MUSIC
Sunday, 3/28: Beaches, Kung Fu Necktie, $5, 21+
This is not your average girl group. Even if the Spice Girls had grown up in a garage, they couldn’t produce Beaches’ raw yet low-key sound. In honor of Dakota Fanning and that sullen girl from Twilight, make like a Runaway and head to Kung Fu Necktie to see what 30 years of early girl punk influence hath wrought (we promise Bette Midler won’t be making an appearance).
Tuesday, 3/30: Japandroids with Love is All and The G, The Barbary, $12, All Ages
Hasn’t the warm weather put you in the best mood? Hasn’t it also kept you from getting any of your work done? Mix that cranky resentment with sunny, high-energy guitar riffs and you’ve got the manic sound of Japandroids. They made a lot of “Best Of” lists in 2009 (with good reason), and what do you know, they continue to sound good in 2010. It’s almost as if they’re pissed off in Van Pelt alongside you.
Tuesday, 3/30: The Soft Pack, Johnny Brenda’s, $10, 21+
To the untrained ear they might sound like every other trendy lo-fi act, but the Soft Pack is really anything but. Their fuzzy hooks are offset by catchy melodies and choruses, and to be honest, think they’ve created a near-perfect synthesis of garage and fun rock. Isn’t music a lot more fun without all that distracting static? We’re starting to think so too.
Wednesday, 3/31: The Big Pink with A Place to Bury Strangers and Post Post, The TLA, $10.50 — $14.50, All Ages
The Big Pink has been making waves for a while now, and for a good reason: they’re great. Their diverse style and killer sound makes them sound like they were lifted straight out of the sunny past and put here just for our listening pleasure. They do have a fiercely devoted fanbase, so it would be wise to snap up these tickets as soon as you possibly can — trust us, you definitely won’t regret it.
THEATER
Now — Saturday, 4/24: Disney’s The Lion King, Academy of Music. $28 — $150
You still know all the words to “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” and might even shed a tear when Mufasa gets trampled by the wildebeasts. The Broadway spectacular, Tony Award-winning musical version of the Disney animated film of our childhood comes to Philadelphia through April. Go for the nostalgia factor, stay for the jaw-dropping sets and costumes.
Friday, 3/26 — 3/28: Museum, Arthur Ross Gallery, $10
Penn’s Theater Arts Program presents the comedy Museum, set in a contemporary art gallery. Over forty characters stream through the set during the course of the play. The show looks at people looking at art and is staged in a gallery — how meta.
ARTS
Today, 3/25: Copy Jam!, Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, 6:00 p.m. — 9:00 p.m.
Head to Old City’s Art in the Age for the ultimate in mechanical reproduction — photocopying. AITA hosts the Printeresting art collective and fifty artists will each display a single work. All attendees will receive tickets redeemable for copies of the prints of their choosing — low cost, high art!
Wednesday, 3/31: Bierut+Pearlman with Maira Kalman on M&Co, Meyerson B1, 6:30 — 7:30 p.m.
You’ve probably ogled an M&Co watch at some point in your life. Maira Kalman, the subject of ICA’s current exhibition, is the M in M&Co, an inspiration to the design firm founded by her late husband Tibor Kalman. Designers Michael Bierut and Chee Pearlamn join Maira Kalman in conversation on the intersection between her work and the design firm.
