for a free screening of his new movie.
- Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers @ Prince Music Theater The South Philly dance company presents “superbly trained dancers and inventive choreography.” Runs through April 16.
- The Wong Street Journal @ Kimmel Center PIFA presents a solo performance by comedian/performance artist Kristina Wong. “Part plushy TED lecture, part amateur hip-hop extravaganza, and part travelogue.” Runs through April 16.
- Abbath @ Union Transfer Norwegian black metal. With High on Fire, Skeletonwitch, Tribulation and Crypt Sermon — brought to you by Decibel magazine.
- The Freeze @ Kung Fu Necktie Time-tested punk from New England.
- The Joy Formidable @ Underground Arts Rock ’n’ roll from Wales. Everything Everything opens.
- Prince Rama @ Ortlieb’s Pysch-dance rock ’n’ roll from Brooklyn. They used to be “now age” — now they’re going with some kind of extreme ’80s sports type motif. Grandchild is also on the bill.
- Har Mar Superstar @ Milkboy Philly Once a relatively straight-laced and “ignified” indie rocker (with Sean Na Na), Sean Tillman has — for a 15 years and counting — been performing as the soulful, smarmy, over-sexed r&B icon Har Mar Superstar. It’s a joke, but it’s not a joke: This music is groovy and energizing. Check out the video way at the bottom of this post.
- August Burns Red @ Fillmore Philly Metal-punk from PA. With Between The Buried And Me.
- Mani Pedi presents Careful Now @ 1219 Vine Street Sketch comedy. “Let the merry melodies of the darling dystopian sisters guide you through the end of the world.” Also playing Saturday.
- Sex with Strangers @ Philadelphia Theater Company Super-critic David Fox wasn’t sold on it: “In director David Saint’s sleek but largely subtext-free production, there’s a meet-cute glibness incompatible with weighty themes.”
- Dreams Rewired @ International House Tilda Swinton narrates “a treasure trove of rare archival footage culled from hundreds of films from the 1880s through the 1930s.”
- Stand @ Kimmel Center Artist Shay Church and Clay Studio present “a large-scale public installation of a forest comprised of armatures made from reclaimed wood and covered in wet clay.” Through April 23. A PIFA thing.
- Delco Proper @ Helium The comic minds behind the Comedy Central web series of the same name. Watch an episode below.
- Stamped, Stomped, Stumped @ Painted Bride A new work by choreographer Reggie Wilson in which “personal histories are shared and entangled within the space of performance.” Part of the Bride’s Re-PLACE-ing Philadelphia series. Runs through April 16.
- Manaries @ FringeArts “Taking iconic and arbitrary symbols, dancer Florencia Vecino explores a catalogue of gestures, pictures, poses, sculptures—mixed, as if by a DJ, to generate, to build, and to be destroyed.” Choreographer and directed by Luis Garay, who also offers a master class this weekend. Runs through April 16.
PHILADANCO: Global Artistry @ Kimmel Center The Philadelphia modern dance company presents world premieres by Thang Dao, Francisco Gella and Ray Mercer under the PIFA umbrella. Through April 17.
- Paper Planet @ Kimmel Center Australian group Polyglot Theatre presents an interactive installation of cardboard trees. Such a PIFA thing. Through April 23.
- Secret Cinema: The Best and Worst Of Castle and Official Films @ Maas Building “Often amusingly dated, but just as often surprisingly captivating, the 9-minute reels from these two companies have enlivened many Secret Cinema programs over the last quarter-century.”
- Anthesteria @ Berks Warehouse Gigantic two-day music festival by Cixous72 x Primitive Languages featuring Olivia Neutron-John, Moor Mother Goddess, Bobby Flan, M Ax Noi Mach and about a million more.
- Concerto in Sea Major @ public fountains Free performances by French group Aquacoustique who will be making music and splashing around town all weekend. Friday: Magnolia Garden Fountain. Saturday: Rodin Museum Fountain. Sunday: Penn Museum’s Stoner Courtyard Fountain. Multiple performances per day. Yep, it’s a PIFA thing. Through April 17.
- Philly Art Collective 7th Installment @ Open Space “We will have two levels of live art, live musical performances, and complimentary food & drinks.”
- My Soul’s Shadow @ Barnes Foundation Chicago collective Manual Cinema presents “a cinematic shadow puppet show and installation based on the life and work of Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca.” A PIFA thing.
- Stop Making Sense @ Colonial Theater The Phoenixville theater presents Jonathan Demme’s Talking Heads concert film.
- ArcheDream in Technicolor @ Shiloh Baptist Church Dance performance enhanced by blacklights. Also check out Alan Bell’s “20 Years of Masks in the Making” in the lobby. Through April 17.
- Cinedelphia @ PhilaMOCA Stairway To Stardom Retro (7:30 p.m.) “The king of all public access talent shows gets the live retrospective treatment with very special guests.” 20 Years Of Madness (10 p.m.) “A documentary on the cult 1990s public access show 30 Minutes of Madness.”
Saturday, April 16
- Philly Spring Cleanup @ Your City Put on your non-formal sweatpants from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. and make your neighborhood look nice.
- R&D Vinyl Grand Opening @ 716 S. Fourth Street A new record store opens on Record Store Day. Includes live performances by Jewel Eye and Actual Figure.
- Tales of Sorrow and Sadness @ International House I-House’s celebration of Seijun Suzuki continues with this story of a model-turned-golfer-turned criminal.
