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everything you need to know to get your semester started right

on stands august 9 2 | 8.2.17 | INDYweek.com

18 The art i

DEPARTM

6 Tria

8 New

14 Food

16 Mus

18 Arts

22 Wha

25 Mus

29 Arts

WHAT WE LEARNED THIS WEEK VOL. 34, NO. 28

6 There are six New Starts projects in the engineering phase of the application for a federal grant.

Durham-Orange Light Rail Transit is the only one rated “medium.”

8 A failed golf course in Fuquay-Varina could turn into a residential development, unless Wake County spends millions to turn it into a park.

9 After Pat McCrory lost, the North Carolina GOP filed six hundred protests accusing voters of fraud.

More than 95 percent of them were baseless.

10 Katie Yow says she doesn’t know “anything relevant” about the firebombing of the Orange County GOP office last year. But that doesn’t mean she’ll talk to the grand jury about it.

12 Durham’s noise ordinance says Batalá Durham is free to practice its samba-reggae in Durham Central Park, yet a complaint from neighbors could get the group booted.

16 The Carolina Music Awards are ten years old, but no one has a clue what they’re all about.

18 The experimentation of the early days of video art is now the terrain of virtual artists.

DEPARTMENTS 6 Triangulator 8 News 14 Food 16 Music

Churros are prepared at Cocoa Cinnamon’s third location in Durham’s Lakewood neighborhood.

PHOTO BY ALEX BOERNER

18 Arts & Culture 22 What to Do This Week 25 Music Calendar 29 Arts & Culture Calendar

On the cover: RALEIGH: Photo by Alex Boerner. DURHAM/CHAPEL HILL: Photo by York Wilson

INDYweek.com | 8.2.17 | 3

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owe

backtalk Tip of the Iceberg

Last week’s Triangulator noted the rise and cover up having that much money,” writes in probable Lyme disease cases in North Nancy Carolyn Miller Williams. “Waiting to Carolina. In response, Marcia E. Herman- hear the complete story and disgusted that Giddens, an adjunct professor at UNC’s Gill- employees trusted with managing citizens’ ings School of Public Health and a scientific resources to run the government steal it. adviser on the Tick-borne Infections Coun- Foxes definitely were in the hen house.”

“It should never have taken this long to cil of North Carolina Inc., writes that the official statistics likely underestimate the catch this amount of embezzlement in a public office,” adds Jeanne Kleinschmidt. “Where scope of the problem. beth Spencer “No, it is not easy to know how widespread was the oversight and necessary systems?”

Sayaka Last week, news broke that the $3.3 billion Lyme disease is here in North Carolina,” she is, Angela Durham-Orange Light Rail Transit project writes.

“There are a number of reasons for Bryan C. avid Ford this—too many to list in this comment. One was allowed to move into the next phase of ck Wall important factor is that cases of most report- the grant application process—even though , able diseases that pass the strict require- President Trump’s budget proposal calls for ments to become official CDC numbers are no new projects of this sort to be funded. mé “When will the local politiwidely acknowledged to repcians put a stop to this?” writes resent only the tip of the icems Tom Englund. “The public berg as far as representing “I hope the should also keep in mind that the true number of cases. For feds do not the monthly cost for planexample, for Lyme disease, ning—right now—is huge. I’ve the CDC recently did a study fund this seen estimates that taxpayers and released a statement that ridiculous art are currently paying about $1 rather than the approximately million every month for planthirty thousand cases reported plan.

It’s avid Lee, ning and promoting the Durper year in the U.S., the actuNair, atrocious.” ham-Orange Light Rail. Stop al number is likely over three , and think about what could hundred thousand per year.” be done with that money to Writing about a recent story on a Raleigh family that went to court after improve transit, or education, or infrastruca developer erected a twenty-eight-foot wall ture, or health in our counties. This whole beside their house, George Farthing com- project may never fly, in which case every ments, “Too often when things like this hap- cent that’s being spent on it before it ever pen that are detrimental to property owners moves into the construction phase will be han and neighborhoods, the city points a finger at completely wasted.”

Barbara 2 calls the project “the biggest growth as if to say, ‘We can’t help it!’ If electwaste of tax dollars. I hope the feds do not ed officials (and in this matter, the Board 200 of Adjustment) would simply live up to the fund this ridiculous plan. It’s atrocious. No city council mission statement, we’d manage reason, whatsoever, for this money pit to growth responsibly versus the anything-goes be developed.” She also reminds readers to “keep one thing in mind as the Durham mayapproach too many favor.” k.com “The building of McMansions isn’t oral election comes up. Your INDY Week orieek.com increasing density,” adds M Elizabeth Wak- gins come from Steve Schewel. He will be a 1972 eford. “These are just giant single-family candidate running for the position, and he is homes. This isn’t population increase or a huge proponent of this damn thing.”

That’s true. Though we should also point mixed-use development. People aren’t sude denly going to use public transit just because that Schewel sold the paper in 2012, and no members of the news staff date back to his they now live in a bigger house!”

Readers have also been perturbed by our ownership of the publication. coverage of the Wake County Register of Deeds office, which seems to have, er, mis- Want to see your name in bold? Email us placed some $900,000 (at least) over the last at backtalk@indyweek.com, comment on our Facebook page or indyweek.com, or hit us up three years.

“It’s amazing that one person could take on Twitter: @indyweek.

INDYweek.com | 8.2.17 | 5

triangulator

O

HAPPY MEDIUM

n Friday, the Federal Transit Administration informed GoTriangle that the Durham-Orange Light Rail Transit project could move into the next phase of the application process for a federal grant, with one important caveat: “Please note that the President’s Budget for [fiscal year] 2018 proposes no funding for new projects,” reads a bold-typed paragraph from FTA regional administrator Yvette Taylor, “and thus GoTriangle acknowledges that it is undertaking additional work at its own risk which may not receive Capital Investments Grants funding.”

OVERALL PROJECT RATING

High

Medium-High

Since the federal grant comprises half of the project’s finances—$1.2 billion of the $2.4 billion project cost, not including interest—this is the ballgame.

Another thing worth noting: the DOLRT squeaked by. That is to say, it was scored “medium” on the FTA’s five-point evaluation, the minimum any such project needs to advance. While the DOLRT was rated well on its current capital and operating condition, and OK on its local financing commitments, the FTA is concerned that GoTriangle is overly optimistic about operating costs, and the agency “cannot de-

Medium

termine the reasonableness of fare revenue projections because the methodology used by GoTriangle is not in compliance with FTA’s Guidance for Transit Financial Plans.” So there’s that.

GoTriangle officials plan to discuss the project’s rating and suggestions this week.

For now, though, DOLRT now joins five other New Starts projects that are in the engineering phase, according to an FTA annual report. We thought it might be useful to spend a few minutes getting acquainted with the competition.

