The Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia

Romeo and Juliet February 8 Old Cabell Hall,  February 9 Martin Luther King Jr. Performing Arts Center Celebrating its 50th season, the Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia is busting out its big Shakespearean guns with bits from Sergei Prokofiev’s ballet of Romeo and Juliet. Famously tinkering with the Bard’s failed teenage romance, Prokofiev […]

Chuck Prophet & His Cumbia Shoes are ready to move you

By CM Gorey Chuck Prophet & His Cumbia Shoes Tuesday 1/21 at The Southern Café & Music Hall For his latest record, Wake the Dead, singer-songwriter Chuck Prophet teamed up with cumbia band ¿Qiensave?. The result is a mix of Prophet’s alt-country rock blended with the Latin-rooted sounds of the Salinas, California-based group, in the […]

The best reasons to have left the couch in 2024

It’s all too easy to get disgruntled about some of the usual entertainment in a tight town like ours—that is, if you close your eyes and ears too tightly and just stay home all the time. Here are some of the events that made me glad I got my ass off of the couch. Please […]

Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Thursday 12/19 at John Paul Jones Arena I thought I knew enough about Trans-Siberian Orchestra, but it turns out that just about everything I had in mind was wrong. For starters, I let the name fool me—its founding members were American, with the band’s visionary producer, composer, and lyricist, the late Paul O’Neill, born in […]

LA LOM with The National Reserve

Friday 12/6 at The Southern Café and Music Hall LA LOM, an acronym for the Los Angeles League of Musicians, floats out a dreamy-yet-driving instrumental soundtrack with West Coast cool. More of a three-piece than a league, per se, the band’s sound careens smoothly through adventurous, succinct tracks that lilt with well-placed, heartbreaking chords and […]

David Cross is good at what he does, and he likes doing it

Comedian, actor, and writer David Cross is a recognizable face thanks to still-fresh classics like ’90s HBO sketch show “Mr. Show” and the sitcom “Arrested Development,” as well as more recent roles such as that of Sy Grossman on Netflix’s “The Umbrella Academy.” Decades ago, Cross earned a core of devoted Gen X fans, and […]

Danish String Quartet

Tuesday 11/12 at Old Cabell Hall Universally hailed for its instrumental prowess, emotive performances, and wide- ranging repertoire, the Danish String Quartet kicks off a series of seven eastern U.S. dates at UVA’s Old Cabell Hall. The Grammy-nominated foursome, who have been tearing it up for more than 20 years, will perform a program rich […]

Shaboozey

Wednesday 10/30 at John Paul Jones Arena Shaboozey may be third on the bill for award-winning country rap headliner Jelly Roll, but he’s already proven to have much of what mainstream music fans want: a No. 1 track (“A Bar Song [Tipsy]”), big name collabs (Beyoncé), and the strength of a heady country-hip-hop mix capable […]

Jonathan Richman

Wednesday 10/16 at The Southern Café and Music Hall In many ways, Jonathan Richman has traveled far from the emotive rock ‘n’ roll where he made his original splash with The Modern Lovers in the early 1970s. Emotive, jubilant, and at times, the lonesome reflections of a sensitive young man, the originality of the Boston-based […]

An otherwise brilliant version of The Scottish Play

“We do it with the lights on,” says The American Shakespeare Center’s Blackfriars Playhouse website about its use of “universal lighting.” So right up front you know that whatever you see in its elegant, woody environs will take place with the house lights aglow.  Understandably, in its staunch attempt to maintain historical accuracy wherever possible, […]