Movie review: Paterson captivates through poetry and performance

Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson is the culmination of every adjective used to describe the director’s work—poetic, intelligent, philosophical, gorgeous—but with a sense of grounding that makes its style and themes that much more effective. A Jarmusch film is most often an exploration of the artist’s own influences; while he never artificially inserts himself or reduces his […]

ARTS Pick: The School for Scandal

When Sir Oliver Surface returns to England after a voyage in the West Indies, he must choose an heir to his enormous fortune. Rightly suspect of his two nephews’ moral character, Surface goes undercover in an attempt to choose the worthy heir in Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s The School for Scandal. There’s Charles, an extravagant rake […]

ARTS Pick: Rock & Rally

Advocacy and music join forces to present Rock & Rally, a benefit for Tom Perriello’s gubernatorial run. The lineup boasts fiery bluegrass from the Perriello Pickers, a supergroup featuring members of Love Canon and Walker’s Run, Sarah White, Harli Saxon, the Michael Coleman Band and Dori Freeman, whose 2016 self-titled breakout album made year-end lists […]

ARTS Pick: Country Sweethearts

Ah, Valentine’s Day. A time to celebrate new flames and lasting flames and, for some, a time to weep into a heart-shaped box of half-eaten chocolates. Whether you’re looking to swoon or seethe over love this year, local all-star ensemble the Country Sweethearts, featuring Tara Mills, Terri Allard, Sarah White, Holly Allen and Carleigh Nesbit, […]

Margaret Glaspy gets to the point on new album

Margaret Glaspy doesn’t mince words or deal in excess. Clocking in at a brisk 34 minutes, the singer-songwriter’s debut, Emotions and Math, made several best-of lists in 2016 with its blend of bluesy riffs and pared down rock ’n’ roll. “I do like things boiled down to their kind of most distilled nature. That was […]

ARTS Pick: Jouwala Collective

Richmond band Jouwala Collective builds on the foundation of Gnawa music, which has its roots in Northern African spiritual celebrations, using the ancient form for a layered transcendence, blending it into modern, rhythmic trance music that meanders through funk, jazz, soul, reggae and electronic. Thursday, February 2. $7, 8pm. The Ante Room, 219 Water St. […]

ARTS Pick: Love Letters

A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters takes a poignant look at what passes between two people who share a deep bond despite vastly different lives. Childhood friends Melissa and Andrew correspond over 50 years, revealing a lifelong connection that examines multiple angles of human emotion. Broadway vets and real-life married couple Linda Poser and Kenneth H. Waller […]

ARTS Pick: Well

“This play is not about my mother and me,” the character of Lisa insists at the beginning of Well. The play is, in fact, about Lisa and her mother, who cannot heal herself despite her extraordinary ability to heal a changing neighborhood. But Well is about many other things, too—the idea of wellness, the fraught, often […]

ARTS Pick: April Verch

Singing, step-dancing fiddle player April Verch shows her roots in trademark fireball performances that channel the founding players of traditional folk music. The Ottawa Valley Canadian has been onstage since the age of 6, and with no sign of slowing down at age 38, she’s releasing The April Verch Anthology on February 17, an 18-track collection […]

Synthetic Division honors the good fight

There was something rather poetic about Synthetic Division’s recent impromptu performance at Goth Night at The Pit at Cinema Taco on the Downtown Mall. Melancholy cabaret duo Please Don’t Tell was scheduled to perform that night, but vocalist Christina Fleming lost her voice. Shawn Decker—the musician behind Synthetic Division—stepped in with his keyboard, his synth […]