ARTS Pick: Brice Randall Bickford

Charlottesville expat and current North Carolina rocker Brice Randall Bickford’s recent release, Paro, takes its name from the term for labor strike that’s commonly used in Latin America. Bickford’s songs examine the complications humans unwittingly tilled into civilization 10,000 years ago when we adopted agriculture and systems of government. Bickford clothes his heady narratives—and his own burnished baritone—in arrangements that channel the hi-fi art rock of the 1980s. Guion Pratt of the alt-folk project Nettles opens.

8pm, Saturday, September 17. Free (donations suggested). The Garage, 250 N. First St. 

Free news is good news!

Nearly $1 million a year goes into the work you’re reading—covering local government, spotlighting the arts, and telling the stories no one else does. If you value that, help fund it for $10 a month (or whatever tax-deductible gift you can afford). Save the free word.