Music
All bands have influences, some more obvious than others. But sometimes you’ll come across an artist who sounds so much like a particular musical forefather that it begins to raise eyebrows. When I first heard Owl City, the solo electro-pop project of Minnesota 24-year-old Adam Young, I just assumed that it was the latest effort by Ben Gibbard, the huggable, hypersensitive frontman of indie band-turned-teenybopper icons Death Cab for Cutie. Young’s sound most mimics Gibbard’s electronic project The Postal Service, which released an infectious album in 2003 and has since remained inactive. Owl City’s major-label debut “Ocean Eyes” is such a replica of the Postal Service, with Young aping Gibbard’s signature falsetto, that for many fans, it was the Postal Service album that never was, a continuation of that sound by a torch-carrying devotee. For others, it was bald-faced theft. Decide for yourself by catching the one-man sensation when he opens for John Mayer Saturday at Cruzan Amphitheater at the South Florida Fairgrounds in West Palm Beach. Owl City will likely take the stage at 7:30, so show up early. Tickets are $36 to $69.50 at Ticketmaster or the venue’s box office.
Theater
I haven’t seen the Tony-winning rock musical “Spring Awakening” yet, but I’m thankful its rough-edged portrait of budding sexuality has proved durable enough to tour outside of ultraliberal New York City. It debuted in Miami earlier this year and will tour South Florida again in 2011. And apparently, it’s already spawned imitators. On Thursday through Saturday, the Broward Center for the Performing Arts’ Abdo New River Room will jump-start its “Off Broadway in Broward” series with a touring production of “Bare,” the racily titled rock musical that tips its hat to both “Spring Awakening” and “Rent.” The plot revolves around five students discovering their personal and sexuality identities in an environment of Catholic school repression. The L.A. Weeklyawarded it Best Musical and Best Original Score, so you know, thankfully, that it’s not for everyone. Tickets are $30. Call the box office at 954/462-0222.
Festival
For all the information you can handle about the upcoming 2010-2011 cultural arts season, don’t hear it all from me: Get it straight from the horses’ mouths at the Fall for the Arts festival from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday at Adrienne Arsht Center, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami. More than 100 arts and community service organizations throughout the tri-county area will be offering discounts and giveaways, and attendees will receive the first opportunity to purchase tickets for more than 40 Arsht Center shows, with no added fees. Seminars, dance lessons and children’s activities are scheduled throughout the day, and a full lineup of live music will be provided by Bahamas Junkaroo Revue, Fushu Daiko, Flip Side Kings and national recording artists Rebirth Brass Band and Ozomatli, among others. And did I mention it’s all free?
Movies
The hugely successful Australian film “Animal Kingdom,” which opens Friday at Regal Shadowood in Boca Raton and Sunrise Gateway in Fort Lauderdale, has earned comparisons to “GoodFellas.’ It’s loftier praise than this crime saga deserves, but “Animal Kingdom” is absolutely worth your time. It’s most notable for the debut performance of young actor James Frecheville as the sullen, blank-faced protagonist forced to join the nefarious dealings of his extended crime family after his mother dies of a heroin overdose. Grim and uncompromising, with the violence delivered with unceremonious brutality, “Animal Kingdom” is a probing look at Melbourne’s heretofore unexplored criminal underworld. The casting of Guy Pearce as a predictably noble police detective in an otherwise corrupt organization is a rote bit of typecasting for this apparent ambassador of Australian cinema, and it pulls attention away from a cast full of respectable unknowns. Still, this is a winner that will likely receive recognition come awards season.