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA Project 1: METRO Blue Line Extension (Bottineau LRT) Total Capital Cost: $1.54 billion Federal Grant Request: $752.7 million Project 2: Southwest Light Rail Transit Total Capital Cost: $1.86 billion Federal Grant Request: $928.8 million

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON Project: Lynnwood Link Extension Total Capital Cost: $2.35 billion Federal Grant Request: $1.17 billion

BETHESDA TO NEW CARROLTON, MARYLAND Project: National Capital Purple Line Total Capital Cost: $2.4 billion Federal Grant Request: $900 million

DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA Project: Durham-Orange LRT Total Capital Cost: $2.47 billion Federal Grant Request: $1.24 billion

SANTA ANA, CALIFORNIA Project: Garden Grove Streetcar Project Total Capital Cost: $297.2 million Federal Grant Request: $149 million

6 | 8.2.17 | INDYweek.com

PERIPHERAL VISIONS | V.C. ROGERS

+CASHED OUT

A new internal audit of the Wake County Register of Deeds office shows that more than $289,000 went missing there in 2014, bringing the total of money unaccounted for in the office to more than $900,000 during a three-year period.

The latest chapter in the story of the troubled office, from which erstwhile Register of Deeds Laura Riddick retired in March, shows that more than $1,000 a day went missing on more than two hundred days in 2014, with the largest single daily amount of $5,384.45 disappearing on May 9.

County manager Jim Hartmann’s office made the audit available Friday following a records request by The News & Observer.

Previous accountings, which showed more than $600,000 missing in 2015 and 2016, only began after Hartmann and Wake

County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman announced in March that the State Bureau of Investigation would investigate the office.

Freeman and Hartmann said at the time that Riddick, who has not been available for comment, resigned because of an illness.

Last month, the INDY reported that several North Carolina county governments have internal audit departments that perform annually the sort of hands-on investigation that the Wake County Register of Deeds office has been undergoing since March.

The county’s internal audit director will continue examining records from as far back as 2008, the most recent year for which tallies are available, Hartmann said. Riddick was first elected in 1996.

All North Carolina counties prepare records of their financial affairs and other relevant statistics for a comprehensive annual financial report, or CAFR. These documents may uncover fraud, but they are not carried out with a principal goal of detecting malfeasance.

Wake investigative documents show that Riddick often accepted a day’s take of uncounted cash, added it up by herself, then transferred it to other Register of Deeds staff members for official recording. Freeman says Riddick remains under investigation along with other employees of the office, and Riddick has cooperated with the probe.

Freeman says the results of the SBI investigation could be announced in September, and a grand jury could be impaneled at that time. triangulator@indyweek.com This week’s report by Jeffrey C. Billman, Thomas Goldsmith, and Erica Hellerstein.

Additional reporting by Lauren Barber.

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Over two days last week, we got a sense of how seriously the North Carolina General Assembly was taking a federal court’s order to redraw its legislative districts in a fair and not-racially-gerrymandered manner (not really) and how the federal court felt about the legislature’s recalcitrance (not thrilled).

First, in a meeting Wednesday of the legislature’s joint committee on redistricting, Representative David Lewis, the committee’s Republican cochairman, said he hoped to have the process wrapped up by midNovember (no rush). And the committee’s Republicans also announced that they were once again bringing in a GOP consultant named Tom Hofeller to help them, just as they did in 2011, when they drew the unconstitutional maps.

The next day in Greensboro, U.S. District Court Judge James Wynn scolded lawmakers for their foot-dragging.

“We want the legislature to do its job,” he said. “We are in the remedy phase now.”

Wynn is part of the three-judge panel that ordered the legislature to draw new districts and hold special elections. The plaintiffs in that case asked for a two-week timeline for redistricting, not the months-long process the legislature wants. The legislature’s attorneys also argued that holding a special election before November 2018 would be expensive, confusing for voters, and wasteful, since turnout would be low.

Edwin Speas, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, suggested that “the state legislature may be the most illegally constituted body in the United States.”

Late Monday, the judges opted against

ordering a special election; they did, however, order the legislature to create new districts no later than September 1, which will give Democrats a few extra months to begin recruiting candidates and raising money.

And depending on how they’re drawn, those new districts could have a huge impact on the state. Democrats need just three seats in the state House and six in the Senate to break the Republican supermajorities in those chambers; if that happens, Governor Cooper’s veto pen will have some muscle.

Then again, Republicans are under no obligation to help Democrats; indeed, while racial gerrymandering is unconstutional, partisan gerrymandering—at least for the time being, as the Supreme Court is set to hear a case on the matter this fall—is not.

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indynews

Field of Green

IF WAKE COUNTY DOESN’T HAVE EXTRA MONEY FOR SCHOOLS, SHOULD IT SPEND MILLIONS TO TURN A FAILED GOLF COURSE INTO A PARK?

BY THOMAS GOLDSMITH

W

ake County leaders are at odds over whether it’s a good deal for taxpayers to make a county park out of the failed Crooked Creek Golf Course in Fuquay-Varina.

Proponents of converting the former course in booming south Wake feel so strongly that commissioners have received pro-park emails from as many as a thousand people—more than the number who wrote in at the height of the recent schoolfunding debate, commissioners say. The Board of Commissioners is set to hash out the matter at an August 14 work session.

Depending on whom you ask, buying the golf course is either an unprecedented chance to create a great facility for the area or as an excessive expenditure that would be better spent elsewhere.

Commissioners Matt Calabria, in whose district the course lies, and Sig Hutchinson, the board chairman and a major backer of open spaces, strongly support the project. A no vote seems probable from Commissioner Jessica Holmes and likely from Commissioner Greg Ford. The pair voted this spring against a county budget that gave Wake County Public Schools less than half the system’s request for new money.

“We just told the school system that we have no additional funds available to them,” Holmes says. “We’re also in an affordable housing crisis. I would have to believe that Wake County citizens would put this park, in a middle-class community’s backyard, pretty far down the totem pole.”

“The county has recommended north of two million dollars for a southeastern park already,” adds Ford. “I have concerns about moving forward with another park, where we've already invested a lot of money.”

“It’s not a Fuquay-Varina issue; it’s a south Wake issue,” Calabria counters. “It’s the center of an area where we need a future elementary school. Then you’ll have a school located next to a beautiful park.

8 | 2.10.16 | INDYweek.com

A sign informs passersby that the Crooked Creek Golf Club is permanently closed.

Inset: the Crooked Creek clubhouse. PHOTOS BY THOMAS GOLDSMITH You have all sorts of opportunities.”

The nonprofit Conservation Trust will pay roughly $4 million for the land, which Wake will then buy back within a few years under a deal that’s yet to be struck. A Wake County staff email to commissioners puts the park’s development costs at as much as $15.3 million, start-up costs at as much as $171,000, and yearly upkeep at between $271,000 and $383,000.

The 164-acre property already has twenty-one acres under option by Wake schools.

Calabria says there’s a possibility of using

some of the property as wetlands mitigation, which would produce revenue. And a nonprofit that works with adults with disabilities is interested in putting a facility on the land as well. Calabria and Hutchinson are also pushing the value of additional open spaces and connections with the county’s growing greenway system.

But the biggest backers of the project are residents of the neighboring middle-class subdivision who don’t want to see the former golf course filled with more residential development.

The park proposal for the bedroom town of twenty-six thousand is being pushed and tugged by complicated crosscurrents. At least three commissioners—Erv Portman, John Burns, and James West—are reserving judgment until they hear a staff presentation at the upcoming meeting. County budget constraints on education and affordable housing arise repeatedly in their responses, as does the fact that this park isn’t included in the county’s parks master plan, which is designed to bring rationality and curb favoritism as facilities are envisioned and built.

