OK, so we’re a little heavy on music listings this week. And that’s without even mentioning Buddy Guy Friday and Gordon Lightfoot Saturday, both at Kodak Center. And local heroes Joywave, also Friday and Saturday, at Anthology. As always, it’s a good idea to check each venue’s COVID policy. You’ll find the complete CITY calendar here.
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Johan Smith at Rochester Guitar Festival
7 p.m.
The Little Theatre 1
The three-day Rochester Classical Guitar festival concludes with this Swiss standout who has performed with orchestras such as the Budapest Symphony Orchestra, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, and the Versoix Chamber Orchestra. Smith also won the 2019 Guitar Foundation of America’s International Concert Artist Competition. Opening the show is the Guitar Adventure II class of the Eastman Community Music School. Tickets are $20, and $15 for students.
Dakha Brakha
7:30 p.m.
Kilbourn Hall, Eastman School of Music
Perhaps you remember this wonderful group of Ukrainian musicians at the 2017 Rochester International Jazz Festival. An unexpectedly theatrical quartet in black and red traditional garments, Dakha Brakha is a bearded bald man and three women in black fur hats 1½ feet tall. The music is astonishingly powerful, percussion-driven folk music performed at breakneck speed, with a smattering of accordions, ukulele, cello and some native instruments, and the angel-to-wraith wailing of the women woven throughout. The group’s piece simulating the sounds of birds was one of the single-most memorable moments of the festival.
Live from Hochstein – Northeast Pennsylvania Chamber Music Society: Plus One
12:10 p.m.
The Hochstein School
Three of these musicians attended the Eastman School of Music. The “Plus One” is a reference to how the group will slowly add an additional player as the show evolves. They’ll be performing works by Mendelssohn, Fauré, and a piece by the quartet’s pianist, Hwaen Ch’uqi. See the free performance at the school, or listen to the broadcast live at WXXI-FM (91.5), WXXY-FM (90.3), or online at classical915.org.
Flipsiders Reunion
6 p.m.
Record Archive Backroom Lounge
Jeff Riales and Jed Curran, as the leaders of The Flipsiders, led one of the coolest open-mic nights of Rochester. The lively event started in 2005, lasting until The Flipside Bar & Grill closed in 2013. But many of the old characters will be back for this reunion show.
Rickey Smiley & Corey Holcomb: Funny ASF Comedy Show
8 p.m.
Auditorium Theatre
Smiley, who has a nationally syndicated radio show, may be best known for pulling off prank phone calls. Holcomb, who calls himself “The Ghetto Dr. Phil,” has a Tuesday-night show on YouTube.
Dead to the Core: An Acoustic Celebration of the Grateful Dead
7:30 p.m.
Rochester Christian Reformed Church
A collection of singer-songwriters celebrate The Dead just as The Dead might do it: Not note-for-note reproductions, but with the musicians improvising off of the Dead’s music. This show features Jefferson Hamer, Ryan Fitzsimmons and Laurence Scudder, and Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers with Wendy Ramsay.
Little Feat “Waiting For Columbus” tour
7:30 p.m.
Kodak Center
Forty-five years after the release of one of the band’s finest albums, “Waiting For Columbus,” this tour is all about playing it in its entirety, front to back. Opening is an English blues guitarist, Jack Broadbent, who was a favorite at the Rochester International Jazz Festival a few years ago.
Jeff Spevak is an arts writer for WXXI and CITY, and he curates the events for our Weekly Planner. He can be reached at [email protected].
To get the Weekly Planner delivered to your inbox, subscribe here.
7 p.m.
The Little Theatre 1
The three-day Rochester Classical Guitar festival concludes with this Swiss standout who has performed with orchestras such as the Budapest Symphony Orchestra, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, and the Versoix Chamber Orchestra. Smith also won the 2019 Guitar Foundation of America’s International Concert Artist Competition. Opening the show is the Guitar Adventure II class of the Eastman Community Music School. Tickets are $20, and $15 for students.
7:30 p.m.
Kilbourn Hall, Eastman School of Music
Perhaps you remember this wonderful group of Ukrainian musicians at the 2017 Rochester International Jazz Festival. An unexpectedly theatrical quartet in black and red traditional garments, Dakha Brakha is a bearded bald man and three women in black fur hats 1½ feet tall. The music is astonishingly powerful, percussion-driven folk music performed at breakneck speed, with a smattering of accordions, ukulele, cello and some native instruments, and the angel-to-wraith wailing of the women woven throughout. The group’s piece simulating the sounds of birds was one of the single-most memorable moments of the festival.
12:10 p.m.
The Hochstein School
Three of these musicians attended the Eastman School of Music. The “Plus One” is a reference to how the group will slowly add an additional player as the show evolves. They’ll be performing works by Mendelssohn, Fauré, and a piece by the quartet’s pianist, Hwaen Ch’uqi. See the free performance at the school, or listen to the broadcast live at WXXI-FM (91.5), WXXY-FM (90.3), or online at classical915.org.
6 p.m.
Record Archive Backroom Lounge
Jeff Riales and Jed Curran, as the leaders of The Flipsiders, led one of the coolest open-mic nights of Rochester. The lively event started in 2005, lasting until The Flipside Bar & Grill closed in 2013. But many of the old characters will be back for this reunion show.
8 p.m.
Auditorium Theatre
Smiley, who has a nationally syndicated radio show, may be best known for pulling off prank phone calls. Holcomb, who calls himself “The Ghetto Dr. Phil,” has a Tuesday-night show on YouTube.
7:30 p.m.
Rochester Christian Reformed Church
A collection of singer-songwriters celebrate The Dead just as The Dead might do it: Not note-for-note reproductions, but with the musicians improvising off of the Dead’s music. This show features Jefferson Hamer, Ryan Fitzsimmons and Laurence Scudder, and Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers with Wendy Ramsay.
7:30 p.m.
Kodak Center
Forty-five years after the release of one of the band’s finest albums, “Waiting For Columbus,” this tour is all about playing it in its entirety, front to back. Opening is an English blues guitarist, Jack Broadbent, who was a favorite at the Rochester International Jazz Festival a few years ago.
Jeff Spevak is an arts writer for WXXI and CITY, and he curates the events for our Weekly Planner. He can be reached at [email protected].
