Staffpicks
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Thursday, Sept. 27
Silver Anchor Award Reception
The Friends of the Waterfront is a volunteer group focused on waterfront development and advocacy that works closely with the Waterfront Development Corp. As with most advocacy groups, money is scarce, and so it’s time again for the Friends’ major fundraiser, which helps pay for things like WFPK’s Waterfront Wednesday concert series and free Wi-Fi in Waterfront Park. This year’s Silver Anchor award goes to Poe Companies, which will receive it during a reception tomorrow evening. There’s jazz from the Todd Hildreth Trio, an art exhibition featuring work by David Schuster and catering by Masterson’s. There’s also a silent auction, and organizers say some fancy things will be up for bid. All told, it looks like a pleasant evening to benefit a great cause. —Cary Stemle
RiverPark Place Sales Center
1250 River Road
574-3768
www.friendsofthewaterfront.com
$75; 5:30 p.m.
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Sept. 28-30
Bluegrass Balloon Festival
The event you may know as the Adam Matthews Balloon Festival has a new name, but it is still one large collection of hot air. More than 90 balloons will gather at Bowman Field this weekend for a wide-ranging event that includes races each morning, two balloon glows (Friday-Saturday), an Oktoberfest with music, German food, BBC beer and Turtle Run wine, a car rally (Sunday) and more. This is an event with something for nearly everyone, including the youngsters. It’s free (parking is $7, which benefits the restoration of Barney Bright’s Louisville clock, and other charities). There is something amazing about those balloons, and this is a prime opportunity to see them up close and personal. Hit the Web site for a lot more info. —Cary Stemle
Bowman Field
www.bluegrassballoons.com
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Friday, Sept. 28
Painter Bart Galloway & guitarist Misha Feigin
This event is about two people having a conversation — without words. Painter Bart Galloway and musician Misha Feigin will bounce off each other in an improvised performance where the music will inspire the painter and the painting will inspire the musician.
Feigin, a prominent guitarist from Russia, has been in the States since 1990. He has performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and currently works with The Sahara Gypsies, playing a fusion of Russian Gypsy and Arabic music mixed with blues and funk.
Galloway moved to Louisville from Georgia in 2006. He’s been creating these musical-visual improvisations throughout the Southeast since 1997, including performing at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
A third person plans to join their “talk.” Special guest Jacob Duncan of Liberation Prophecy will add the sax and contrabass clarinet to the conversation. They will also let others get into the discussion as well; the audience will have the chance to create drawings that Galloway will incorporate into his paintings. —Jo Anne Triplett
Higgins Maxwell Gallery
1200 Payne St.
584-7001
www.higginsmaxwell.com
$5; 8 p.m.
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FRIDAY, SEPT. 28
Adelante Latin Jazz Fest
The 2007 Adelante Latin Jazz Festival comes to a stunning conclusion with two nights of music that challenge preconceived notions of Latin jazz. Award-winning pianist and composer Omar Sosa brings his international touring quartet (Childo Tomas , electric bass; Mola Sylla , vocals and Jimmy Branly [Cuba/USA], drums) to town Friday. He has two recent live recordings, Promise and Live at FIP. These follow the exceptional 2004 studio CD Mulatos. All demonstrate Sosa’s ability to weave influences from around the world, creating music that combines spiritual themes with polyrhythmic danceability and first-class improvisation.
Pianist, flutist and composer Jovino Santos Neto closes Adelante Saturday with his trio. His recent CD, Rio Circle, like its predecessor Canto do Rio, was nominated for a Latin Grammy. Roda Carioca gave Neto the opportunity to return to his hometown to collaborate with longtime musical friends, including the legendary Hermeto Pascoal. The CD is trio-based but expands on many cuts by adding guest artists. Neto, like Sosa, draws from a wide range of influences, ranging from Bach to bossa nova.
The Adelante Festival helps support Adelante Hispanic Achievers Inc., a nonprofit group that helps provide opportunities for Hispanic youth and their families here in Louisville. —Martin Kasdan Jr.
Jazz Factory
815 W. Market St.
992-3242
www.jazzfactory.us
$20; 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.