“I would probably look at whether or not it fits into our master park plan,” West says.

“And basically, is this a suitable place for a park in terms of land use, and not just a situation for some people who have a problem, to fix it for them?”

“At this moment, I am all for ensuring that we continue to add parks and open space commensurate with our growth,” Portman says. “That's a concept of concurrency—you grow up better, not just bigger. The con is it’s a failed golf course and there’s a strong vested interest in the people that have been harmed by the golf course to have the public fix the problem.

That might not necessarily be a good idea.”

The people who have a problem are those who have bought land and houses around the golf course since it opened in 1995, according to court records. Many of them did so in the belief that the rolling course would be used for golf in perpetuity.

Instead, the golf course closed for good in July 2015 and sold the majority of its assets.

A group of residents in nearby houses sued to keep the course from closing and to prevent the owners from allowing more houses to be built on the former links, but they lost in trial court last year.

The state Court of Appeals ruled July 18 that the owners are under no obligation to keep the golf course in operation or to forestall residential development, even though the presence of the links was heavily featured in advertising.

Plaintiffs in the case have not decided whether to appeal.

“We think it is unethical to promise dozens of families that they are going to live on a golf course and then pull the rug out from under them,” says Matt Quinn, the homeowners’ attorney. “I don’t agree that the golf course went under. At the very end, mismanagement set in.”

“I believe the county has more pressing priorities,” Holmes says, “such as supporting our schools and ensuring that our teachers, our policemen, and our firemen are able to afford to live in the communities where they work.”

Burns says he could support the Crooked Creek project if it can be made to fit in with the schools budget and the parks budget. “There's a ton of community support,” Burns says. “There are discussions about some pretty creative ways to make it happen.”

Hutchinson and Calabria both want to make sure that the purchase doesn’t look like a bailout for the upper-middle-class homeowners around the course.

“When I first saw the property, I was suspect,” Hutchinson says. “The more I looked at it and the more I heard from the community, the more I saw real potential in this.

It’s so much more than just the neighbors around the golf course. “ Calabria says the park would be accessible to vulnerable populations in south Wake, not just to the adjacent suburbanites.

“The commission has a strong mission of helping the underprivileged,” he says.

“There’s little doubt that people who live in the neighborhood would benefit. If that were the primary effect, I don’t think any commissioner would be interested.”

For skeptics, at least one question remains: Why do some initiatives seem to jump the line over perennial problems?

With two other Wake parks in planning stages within five or six miles of FuquayVarina, Holmes asks, how does Crooked Creek rise to the top of the list?

“My thought is, where are they going to get the funds for this?” she says. tgoldsmith@indyweek.com

Crying Wolf

AFTER PAT MCCRORY LOST, N.C. REPUBLICANS FALSELY ACCUSED HUNDREDS OF VOTERS OF FRAUD. SHOULDN’T THAT BE HARDER TO DO?

BY ERICA HELLERSTEIN A few weeks after the November election, Joseph Golden’s phone rang.

On the line was an official from the Brunswick County Board of Elections, who called to tell Golden something entirely unexpected: the North Carolina newcomer had been accused of voting both in Maryland, where he had previously lived and voted in the primary, and in North Carolina, where he moved in April 2016. Golden laughed, and the official urged him not to worry.

“And two days later, it ended up in the front of the newspaper. So that was sort of a strange way to say, ‘Welcome to North Carolina,’” Golden says.

The baseless complaint was later withdrawn. But even so, the fact that it happened—that it appeared in the paper, that someone on social media chided him as a “cheater in our midst”—bothered Golden.

The allegation—and hundreds like it— came after Governor Roy Cooper eked out a victory over then-governor Pat McCrory; in response, Republicans filed voter protests in nearly forty counties, alleging ballots were cast by felons, dead voters, and people who voted in more than one state.

According to a recent report by the nonpartisan voting rights group Democracy North Carolina, more than 95 percent of the six hundred protests that were filed were false. (The “fewer than thirty” that were wrongly cast or counted, the report says, “were apparently cast by accident or out of ignorance of the voting rules for [people on probation], rather than an intent to cheat.”)

Though most of the complaints were dismissed, the process had real consequences, the report argues. Not only was the election canvass delayed and resources diverted, but also, “For weeks, media reports bombarded the public with allegations of voter fraud and dozens of innocent voters had their reputations impugned and lives disrupted.”

Now Democracy NC is eyeing a potential remedy—or at least, proposed changes that would make filing election protests more complex. On Monday, attorneys for the State Board of Elections and Ethics

Enforcement held a hearing on amendments to the state’s election rules.

Many of the tweaks are wonky, but changes related to filing election protests elicited strong reactions from voting rights advocates and state Republicans, who clashed over rules that would apply stricter standards to filing voter protests.

Under the proposals, the voter protest form would be extended from one page to about three and would require filers to disclose whether a candidate, political party, organization, or other person asked them to submit the request.

“The intent was to come up with allegations and things like this to discredit the entire process.”

The form would require submitters to provide all factual claims in support of their protest, and people filing protests would have to sign a statement acknowledging that submitting fraudulent declarations is a felony. It would also require attorneys to disclose if they are working with a person who filed election protests.

That’s significant because almost all of the postelection protests, according to Democracy NC, were filed by a Virginiabased law firm founded by Jill Vogel, a Republican contender for lieutenant governor in Virginia.

While most of the hearing’s speakers

supported the changes, Dallas Woodhouse, executive director of the North Carolina GOP, argued that the protest-form changes were “nothing short of shocking” and would discourage protests.

“The board cannot require a protest be subject to a sworn form under the penalty of perjury,” he said. “Those requirements on the form are unduly burdensome and risk the chilling of the right of voters to submit protests.”

Thomas Stark—an attorney for the N.C. Republican Party who said he wanted to speak as a Durham voter and not as an employee of the GOP—similarly said the proposed rule “seeks to chill the protest process” and claimed that deceased people and undocumented immigrants voted in the election.

“Any person that goes in and presents themself and identifies themself and states their address and is on the voter roll votes. We don’t have voter ID,” he said.

(In April, the NCSBE reported that 508 people had voted illegally in November.

One would have been stopped by voter ID.) For Golden, the problem isn’t that the system is too permissive of fraudulent voters but that the mechanism to accuse people like him is too lenient.

“I think the intent of this thing was to come up with as many allegations and things like this to discredit the entire election process,” he says. “And I just find it hard to believe that a few individuals or a bunch of people getting together could take a process like that and try to chip away at the credibility of it and have no real tangible evidence afterwards.”

Monday was the last day to submit public comments on the rules. However, it’s still a long road ahead.

Attorneys for the election board presided over the meeting because—owing to a legal spat between Cooper and the GOP-dominated legislature over changes the General Assembly made to the election board last year—no board members have been appointed.

Once they are, the board members will consider the proposals. ehellerstein@indyweek.com INDYweek.com | 8.2.17 | 9

THE RESISTER Federal prosecutors want Katie Yow to tell a grand jury what she knows about the firebombing of the Orange County GOP office last year. She’d rather go to jail.

BY SARAH WILLETS

Top left and bottom: Scenes from Monday's protest outside the federal courthouse in Greensboro.

