From ’80s music icons to a mega-talented jazz pianist, there are some great shows and concerts — not to mention some classic film comedies — to catch this weekend.
Here is a partial roundup.
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And she’ll do so during three highly anticipated stops on her Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour: Aug. 23 at Toyota Amphitheatre at Wheatland; Aug. 24 at Shoreline Amphitheatre at Mountain View; and Aug. 26 at Toyota Pavilion at Concord. The swan song trek has consisted of 60-plus shows in four continents since kicking off in Montreal in October.
So turn out to one — or all — of the above venues to hear this brand new Rock and Roll Hall of Famer perform such fan favorites as “She Bop,” “I Drove All Night,” “Money Changes Everything,” “Change of Heart,” “Time After Time” and, of course, tour-namesake “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” (We’re personally happy to see that Lauper has been playing “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough” on this tour.)
The opening act for these shows is Jake Wesley Rogers, the former “America’s Got Talent” contestant who has previously set the table for Panic! At the Disco, Ben Platt and Kesha in concert.
Details: See livenation.com to get tickets and find other details for all three of Lauper’s upcoming Northern California concerts.
— Jim Harrington, Staff
Chestnut returns to Bay Area
His name, which sounds like a character in a Christmas movie, and his joyful look and demeanor may serve as camouflage, but there is no disguising that Cyrus is one of the premiere jazz pianists making the rounds these days. And you have four chances to see him this weekend.
It doesn’t hurt that he has spent his career collaborating with some truly talented artists, including Wynton Marsalis, Terence Blanchard, Donald Harrison, singer Betty Carter, Roy Hargrove, Freddie Hubbard Chick Corea, and even opera singer Kathleen Battle. Blessed with technical talent to spare and a passion for music seasoned with an impressive training and education background — including the Peabody Institute and Berklee College of Music — Chestnut’s jazz stylings are flavored by his roots in gospel, blues and R&B.
This week, Chestnut performs a solo show at Piedmont Piano in Oakland and comes with his trio the Lesher Center for the Arts, as part of the Jazz Walnut Creek concert series.
Details: 5:30 and 8 p.m. Aug. 22 at Piedmont Piano Company; $40-$45; piedmontpiano.com; 4:15 and 7:15 p.m. Sunday at Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek; $75; www.lesherartscenter.org.
— Randy McMullen, Staff
‘Virgin’ kicks off Alamo comedy classics
The newly opened Alamo Drafthouse Cinema location in Mountain View has some really enticing programming in store for comedy fans in late-August.
For starters, Alamo is celebrating the 20th anniversary of “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” Judd Apatow’s directorial debut starring an absolutely hilarious Steve Carell in the titular role. The film also features Paul Rudd, Romany Malco, Seth Rogen, Catherine Keener and the greatest shoutout to Kelly Clarkson of all time. It screens at 7 p.m. Aug. 22, 4:45 p.m. Aug. 23 and 7 p.m. Aug. 24 at the Mountain View Alamo.
Filmgoers can also catch the 10th anniversary of another Apatow-directed movie — 2015’s “Trainwreck” — starring Amy Schumer (who also wrote the “pretty autobiographical” script). The jam-packed cast includes Bill Hader, Brie Larson, Colin Quinn, John Cena, Tilda Swinton and NBA legend LeBron James, who basically steals every scene that he’s in. “Trainwreck” screens at the Mountain View Alamo at 1:30 p.m. Aug. 23 and 3:45 p.m. Aug. 24.
And speaking of jam-packed casts, Alamo is also revisiting “Clue,” the 1985 whodunnit farce based on the classic board game. The Jonathan Lynn-directed film features an ensemble cast for the ages — including Tim Curry, Eileen Brennan, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull and Lesley Ann Warren. “Clue” screens at 7 p.m. Aug. 27 in Mountain View. It also has showings at the two other Bay Area Alamo locations — Valley Fair (Santa Clara) and San Francisco — Aug. 23-25.
Details: Visit drafthouse.com/sf for more information.
— Jim Harrington, Staff
Goode choreography on view
Bay Area choreographer, writer and director Joe Goode is known for creating and presenting highly relatable dance works – ones that capture the pain and passion of everyday life. He is considered a groundbreaking choreographer for his knack of weaving spoken word, text, film and other sonic and visual imagery into his storytelling works, which have included such lauded dance/theater productions as “Body Familiar,” “Gender Heroes,” “Wonderboy” and more.
Goode’s works have been incorporated into site-specific productions in the cavernous Lilienthal-Haas House in Pacific Heights, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the S.F. Mint and other distinctive venues, allowing his surroundings to play a role in the storytelling process. Now Goode and his company – The Joe Goode Performance Group – is back with a new work, titled “Are You Okay?” Something of an urgent variant on the “Why Can’t We All Get Along” theme, Goode’s new work posits that togetherness — he calls it “collaborative creativity” — is more than a lofty notion nowadays, it may be the only blueprint to humankind’s survival in an unstable world. “Are You Okay” is being performed in another site-specific production in San Francisco’s Rincon Center, 83 Mission St., through Aug. 31.