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Saturday, Sept. 29
The Starting Line
The Starting Line often seems to be on constant restart. Keeping to the pop side of alternative, they put a fresh face on almost every new song — like it or not. If you don’t like prime tracks on recent release Direction like “Island,” “What You Want” or “Birds,” then Kenny Vasoli and company want you to keep listening, because they’re casting the net wide and throwing it out far. Heck, they added a permanent keyboardist so they can reinvent their own tunes for another go-round. If you drift into the LRS Fest on Saturday afternoon, hopefully you can see this band (as well as clever and ambitious Aussies the Sick Puppies) as the pivot-point between hard-strivin’ locals (e.g., Caldera) and former alt-stars-to-be who hope to buy a clue for continued relevancy (pretty much all of the headliners). —T.E. Lyons
Great Lawn, Waterfront Park
www.wlrs.com
$20 (adv.), $25 (gate); 3 p.m.
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Saturday, Sept. 29
Portland Museum’s Rush the Growler
The Portland Museum will play host to the second annual Rush the Growler 5K Run/Walk and Finish Line Festival. For the uninitiated, “growler” is an American term for a bucket of beer. In the late 19th century, beer was considered a safer, more sterile beverage than milk or water, so many people — particularly men, it would seem — made beer their drink of choice and would send their children to the corner bar to fetch cold, fresh brew. If any of the beer was spilled from the bucket on the return trip, the men were said to “growl.” As time went by, teens would show up at work sites to refill workers’ growlers for a small fee, and would utilize a long pole to carry many growlers at once. This became known as “rushing the growler.” Fast forward 100-plus years, and Portland, which has seen its share of growlers come and go, will host the run/walk and an after-race celebration that includes food, family entertainment and plenty of beer by Bluegrass Brewing Company. The course will take participants through Portland’s historic neighborhoods and landmarks as well. —Kevin Gibson
Portland Museum
2308 Portland Ave.
776-7678
www.goportland.org
$25 participation fee; 4 p.m. (3 p.m. registration)
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SATURDAY, SEPT. 29
VHS or Beta
Almost four years and a lineup change later, VHS or Beta is back with a hometown show to celebrate the release of Bring on the Comets. If you happened to be at The Dame last month, you already know the show is flawless, the sound huge. Craig Pfunder and Mark Palgy shelve the turntables for a minute — Mark Guidry has enhanced the trademark beats with live drums, while Chea Beckley and Mike McGill add their layers of atmosphere to the mix. Chicago’s Walter Meego, whose Web page boasts that the band once ate 700 pounds of chicken curry, opens, as does Follow The Train. —Mat Herron
Headliners Music Hall
1386 Lexington Road
584-8088
$15; 9 p.m.
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Through Sept. 30
Music Movie Festival
U of L is in session, and that means the Floyd Theater is also back in action. They’re kicking off the season with a series of seminal music documentaries. The Music Movie Festival started last Thursday, but the final weekend — Sept. 27-30 — has the heavy hitters. The Beastie Boys doc “Awesome! I F**king Shot That!” runs Saturday and Sunday. Thursday has “Kill Your Idols,” about the ultra-influential late-1970s avant garde NYC No-Wave scene.
The highpoint will undoubtedly the Friday, Saturday and Sunday showings of Jonathan Demme’s Talking Heads concert film “Stop Making Sense” (and on a 35MM print to boot!). It’s one of the most beloved music docs of all time; famed critic Janet Maslin captured its appeal when she wrote that the movie is as “coolly iconoclastic as Talking Heads itself.” —Alan Abbott
Floyd Theater
2100 S Floyd St.
852-6691
http://campuslife.louisville.edu/sab/musicmovies.html
$2 ($1 for faculty/students)
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Through Oct. 1
Artists Gina Moeller and Brad White
“Brad White wants to abandon everything to race street rods!” “Former LEO-ite Gina Moeller is unhappy and searching for love!” These fictional tabloid headlines give a small peek into the subject matter of their art on exhibit at the Mellwood Arts & Entertainment Center.
Moeller’s large colorful plywood assemblages of neo-folk art birds are described in the press release as “suggesting strife, struggle and a longing for love.” White has three abstract series of bronze sculpture, mixed media and paintings in the show. He creates with the unusual artistic media of bondo (automotive body filler), high gloss paints and fiberglass, all normally used on street rod cars.
Live music will be performed in the gallery during the Sept. 28 F.A.T. Friday Trolley Hop. —Jo Anne Triplett
Pigment Gallery, Mellwood Arts Center
1860 Mellwood Ave.
895-3650
www.mellwoodartcenter.com