Top right: Katie Yow speak to the crowd. PHOTOS BY TODD TURNER 10 | 8.2.17 | INDYweek.com

S

tanding near the corner of Market and Eugene streets in Greensboro Monday morning, Katie Yow is giving a stranger directions to Guilford County magistrate court.

“All of this stuff is a governmental complex,” she says to the woman, pointing toward a stretch of drab monoliths. Her knowledge of the place is expected; Yow, who now calls Durham home, lived in Greensboro for ten years. But what brings her to this corner on this day makes the scene comically ironic.

In less than thirty minutes, Yow, a committed anarchist and social worker, will blow a kiss to friends and supporters and walk into Greensboro’s federal courthouse, where she will refuse to testify before a grand jury that subpoenaed her earlier this month.

Despite possibly facing up to eighteen months in jail, Yow says defying the grand jury is one of the clearest decisions she’s made in her thirty-one years.

“Resisting this grand jury is one way I can show you I mean what I say and that we as anarchists mean what we say,” says Yow, who managed Carrboro’s Internationalist Books and Community Center for four years, from the courthouse steps. “My community means everything to me, anarchism means everything to me and I am strong enough to do this because of you.”

Yow was committed to the concept of grand jury resistance before receiving the subpoena July 10, even though it would be another sixteen days before her lawyer would learn the subject of the investigation: the October 2016 firebombing of a GOP office in Hillsborough. Images of the burned-out building and “Nazi Republicans leave town or else” and a swastika in black spray paint made national news. Yow says she doesn’t know “anything relevant” to such an investigation.

But in Yow’s view—and that of the community rallying around her—the subject of the grand jury’s investigation isn’t really pertinent to her decision to defy it.

The practice of grand jury resistance appears in activist literature as early as 1969, although the Communist Party was doing it amid the McCarthyism of the 1950s. The Grand Jury Resistance Project lists antiwar activist Judy Gumbo Albert first in its online registry for her 1971 defiance during an investigation of the Weather Underground and a bombing of the U.S. Capitol.

Since then, members of the Black Panther Party, the Puerto Rican independence movement, animal rights and environmental groups, and the anti-pipeline demonstration at Standing Rock have been subpoenaed to testify and resisted.

Resisters like Yow are protesting what they view as a longstanding tradition of

Yow speaks at a workshop on grand jury resistance at the Pinhook. PHOTO BY ALEX BOERNER using the shrouded, broad powers of grand juries to map the members and activities of political movements. As such, Yow’s supporters, some of whom came from other states to be with her for her court appearance, are tight-lipped about how they know one another, when they met, and even their last names.

Because grand jury proceedings are closed, it’s hard to get a full picture of their scope and intent. But, for members of movements based on solidarity and resistance, the threat is real.

“A lot of the time when these grand juries are empaneled for political purposes, they coincide with FBI questioning of activists either at their homes or at their places of work, and the questions they ask are clearly probing questions around who people know, what political movements they’re involved in, and being able to connect dots between activists and political movements,” says Kris Hermes, cofounder of the Grand Jury Resistance Project.

Further, the secretive nature of grand juries—intended to protect the integrity of the investigation—prohibited Yow’s lawyer from discussing what happened during the three times Yow entered the courthouse Monday, what motions had been filed on her behalf, or what was next for her case.

Unlike trial juries, grand juries, which usually consist of sixteen to twenty-three members, aren’t tasked with determining whether a person is guilty of a crime, only whether there is probable cause for a person to be tried. During grand jury proceedings, no judge is present, just the prosecutor, the grand jury, and the witness. A witness can leave the room to consult with her attorney between questions, as long as doing so

doesn’t impede court business.

“The only really safe way to approach this is to refuse to answer everything,” says Jerry Koch, who was jailed for eight months and seven days under civil contempt for defying a New York grand jury investigating a 2008 explosion at a military recruitment center.

Koch flew in Saturday evening to support Yow. (A judge who ultimately released him in 2014 balked at the notion that he had been subpoenaed “to gain access to the treasure trove that is his circle of friends or to send an ominous message to political dissidents.”)

“It’s the fuck terrifying, of course,” Koch says. “… In one way, it is kind of submitting to this inevitable thing, but in the other way, as a lifelong anarchist, I am in opposition to the state. I take that seriously, and if I am fighting back against the state, I expect they’ll take some swings at me as well.”

Grand jury resisters have a few options, including seeking to have the subpoena to testify squashed. They can—before or after receiving a subpoena—evade the proceeding by going underground for the duration of the grand jury, as long as eighteen months. They can accept the subpoena and refuse to enter the courthouse. Or, like Yow, they can enter the courtroom, invoke their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, and refuse to answer any questions.

That’s what Yow planned to do, as supporters, underneath a towering American flag, held banners reading “NC Resists the Grand Jury,” “We Stand with Katie,” and “In Resolute Refusal,” played drums and chanted, “We will resist.”

“This isn’t just about Katie,” says her friend Molly Rose. “Katie is being used to remind us all about the existence of state repression.”

People deal with incarceration and police

intimidation every day without the support she has, Yow points out.

A former elementary school teacher and librarian, Yow works with young people affected by the court system and is pursuing a master’s degree. She’s been politically involved since age fourteen and soon after learned there was a word and a movement to match her growing desire to free human potential from the confines of oppressive governments and coercive institutions.

“The most free and wild thing we have in this world is our love for each other, and we know that our health, our safety, and our liberation can only exist in a world without their cops, their courts, and their cages,” Yow says in a statement. “Our strength lies in knowing that we can provide that for each other, and that nothing they offer or threaten is worth betraying our commitment to our communities.”

As soon as Yow got the subpoena, her community quickly mobilized. A website and online fundraiser went up, a press release went out, and a workshop on grand jury resistance was organized at the Pinhook in Durham, complete with zines and a PowerPoint presentation.

The purpose isn’t just to support Yow in a stressful time and draw attention to a shadowy court proceeding. It’s also part of

a larger legal strategy to essentially document evidence that she never planned to, and never will, cooperate with a grand jury.

Legally, a person can only be jailed under civil contempt as long as the incarceration is coercive and meant to compel him or her to testify, as opposed to punishment for not testifying. A Grumbles motion, as it’s known, seeks to show a person can’t be coerced and therefore is being held purely punitively.

Koch, who resisted a grand jury in 2014, was released on a successful Grumbles motion. The federal judge wrote that he saw “no indication that Koch’s doctrinaire fever will break in the foreseeable future.”

Koch says he was often asked why, if he didn’t know anything about the explosion, he didn’t just cooperate with the grand jury.

“That’s still legitimizing it,” he said. “You can’t really take a middle path like that when it comes to such brutal and violent state repression. You either mean what you say and oppose it wholeheartedly or you don’t mean what you say and you cooperate and you put other people in cages.”

Yow was not held in contempt Monday and was able to leave the courthouse.

According to a statement she issued later, the U.S. Attorney’s Office will be asking for a contempt hearing at a future date. swillets@indyweek.com

INDYweek.com | 8.2.17 | 11

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Caique Vidal, far left, leads Batalá Durham in performance in front of the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. PHOTO BY YORK WILSON

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Y

ou can hear Batalá Durham long before you see it. Its tide of layered beats and enthusiastic shouts emanates from Durham Central Park, where the city has permitted the ensemble to rehearse on warm Monday nights since last summer.