- Thao & The Get Down Stay Down @ Underground Arts Thao Nguyen is one of the world’s foremost writers catchy, off-kilter indie pop. Saintseneca and Little Scream are also on the bill.
- Free Cake for Every Creature @ Everybody Hits Record release party for the captivating Philly indie pop band. Listen to them. Also on the bill: Hello Shark, Addie Pray, Microsoft Saint and artful projectionist Craig Scheihing.
- Choosing Death Fest @ Union Transfer Dying Fetus & Nails, Misery Index, Deceased, Noisem, Horrendous, Derketa and Taphos Nomos. Might be a metal show.
- Parenting While Black @ African American Museum Free, one-day symposium.
VIII Limbs Potluck Hang & Dodgeball Game @ Clark Park 8 Limbs Muay Thai Academy throws a party in the park.
- Deathgasm @ Trocadero Midnight screening of the 2015 horror movie.
- Philly Welcome Festival for Syrian Refugees @ Al-Aqsa Islamic Society | A barbecue and family fun day welcoming Syrian refugees to our city.
- Police Bike Registration @ 1155 S. 20th Street The 17th Police District encourages you to register your bike in case of theft. Knock on wood.
- ChicAGoGo Show Live Taping + Retrospective @ PhilaMOCA Featuring The Dead Milkmen and Bunny Sigler.
- Tim Barry @ First Unitarian Church Folksy singer-songwriter.
- Record Store Day @ Creep Records Live music by Pocket, Left & Right, Thin Lips and Goddamnit.
- Cinedelphia @ PhilaMOCA Man Vs Snake: The Long And Twisted Tale Of Nibbler (7:30 p.m.) “Award-winning retro gaming documentary focusing on the 1984 Nibbler champion’s attempts to set a new world record 25 years later.” Found Madness (10 p.m.) “Compilation program featuring the Philly premiere of In Search of the Ultra-Sex plus 45 minutes worth of found footage and film oddities from the UK-based Duke Mitchell Film Club.”
- Hot Head/Hoseman @ Philadelphia Record Exchange Live music in celebration of Record Store Day.
- Dr. Dog/Speedy Ortiz @ Fillmore Dr. Dog just headlined the Fillmore a month ago and now they’re back for another hometown sing-along love fest, this time with Massachusetts band Speedy Ortiz in the opener slot.
- Karaoke Quizzo @ Adobe Café “Inaugural Karaoke Competition for a Cause” in support of The Community Partnership Initiative.
- Asaf Avidan @ Boot & Saddle Israeli singer-songwriter and musician Asaf Avidan is a big deal in Europe, apparently, but we’re just catching on.
- Underoath @ Electric Factory Reunited “American Christian post-hardcore band.”
- Shifting Narratives @ African American Museum A symposium on “Rethinking the Past to Understand the Present.”
- Melissa Buzzeo/Nila Nokizaru/Amina Masood @ Chapterhouse A reading by three local writers.
Sunday, April 17
Philly Girls Jump! @ Awbury Park Jump rope with other jump ropers.
- Wall-E @ RAIR Philly Watch a movie outdoors in the dump, preceded by “games, a photo booth, and live t-shirt printing.” BYO blanket or chair. Maybe catch a bus there from PAFA.
- Porchfest Info Meeting/Hype Session @ Studio 34 Yoga Porchfest is “a free, one-day, decentralized festival of music-making on porches all over the neighborhood” scheduled for June. This is a planning meeting.
- Re-Present-ing: Freedom, Fiction, & Science by Humans @ Wooden Shoe Books Panel discussion on similarities and differences between scifi practices, the imperatives of species-wide evolution, and more.
- Coffee & Conversation: Cosmos in Flux @ Institute of Contemporary Art “Asha Sheshadri, MFA candidate, leads a conversation inspired by the ICA exhibition ‘Rodney McMillian: The Black Show’ about the history and contemporary engagement with science fiction in video art, architecture, and poetry.”
- Rap For Life: Philadelphia @ The Art Church of West Philadelphia “Rap for Life is a meditative music and discourse experience concerning the effects of Mass Incarceration on poor, Black, and Brown bodies in Philadelphia. Rap for Life provides a space for emotional release, community building, and healing.”
- UK Punk Vs US Punk @ Johnny Brenda’s An afternoon show by School of Rock Philly.
- Mamady Kouyate & Mandingo Ambassadors @ The Rotunda Kouyate is a revered guitar player from Guinea. Watch this. Presented by Fire Museum Presents on the occasion of their 15th anniversary.
- Beyond the Bars Fundraiser @ World Café Live Benefitting Beyond the Bars — a nonprofit that funds music education for incarcerated young people — this show offers a lot of bang for your buck.
- Cinedelphia @ PhilaMOCA Final Cut — Ladies & Gentlemen (4:30 p.m.) “Clips from over 450 classics of world cinema are artfully collaged into a love story in this experimental narrative that took over three years to complete.” Vivisections International Horror Shorts (7:30 p.m.) “The latest installment of Philly’s premiere showcase of new horror shorts from around the world includes work featuring Roddy Piper and John Carpenter.” Meathead Goes Hog Wild (9:30 p.m.) “A frustrated young man’s retreat from society results in a night of insanity through the streets of Chicago.”
- Keystone State Cycles Grand Opening @ 1623 S. 25th Street Live music, beer, motorcycles, etc. I’m most intrigued by this line in the description: “The one and only ChubbRock will be cooking up the food so you know it’s going to be good!” Wait. Chubb Rock? Is that possible? I want to believe.