Free Creole jazz in Miami Beach, a new-wave quadruple bill in Fort Lauderdale, and one of the past year’s best animated features in Lake Worth Beach. Plus, Alanis Morissette and more in your week ahead.
THURSDAY
What: Opening night of Diana Eusebio and Carmen Smith exhibitions
Where: Art and Culture Center
When: 5 to 8 p.m.
Cost: $7, includes refreshments
Contact: 954/921-3274, artandculturecenter.org
If the photographs and dyed textiles of multidisciplinary artist Diana Eusebio seem a little otherworldly, the effect is certainly intentional. The Peruvian-Dominican artist continues the rich indigenous tradition of the alchemist, transforming plants and other natural materials—from annatto and avocado to indigo and Spanish moss—into colors in her palette, resulting in quilts and other textiles that look like no one else’s. Her exhibition “Alchemy: Pigments of Probability” opens side-by-side Thursday with “Carmen Smith: Night Swimming,” a series in which the Hollywood-based artist creates exaggerated, high-contrast, neon-soaked paintings of urban pools, waterslides and motels—lonely and un-peopled, yet exuding an eerie nostalgia for a simpler past. Both shows run through Aug. 18.
What: Alanis Morissette with Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
Where: iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre, 601-7 Sansburys Way, West Palm Beach
When: 7 p.m.
Cost: $43 and up
Contact: 561/795-8883, westpalmbeachamphitheatre.com
Even long-established artists have the capacity to surprise us. This was more than evident in 2022, when Alanis Morissette released The Storm Before the Calm, a departure, to say the least, from anything in her discography. Conceived as a meditation album, it was released not just on Spotify but also on Calm, an app for meditators, and it features ambient soundscapes and not a single decipherable lyric from a singer long associated with poetic polemics. The album reflects a shift away from Morissette’s ‘90s heyday, with its guitar-driven pop, Gen-X irony and feminist postmodernism, and toward her midlife immersion into more spiritual and metaphysical matters. All of that said, expect the pop and rock classics of her glory years to figure prominently into the set list of her “Triple Moon” tour with a pair of dynamite openers, rock goddess Joan Jett with her band the Blackhearts and the versatile country singer Morgan Wade.
FRIDAY
What: Opening night of “Robot Dreams”
Where: Lake Worth Playhouse’s Stonzek Theatre, 713 Lake Ave., Lake Worth Beach
When: 6 p.m.
Cost: $9
Contact: 561/296-9382, lakeworthplayhouse.org
Dog is lonely. Dog orders Robot from a television ad. Robot arrives in a box, is assembled by Dog, and becomes Dog’s best friend. One day at the beach, Dog loses Robot—perhaps only for a season, owing to the vagaries of rust, water and sand—and must learn the meanings of grief, guilt, and resilience. The story of the animated feature “Robot Dreams” is deceptively simple, but this dialogue-free movie, set in 1984, is anything but. Its cleverness, its heart and ultimately its abundant soul need to be seen—preferably on a big screen, where this favorite title of the 2023 awards season is finally arriving—to be appreciated. I was lucky to see “Robot Dreams” last November, and I still can’t get it out of my head. It deserves a place in yours, too.
What: Etienne Charles’ Creole Soul
Where: Miami Beach Bandshell, 7275 Collins Ave., Miami Beach
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: Free with RSVP
Contact: 786/453-2897, miamibeachbandshell.com
A Trinidad-born, Juilliard-educated trumpeter from a long lineage of musicians—his father played in a progressive steel drum band; his great-grandfather was a folk artist who brought Trinidadian music to Martinique—Etienne Charles continues to integrate music from the African diaspora into his rich gumbo of sound. This is certainly the case on Creole Soul, his vibrant 2013 release, where his mellifluous trumpet and small band merge the sounds of contemporary soul-jazz with Haitian rhythms, across originals and covers by Thelonious Monk and Bob Marley. A 2015 Guggenheim Fellow, Charles has played with everyone from the Count Basie Orchestra to Roberta Flack to Wynton Marsalis, and he is sure to delight a South Florida audience of jazz and world-music lovers at this complimentary performance.
SUNDAY
What: Abducted by the ‘80s tour
Where: Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale
When: 5:30 p.m.
Cost: $48.80-$138.80
Contact: 954/462-0222, browardcenter.org
This tour of four exports from the “me” decade is more than just a concert: It’s a bona fide cultural time warp, complete with a preshow selection of vintage playable arcade games, ‘80s trivia, themed snacks (we’re told pizza rolls and Cool Ranch Doritos are on the menu) and a costume contest, with the opportunity to win prizes. So it may be time to finally sport your best Flock of Seagulls pompadour and revel in the nostalgia. As for the music, relive the era’s synth-drenched soundtrack with Wang Chung, Men Without Hats, the Motels and Naked Eyes, groups responsible for enduring hits like “Safety Dance,” “Everybody Have Fun Tonight,” “Promises Promises” and “Always Something There to Remind Me.”
For more of Boca magazine’s arts and entertainment coverage, click here.