But some local residents would prefer that Batalá be neither seen nor heard in Durham Central Park. Earlier this month, after repeated complaints from a resident at Liberty Warehouse Apartments and three visits from the police, Batalá Durham was warned that an additional noise complaint could prevent it from being able to practice again in the public park. It’s a case of rubber meeting the road with Durham gentrifica-

tion, and the outcome could speak volumes about Durham’s commitment to artists versus development.

“Being shut down was a cultural shock to me,” says Caique Vidal, one of the founders of Batalá Durham. “I believed people would love this, because Americans pay airfare [to Brazil] to experience this. I’m giving it to you for free!”

The samba-reggae group formerly practiced at Terreiro de Arte e Cultura, an AfroBrazilian center for arts and culture housed on North Mangum Street—just a short walk from Durham Central Park—until Terreiro was priced out of the space. Now Batalá Durham practices at Durham Central Park during the summer and the Monkey Bottom

Collaborative during the winter. Founded in 2015, the Durham chapter is the first in the Southeast, and is one of thirty-five such groups around the globe.

The Liberty Warehouse site has its own strong Durham history. From 1940 until 1984, it was a tobacco warehouse that helped power a thriving industry. After the warehouse ceased operations in 1984, Walker Stone, the building’s owner until 2006, repurposed the warehouse. It became home to artists and nonprofit arts groups, including the Scrap Exchange for a time.

In 2006, Stone sold the building to Greenfire Development, a Durham company known for acquiring historic properties in the area. After the warehouse’s roof col-

lapsed in 2011, Greenfire’s management of the property was called into question. With the support of Preservation Durham, Durham City Council removed the building’s historical designation and sold it to East West Partners, a developer based in Chapel Hill. In 2015, the company announced its intent to demolish the building and build a mixed-use complex at the site, which opened in May of this year.

Peter Katz, a board member of Liberty Arts, was involved in efforts to make sure that East West Partners would abide by Durham values in its development of the site. But Katz doesn’t think that Durham asked enough of the developer.

“To me, it represented a big opportunity, because, even now, we’re wringing our hands trying to figure out how to get developers to grant affordable housing,” Katz said. “And yet we gave away a pretty big bargaining piece—that historic landmark designation—for nothing.”

Katz noted that the rents at Liberty Warehouse Apartments, which start at $1266 a month, are not affordable for many Durham residents. The same month that Liberty welcomed its first residents, East West Properties flipped the development to a New York-based real estate investment firm for $69 million.

O

n June 26, police shut down Batalá Durham for the first time because of a noise complaint from a resident at Liberty Warehouse Apartments.

Afterward, Batalá Durham members Justin Anderson-Pomeroy and Mavis Gragg researched the noise ordinance in Durham and found out that noise under 60 decibels was permitted until 11 p.m. They then got in touch with central district police, speaking with Lieutenant Jerry Yount over the phone and Captain George Zeipekkis over email. They were told that they were not breaking any laws, but it would be up to the officer on call how to handle future complaints.

Gragg and Anderson-Pomeroy also talked to the board of Durham Central Park and were told that they were allowed to use the space on a first-come, first-served basis. Additionally, they contacted Liberty Warehouse Apartments, which offered to incorporate Batalá’s practice schedule into its community calendar so residents would be notified.

On July 10, Batalá held its usual practice in the park, but it wasn’t long before a police officer showed up to tell them that a resident had called to complain about the noise. The police officer left after band members showed him documentation of their correspondence with Captain Zeipe-

kkis and the noise ordinance. But another officer showed up later on during the practice and, after visiting with the resident at Liberty Warehouse Apartments, asked them to stop playing. He warned them another violation could prevent them from practicing again in the park. The Durham Police Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

According to Anderson-Pomeroy, who handled most of the group’s communication with the police, the anonymous resident claimed she was expecting to hear noise on weekends from the park, but not on weeknights.

“We’re not doing anything illegal, we’re not doing anything against the ordinance,” Anderson-Pomeroy says. “We’re doing something against one person’s interpretation of what their neighborhood should be like.”

Liberty Warehouse Apartments did not return requests for comment.

Catherine Edgerton, a Durham native and Batalá member, says that the members of Batalá Durham are subjected to the effects of gentrification not just through noise complaints by nearby residents but also through their own struggles to remain in an increasingly unaffordable Durham.

“My property taxes doubled this year,” Edgerton says, adding that everyone in Batalá has been affected, especially those who rent. Many members of the group also emphasize that their decision to stay in Durham, despite increasing rents, is largely due to its vibrant arts and culture scene—a scene that Batalá Durham is worried about being priced out of.

“We have this amazing opportunity as a city to really cultivate and grow and expand the things that make this city magical,” Edgerton said. “But Durham is in danger of becoming a Disney version of itself.”

To the members of Batalá Durham, the private interests of wealthy Liberty Warehouse residents seem poised to determine the group’s future, which remains unclear.

They just hope that those private interests won’t win out in the long run.

“At our last practice, some of the residents of Liberty Warehouse Apartments came down and danced, so I know some of them are supportive and that gives me hope,” Vidal says. “But if they shut us down, I don’t know where we’ll go.”

On its website, Liberty Warehouse Apartments advertises, “Live DCP [Durham Central Park]. Live Liberty.” But as it stands for Batalá, a representative of a Durham-for-all spirit, that living Liberty resonates with hollow irony. music@indyweek.com

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indyfood

COCOA CINNAMON

2013 Chapel Hill Road, Durham www.cocoacinnamon.com

Neighborhood Association COCOA CINNAMON’S FORTHCOMING THIRD SHOP IS MINDFUL OF THE LONGSTANDING LATINO COMMUNITY IN A CHANGING LAKEWOOD

BY MADDY SWEITZER-LAMME

Areli Barrera de Grodski prepares churros at Cocoa Cinnamon’s Lakewood shop, its third location. PHOTO BY ALEX BOERNER

A

hand-painted “HOLA” is the new greeting above the glass door at 2013 Chapel Hill Road in Durham’s Lakewood neighborhood. By midAugust, the third outpost of coffee hotspot Cocoa Cinnamon is set to open there, and owners Areli Barrera de Grodski and Leon Grodski de Barrera are contemplating an important question: How do you make a coffee shop accessible and comfortable for the Latino community?

New businesses like theirs and the nearby Lakewood restaurant, from Scratch owner Phoebe Lawless, have brought up questions about the availability of affordable housing and business opportunities for lower-income residents in the rapidly gentrifying neighborhood, one that has been home to many Latino immigrants for more than a decade.

Barrera de Grodski, who was born in Mexico and lived in Tijuana until she was six years old, says it’s something she’s always thought about. She and her husband moved to Durham in 2011; by 2012 they were running a much smaller coffee operation on a bike they 14 | 8.2.17 | INDYweek.com

parked outside of Motorco and at the Durham Farmers Market.

“When we were just starting the business, we lived in this apartment building where Leon was the only native English speaker,” she says. “They saw us hustling, they saw us on the bike, they saw us toting our stuff up and down the stairs. They knew that we were building out that first location on Geer Street and we had a great relationship [but] they still didn’t feel comfortable coming in.”

