Country-rock “outlaws” band together in West Palm, a Pink Floyd tribute builds a “Wall” in Boca, and Killer Klowns invade Lake Worth. Plus, Seu Jorge and more in your week ahead.
THURSDAY
What: Seu Jorge and Daniel Jobim Perform Tom Jobim
Where: Broward Center, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $73.83-$200.56
Contact: 954/462-0222, browardcenter.org
Generations of timeless Brazilian music will be bridged at this performance of two of Rio de Janeiro’s most prominent exports. On this tour, samba guitarist Seu Jorge, whose soulful and lyrical covers of David Bowie classics famously flitted across the soundtrack of Wes Anderson’s “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou,” joins a musician from the first family of bossa nova. Pianist and composer Daniel Jobim is the grandson of Antônio Carlos Jobim, aka Tom Jobim, whose fusion of Brazilian rhythms with cool jazz helped popularize South American music in the U.S. Tom Jobim is responsible for eight of the 15 most covered Brazilian songs in history. Expect to hear many, if not all, of them at this tribute concert, also featuring Paulo Braga on drums and Rodrigo Villa on bass.
FRIDAY
What: Outlaw Music Fest
Where: iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre, 601-7 Sansburys Way, West Palm Beach
When: 4:30 p.m.
Cost: $31 and up
Contact: 561/795-8883, westpalmbeachamphitheatre.com
“Indefatigable” only begins to describe the nearly seven-decade career of Willie Nelson, prolific folk hero of country music who is both a guardian of its treasures and a subverter of its norms. Though he has recorded music since 1962, 2023 will be remembered as a signature year for Nelson: He celebrated his 90th birthday with a Grammy win for Best Country Album (for 2022’s eclectic A Beautiful Time), was induced into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame—a testament to his crossover appeal—and released his 73rd album, I Don’t Know a Thing About a Love, a tribute to the unsung traditionalist songwriter Harlan Howard. To cap off a momentous year, he’s bringing back the Outlaw Music Fest, originally a one-off concert in 2016 that has become an annual tradition. Stellar opening acts include the Americana standard-bearers the Avett Brothers, the genre-traversing Southern jam band Gov’t Mule, and Grand Ole Opry favorite Elizabeth Cook.
What: Shock a Rama Double Feature: “Killer Klowns From Outer Space” and “Freaks”
Where: Movies of Lake Worth, 7380 Lake Worth Road, Lake Worth Beach
When: 9:30 p.m.
Cost: $16 for two films, $12 for one
Contact: moviesofdelray.com
Like “Snakes on a Plane” so many years later, “Killer Klowns From Outer Space” is one of those titles that spells out exactly the reason to see it, in the bluntest and lower-common-denominator way possible. This is partly why its self-conscious absurdity has earned it certifiable cult status in the 35 years since its release. The “klowns” in question are extraterrestrials resembling demented circus clowns who land in Santa Cruz with every intent—many of them successful—to harvest and consume humans. A singular achievement in sci-fi/comedy/horror schlock, “Killer Klowns” is well worth seeing on the big screen, and the same goes for the second movie in this vintage double feature, director Tod Browning’s pioneering 1932 psychodrama “Freaks,” in which the director cast real sideshow performers in his stealthily compassionate immersion into an often-exploited culture.
SATURDAY
What: “The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the U.S.”
Where: University Theatre at FAU, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton
When: 4 p.m.
Cost: $20
Contact: 561/297-6124, fauevents.com
From his position as the Matthew W. Stirling Jr. Professor of History and Social Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Alexander Keyssar is one of our top historians on voting rights in America, his words helping to illuminate the contentious fight to achieve something approaching universal suffrage. His book The Right to Vote, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2001, will form the bones of this presentation. But expect Keyssar, who has also penned key texts questioning the necessity of Electoral College, to update his scholarship and address threats to democracy and voting rights in our most recent elections, and perhaps look ahead to next year’s contests as well.
“The Wall and Beyond”
Where: Kaye Auditorium at FAU, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: $22.50-$60.75
Contact: 561/297-6124, fauevents.com
“The Wall,” one of several paradigm-shifting concept albums released by Pink Floyd in the band’s enormously influential 30-year tenure, dropped in 1979 as an instant classic of rebellion, anxiety and paranoia—a riposte to the plastic, consumerist decade to come. But despite its name, this one-of-a-kind tribute concert actually harkens back to 1967, arguably the most pivotal year in Floyd’s history, when the group replaced unstable genius Syd Barrett with David Gilmour, altering its sonic trajectory for decades. That same year also marked the band’s first experiment with a fully surround-sound concert, at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, and this appearance in Boca will follow in that immersive tradition. Guided by expert musicians tackling Floyd’s storied catalog, “The Wall and Beyond” will feature the requisite laser lights and a similar surround-sound approach, so that the Kaye Auditorium will feel like a giant set of headphones cocooning each listener.
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