Details: $48-$60; joegoode.org.
— Bay City News Foundation
Freebie of the week
On the theory that 30 flying fingers might be more powerful than the usual 10 when it comes to chamber music, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Walnut Creek has hired the 26-year-old ensemble the Navarro Trio, resident artists at Sonoma State University, to give an afternoon recital Aug. 24 in its sanctuary, rendered acoustically fine as it is by the predominance of glass, stone and redwood in its design. Co-founded by pianist Marilyn Thompson and cellist Jill Rachuy Brindel, and now including pianist Tammie Dyer, the ensemble has mastered most of the familiar repertoire, but likes to bring works by new or relatively unsung composers to the fore. To that end, their 3 p.m. program in St. Paul’s will add a work by local composer Martin Rokeach to a program that also includes pieces by Beethoven and Brahms. The program is free, but a suggested donation of $20 is gratefully accepted to help defray costs. The venue is at 1924 Trinity Avenue in Walnut Creek, and there is free parking across the street on Trinity.
Details: You will find more concert information and a link to a livestream at www.stpaulswc/concert-series.
— Bay City News Foundation
A Maurice Ravel redux
It was 97 years ago that Maurice Ravel, the great 20th-century pianist and composer from France, made his triumphant grand tour of the United States, and in honor of his 150th birthday, the San Francisco International Piano Festival will re-create the concert he gave in San Francisco as the opening event in its own eighth annual celebration. On Aug. 22, festival founder Jeffrey LaDeur and fellow pianist Gwendolyn Mok, joined by mezzo-soprano Kindra Scharich, soprano Heidi Moss Erickson and violinist Chili Ekman will gather onstage at Old First Church in San Francisco to present a program that kicks off with his entrancing song cycle “Shéhérazade.” Also in the lineup are the composer’s jazz-inflected Violin Sonata, the “Histoires Naturelles,” the “Pavane for a Dead Infant,” “La Vallée des cloches,” “Habanera,” “Chansons Grecques” and selections from the “Tombeau de Couperin.”
Details: Performance time is 8 p.m.; 1751 Sacramento St.; $30, suggested donation of $20 for livestream; www.sfpiano.org.
— Bay City News Foundation
They’re just fiddling around
Fans of Scottish fiddling probably already have Labor Day weekend circled on their calendar; that is when the music-rich Scottish Games returns to the Alameda Fairgrounds in Pleasanton. But you can get your fix on Thursday night when The Freight in Berkeley hosts its annual Fiddle Summit, featuring two of the most popular sources of fine fiddling that the Bay Area has to offer. Headlining the who shebang is Alisdair Fraser, considered one of the top Scottish fiddlers on the planet. Also on the bill is the phenomenon Hot Club of San Francisco, revivalists of the so-called “gypsy jazz” music made famous by such legends as guitarist Django Reinhardt and fiddler Stephane Grappelli. Hot Club features plenty of fiddle and fretboard fireworks of its own, not to mention the wonderful singing of Isabelle Fontaine. The Pine Tree Flyers, a renowned Americana band from Maine, and acclaimed dancer Nic Gareiss round out the lineup. It’s always wonderful when sheer talent and absolute fun share the stage, and that is in the offing at this show, which starts at 8 p.m. Thursday.
Details: Tickets are $37-$39; go to thefreight.org.
— Bay City News Foundation
All about the ‘80s
If you were (and still are) an ‘80s R&B fan, you might well want to be at San Jose Civic Center on Saturday night, when a lineup of once-iconic music acts led by Lisa Lisa and the Cult Jam will perform. Lisa Lisa, led by New York singer Lisa Velez, scored with such singles as “I Wonder if I Take You Home,” “All Cried Out,” and more and was a force to be reckoned with on radio and MTV in the ‘80s (even Velez’s headband was iconic). Velez is still making new music these days – she’s signed with Snoop Dogg’s label – but this Take You Home Tour is all about the 40th anniversary of Lisa Lisa’s biggest hit and the era’s music. Also on the lineup are Expose, who’s biggest hit was the No. 1 charting “Seasons Change”; The Jets, whose hits included “Crush on You” and “You Got it All”; the Mary Jane Girls (featuring the original lineup), whose “In My House” was an ‘80s radio earworm, and more. So, yeah, there’s a lot of Memory Lane music on tap Friday (shoulder pads and jelly shoes not included).
Details: The show starts 7:30 p.m.; tickets are $80-$182 (subject to change); go to sanjosetheaters.org.
— Bay City News Foundation