She says they’ve worked hard to make the new shop feel comfortable for every Lakewood resident, but especially the Latino and black communities.

“We really wanted to make sure that this space feels like it was being created for them, too,” she says.

The couple also drew inspiration for the new shop from a taqueria they visited in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 2013.

“It felt so homey there,” Barrera de Grodski says. “There was just something beautiful about it. It felt like Grandma’s house, you know, simple but beautiful. It just felt welcoming.”

Cocoa Cinnamon’s churros PHOTO BY ALEX BOERNER

Most of the signs in and outside of the restaurant are in Spanish. Cocoa Cinnamon has advertised job openings in Spanish, too. Barrera de Grodski has met with community leaders to explain the shop’s ethos and ask them how, as business owners, she and her team can help fulfill their respective missions in Durham. Like Cocoa Cinnamon’s other two locations, the third shop is living-wage certified.

“I wanted to let [the community] know:

we’re opening up, here’s what we do, we want to make sure you feel welcome to ask questions or come into the space as we’re progressing in the build-out,” says Barrera de Grodski. “We want to do everything in our power to make it feel welcoming to you guys.”

What’s special about this third location is the addition of fresh churros, a treat from Barrera de Grodski’s youth. They’ll be sold hot and fresh all day, with the hopes of also stirring up nostalgia for community members. “[The churros are] something that’s a little more tangible,” Barrera de Grodski says.

“They’re a little more like, ‘Oh, I can relate to that, that’s from my home.’”

The shop also includes a giant coffee roaster, where Cocoa Cinnamon will roast its own beans under the name 4th Dimension Coffee, sourcing them only from importers who buy direct from growers. They hope that 4th Dimension will give them a platform through which to make coffee farmers’ lives less tenuous.

“These are questions that have been in the works for a really long time,” Barrera de Grodski says. “But there’s still that issue— if your crop doesn’t provide quality coffee, you don’t get paid at that quality price. So how do you hedge your bets as a farmer?

How do roasters also help to provide a safety net for farmers?”

The husband-and-wife team has tried to make each store feel cozy and welcoming, but there are stretches of time when the shop gets quiet and insular as customers tap on their laptops. They both hope the new shop will be a place that people use to connect with one another in person, too.

“These really great things happen at our shops in computers,” Grodski de Barrera said. “We’ve had people write amazing books in our shops, we’ve had people actually meet in the shop via the computer and start talking. We’ve had really wonderful things happen, and we don’t want to cut that off, but we also don’t want that to be the dominating factor.

“Do you remember the first time you were in a place that was totally different?” Grodski de Barrera asks. “I think in those moments, you can really come alive in a way that is hard in your daily life.

That’s kind of the root of what Cocoa Cinnamon is about.” food@indyweek.com

food

Hokey Poke

THREE NEW LOCAL RESTAURANTS BUY INTO A FOOD TREND. BUT ARE THEY AUTHENTIC—AND DOES IT MATTER?

BY KIM LAN GROUT Like many food trends, poke, the latest culinary phenomenon to hit the Triangle, is rooted in cultural tradition. Pronounced POH-keh, Hawaii’s versatile raw-fish “fast food” dish is typically made of ahi tuna or “tako” (octopus). But how rooted in authenticity is North Carolina’s poke? And does it matter?

Scott Kleczkowski, who owns One Fish Two Fish in Carrboro with his wife, Lauren, doesn’t seem to think so. The Kleczkowskis tried their first poke bowls “somewhere on the West Coast” and identified a gap in the market in their home of thirteen years.

“We’re not Hawaiian. [Poke] is just a dish we love,” Kleczkowski says. After what they say was “hours of researching Hawaiian flavor profiles” with chef Brian Kowalski, the Kleczkowskis opened One Fish Two Fish last April, adding to Goose Hospitality’s collection of restaurants and bars.

“We’ve definitely put our own spin on it. Hawaiians come in and give mixed reviews,” Kleczkowski says. “Some are pleasantly surprised by our take, while others [think], You know, it’s not home.”

Later, he notes, “Great food is great food no matter what you do to it.”

In a college town, the popularity of poke has garnered a lot of business for One Fish Two Fish, with a “line that stretches out the door every lunch and almost every evening,” according to Kleczkowski, who hopes to open a second poke restaurant in the Cary or Morrisville area in the very near future.

If Kleczkowski has any doubts about the issues of authenticity his fare raises—or even an inkling of them—they’re carried away with the current in conversation. Instead, he sort of whitesplains the whole thing. “The poke bowl is very much a mainland institution rather than an island institution,” he says.

But to Kleczkowski’s claim that poke is mainly a mainland tradition, Hawaii

Build your own poke bowl at ZenFish Poké Bar. PHOTO BY ALEX BOERNER natives say balderdash. “It makes me feel good to see food from different cultures around the Triangle,” says Durham resident Rona Esquejo-Leon, who was born in the Philippines and raised in Honolulu. “I think it’s great that [One Fish Two Fish] is bringing their own take to poke. Of course they fell in love with it—it’s good food! But to say that it originated anywhere outside of Hawaii? Just, no.”

The mark of good and proper poke is the quality of the fish. “It should be fresh, smooth, and buttery,” says Carrie Newsham, a former Hawaii resident. “But zoodles [zucchini spiralized into noodles]? That’s some hipster bastardization right there.”

But for some chefs, it isn’t. For Los Angeles native Janet Lee, owner of ZenFish Poké Bar on Ninth Street in Durham, the dish’s versatile ingredients beg for creativity. ZenFish’s menu includes both raw and cooked items, vegan and glutenfree options, sweet potatoes, sweet potato greens, and kale, classic Hawaiian flavor

combinations and sauces, white rice, quinoa—and, yes, zoodles.

Lee cultivates a conscientious reverence for her newfound home and fellow business owners while still tossing as much island flavor as she can into the mix.

All ZenFish’s vegetables come from either Mama Springs Farms or Funny Girl Farm in Durham, or farms that work with Eastern Carolina Organics.

“Our menu changes with what’s in season with the local farmers,” she says. “And since poke is so adaptable, it’s exciting to think of different ways to incorporate what’s in season into our bowls.”

Not two miles away from ZenFish is Phở & Poké House, another “poke your way” restaurant that allows diners to build their own poke bowls, by telling a server behind a glass pane which proteins, mixes, and toppings should be slopped into a mixing bowl, tossed with one of several Asianinspired sauces, and poured over a base of either rice or greens.

While zoodles can’t be found at Phở & Poké House, Vietnamese dumplings, bánh mì, and an impressive selection of hard-tofind Vietnamese soups can. Thai Nguyen, the twenty-year restaurateur and owner of Phở & Poké House, knows raw fish. He and his family own eleven sushi restaurants in the Triangle, including Sake Bomb, Sushi Love, and Shiki Sushi, as well as others in Topsail Beach and Wilmington.

After seeing poke’s popularity grow in Los Angeles and New York, Nguyen thought, This is exactly like sashimi.

Why don’t I try this? (For the record, Nguyen’s poke takes second billing for the best bún bò Hu ế I’ve had outside of Huế, Vietnam.)

Sometimes innovation looks like appropriation, or falls hard after attempting fusion. With new places like One Fish Two Fish, ZenFish Poké Bar, and Phở & Poké House—all three less than six months old—it’s clear that some Triangle restaurateurs gracefully achieve that nuanced balance between tradition and modernity, cultural consciousness and local sourcing, better than others.

Places like One Fish Two Fish want to serve inspiration; nostalgia is not on the menu. Phở & Poké House’s soup game is strong, but its fusion falls flat. ZenFish, with quinoa and zoodles, sweet potatoes and kombucha, hits closest to the mark in both flavor and attitude.

“Having diversity and a range of options is what adds richness to a community,” Lee says. “We want to keep some of the Hawaiian authenticity while adding our own Durham and Los Angeles flair to it.

There’s a limitless amount of learning, growing, and evolving here.”

Esquejo-Leon, the Hawaii native, tries ZenFish’s house tuna, Lee’s tribute to traditional Hawaiian shoyu poke. After the first bite her eyes widen.

“This!” she exclaims. “It isn’t exactly like home. But this … this is good.” food@indyweek.com INDYweek.com | 8.2.17 | 15

indymusic

CAROLINA MUSIC AWARDS Saturday, August 5, 8 p.m., $27–$53 Fletcher Opera Theater, Raleigh www.dukeenergycenterraleigh.com

Consolation Prize

NOW IN THEIR TENTH YEAR, WHAT DO THE CAROLINA MUSIC AWARDS ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISH?

BY DAVID KLEIN

F

or the past decade, the Carolina Music Awards have been conferred upon musicians in North and South Carolina in an array of genres that keeps getting wider. This week, nominees in twenty-two categories will gather at the stately Fletcher Opera House, where the ceremony has taken place for the past five years of its history, to vie for a Carolina Music Award and its attendant gold statuette.

But if #TheFocalPointOfCarolinaMusic is taking place at Fletcher next week, as the Facebook page of organizer Omar McCallop stated last week, it would doubtless come as a surprise to Raleighites and the rest of the Triangle. McCallop himself estimates that seventy percent of those who will fill up the hall on Saturday night will have made a long drive to get there.

But the organizer, a longtime Raleigh resident, is not especially concerned.

“There are people who are dialed in, people who are dialed out. We don’t try to chase every person down,” he says. “We advertise, we sell out the venue that we use, at least for the past five years. Either you know or you don’t know.”

At press time, the venue has sold roughly two-thirds of its seats for the awards, according to its Ticketmaster page.

The stated aim of the Carolina Music Awards is to bring attention to the music industry in North and South Carolina and celebrate it by creating an inclusive, selfperpetuating scene. McCallop, who conceived the series and got it off the ground by enlisting the Grammy-winning R & B singer Roberta Flack and country great Randy Travis to lend their support, has an interest in cross-pollination, in introducing fans of different genres to the work of a range of local artists.

More specifically, it’s also an engine to connect those artists to radio stations to which they would otherwise not have access—the awards are as much about 16 | 8.2.17 | INDYweek.com

creating relationships between musicians and the people who control the airwaves as they are about awarding musical achievement.

“It’s not the radio station’s job to pay attention to the local artist,” McCallop says. “We help bridge the gap.”

McCallop calls his venture a hybrid, a cross between the People’s Choice Awards and a more traditional awards show. The process begins when the nomination period is announced to the public. It lasts about two months. The nominations, which number in the thousands, are then

The CMAs leverage the idea of public voting, and McCallop emphasizes the public’s input. They can nominate whomever they want, he says. From there, though, McCallop and his panel of radio people are the ones who decide who actually gets nominated for awards.

McCallop says he does this to ensure quality, but here’s where the claims about involving the public ring hollow: The real power lies with the panel, not with the people, and the panel of radio tastemakers is focused on identifying an artist’s commerciality. The public element func-

ILLUSTRATION BY STEVE OLIVA

culled down by a panel to as many as eleven nominees in a single category. Categories include the expected: Best New Artist, Best Male and Female in HipHop, Americana, R & B, and Country, along with a “Youth Video” slot and even the nonmusical category of “Model.”

Typically, the nominating and voting in the major media awards is done by a group of “industry people,” such as the Recording Academy (formerly NARAS), the group of music business professionals that awards the Grammys. In 1975, the People’s Choice Awards upended that stuffy tradition by leaving the choosing up to the general public. That approach has become a permanent part of the awards show landscape as events like MTV’s Video Music Awards have proven the model to be extremely popular.

tions as the chassis, suggesting a peopledriven enterprise, but the car underneath runs like a typical awards ceremony wherein insiders do the real choosing.

And this particular group of tastemakers wants songs with commercial potential, first and foremost. Not innovative, challenging, forward-looking fare, but tunes that are in sync with current commercial trends in music.

So what does being nominated for a Carolina Music Award get you? In effect, it gets an artist a virtual audition before a panel of radio people, and those who make the cut and become nominees get to have their work featured on participating radio stations as part of promoting the show.

Lightning has struck on rare occasions.

Asked to name acts that have gone on

to national success after receiving an award, McCallop points to former winners Parmalee, a country-rock band that has built a strong national reputation. The band’s song “Carolina” hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart in the United States in 2013. But the overwhelming majority of the thousand-plus nominees over the years haven’t broken out. Some winners have remained in the music business, says McCallop, others have moved on.

This year’s nominees include some familiar names, especially in hip-hop and R & B: ZenSoFly, Well$, and Kooley High.

Nominees in the other categories will probably not be familiar to Triangle audiences, but McCallop finds a way to fill up his venue. Radio stations run contests offering free tickets to listeners. This year, tapping Amber Rupinta, a reporter at Raleigh’s WTVD, to serve as master of ceremonies has helped get the word out.

As in previous years, the seats are filling up, and that is the measure McCallop is most concerned with. He’d love for the CMAs to be higher-profile, but he’s proud of the work he’s doing.

“There wasn’t a mechanism ten years ago for people to be recognized in hiphop, R & B, and country. It didn’t exist,” he says.

McCalllop says in future years he might take the show on the road and stage the awards in Charlotte or Wilmington as a way of raising awareness. “Maybe that will help the next ‘haven’t heard of it’ type thing,” he says.

But still, given the CMAs’ uninspiring track record for helping artists achieve airplay success, it’s not clear that a market move will give the institution the boost that McCallop wants. It’ll take far more than a change of venue to make the Carolina Music Awards synonymous with artistic excellence. dklein@indyweek.com

music

BLONDIE

Saturday, August 5, 7 p.m., $32–$49.50 Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh

Hive Mind

FORTY YEARS AFTER LEADING PUNK’S NEW WAVE, BLONDIE KEEPS BUZZING WITH THE NEW POLLINATOR

BY ZOE CAMP

B

londie has never stopped evolving.

The storied band’s catalog is less a collection of songs than it is a vibrant, musical reflection of New York City, where the band got its start nearly fifty years ago: the modern city, with its culture clashes and punkish intrigue, exported for a global audience by the people who knew it best. Hip-hop, Latin pop, punk rock, and new wave are but a few of the latter-day genres singer Debbie Harry, guitarist Chris Stein, and their bandmates tapped into with grace and finesse.

What does evolution look like for Blondie these days? In 2017, it resembles a beehive, both in name and spirit. Pollinator, the group’s eleventh studio album, is Blondie’s most extensive group effort to date. With producer John Congleton, the band enlisted peers and supporters of all stripes to write material for the record. The resulting eleven-song track list pops with allstar credits: Johnny Marr, Sia, the Strokes’ Nick Valensi, Blood Orange’s Dev Hynes, and John Roberts (best known for playing Linda Belcher in the Fox cartoon Bob’s Burgers) all make appearances. We caught up with Stein over the phone to discuss Pollinator, poptimism, politics, and more.

INDY: Unlike your past albums, Pollinator was sourced from the contributions by other artists, including Sia, Johnny Marr, and Charli XCX. How does it fit into Blondie’s broader body of work over the past forty years and beyond?

CHRIS STEIN John [Congleton, producer] was instrumental in pushing it in a certain direction. I think he has a good objective view of what we sound like, and that whole “pollinator” idea of cross-referencing people who we admire who’ve also referenced us.

And what of the album’s bee motif? Debbie Harry has been rocking a bee-shaped headpiece on several of the tour stops thus far.

John.” My comments about “fifty percent crap” refers to all the people complaining about there not being any good pop music out there, which I see all the time—but there is a lot of good stuff.

There’s a common notion among music fans that whenever sociopolitical affairs take a turn for the chaotic or even conservative, the music gets better. Having lived through the eras of Reagan, both Bushes, and now, Trump, do you agree with that statement?

I think that all of the little trends in music are more effective today, the disposable aspects.

Kids [are more interested by] always being on their phones than they are by sociopolitical views at this point, you know? [Laughs] It’s different. Spotify’s kind of amazing; anything you can think of, you go on and, bam, there it is. And then, attention spans are way down for young people.

Blondie—sharp as ever PHOTO BY ALEXANDER THOMPSON

The bee stuff came out from the name very spontaneously. Initially, we thought, Oh, let’s have, like, a metal album—it sounds cool; the art is cool. And then, beyond that, there’s what’s going on with the bees for quite a while, so it just seemed like a no-brainer to put it all together.

Which aspect of the creative process is your favorite: writing, recording, or performing?

I like the recording process because I’m a control freak. You do have a lot of control, and I like adjusting what goes on; I think it speaks to my OCD, or something like that—you can tweak songs. I like doing programming. I like doing the computer aspect of making new music, but John is very old school and just wanted to do

really basic stuff. He actually gave me a really good tip, which was, “If you give me a demo, I just want to be alone so I can see what the song is. I don’t care how it actually sounds.”

In a recent interview with LA Weekly, you referred to music as being fifty percent craft. As a rock musician with a deep appreciation of pop—a genre that’s defined, primarily, in terms of formulaic precision—how do you find that balance between the tried-but-true and the never-been-tried?

That’s tough. I don’t know if I’m too close to [music] to be objective about it.

With this record, we were filtering stuff through a bunch of people while everybody was all there, so it was all, “ask

Not to mention, there’s that whole idea of taste, once a nebulous concept, being reduced to an algorithm or SoundCloud tag.

I’m still waiting for them to do this program where you can feed any number one song from the last twenty years into the computer and see what it comes up with. It’s very doable. I don’t know why it hasn’t been done at this point!

You’ve been making music with Blondie for over forty years now. What motivates you today?

Jeez, I don’t know! I go back and forth. I get very grounded in day-to-day reality, and at the same time, I’m looking at things at the cosmic level, and how crazy everything is that we do here on the road compared to the rest of the universe. All of that stuff is just weird. And it’s nice having kids now, they motivate me. music@indyweek.com INDYweek.com | 8.2.17 | 17

indyart

TYLER JACKSON: BEFORE THE WAR

Friday, August 4, 6–9 p.m., free Lump Gallery, Raleigh www.teamlump.org

Head Cracking Technology TYLER JACKSON’S EXHIBIT AT LUMP SCOUTS THE NEXT FRONTIER FOR VISUAL ARTISTS: VIRTUAL REALITY

BY BRIAN HOWE

N

o tech feels as now as virtual reality, which has had several moments in recent decades but might actually take root with the current wave of consumer head-mounted displays, or HMDs. They’re bringing a wider audience closer to true VR, the seamless immersion of all five senses in an interactive simulated environment, than ever before.

If the tech is pretty new, the fantasy is very old. We’ve just been waiting for science to catch up with our collective dream— or nightmare—of infinite worlds without limits or consequences. Long before The Matrix and the Star Trek Holodeck established VR’s dark and light sides in the popular imagination, long before computers existed, sci-fi writer Stanley G. Weinbaum wrote about goggles-based VR in “Pygmalion’s Spectacles.” It was published in 1935.

Really, the story of VR began millennia ago, when humans first drew a boundary in space and agreed to imagine that whatever transpired inside it was set apart from the rest of reality—a world within a world. We call this device a frame when it outlines two dimensions, a stage when it outlines three.

In the twentieth century, it flattened and deepened into screens that, with a certain inevitability, are becoming permeable in the twenty-first. Now we face the question of whether we’ll soon reach the logical conclusion and lock the virtual door behind us.

Virtual reality is most commonly used for games, research, education, and journalism, roughly in that order. Art is the next frontier. Tyler Jackson, who is opening his show Before the War at Lump on Friday, is one of the artists scouting that frontier.

Last week, Jackson and his team gathered at his home in Raleigh to test a rough version. The characters and abstract storyline developed in Jackson’s history as a painter and an animator, but he needed five people to bring it to virtual life: story consultant Fabian Marquez, project manager Alisha 18 | 8.2.17 | INDYweek.com

Tyler Jackson

PHOTO BY ALEX BOERNER

Hawkins, developer Doug Kinnison, 3-D artist Derick Childress, and sound designer Alex Davis. They all met through working for Centerline Digital, a Raleigh agency where Jackson worked as an animator after growing up in Hendersonville, North Carolina, and then studying painting and “intermedia” in Portland.

To explore Before the War, you don a Vive HMD and grip a haptic-feedback wand. You find yourself immersed in a shadowy, seemingly cavernous space, standing before a table. Touching the various objects it holds allows you to enter different scenes that characters flit through, adumbrating if not spelling out a story about life and death as seen from some liminal place. It’s all based on sketches, paintings, and models Jackson made before he ever considered VR. “The basic beginning is that I drew this stupid-looking guy who looked like a French ninja,” Jackson says of his protagonist, Sir Bishop Jenkins. “I started making up stories and introducing more characters. At one point I was going to write a children’s book, but then I introduced a skeleton character and it got a little darker.”

Entering Jackson’s virtual world is like walking inside the classic adventure game Myst, but as directed by Tim Burton.

When you lean out of a window and see the woods spreading into your peripheral vision, or you look down and see a rope ladder dangling vertiginously into streaming clouds beneath your feet, the sense of having entered another world is profound. For gamers, it will be instantly familiar. For non-gamers, it will be like nothing they’ve ever experienced before. Artists in major urban centers have begun to dabble in VR, and some locals, such as those in Duke’s Experimental and Documentary Arts MFA, have created shows at DiVE, the university’s state-of-the-art walk-in simulator. But Before the War is the first local gallery show focused on VR that I know of.

Jackson has never worked with VR before, which is apt. Any artist who approaches it now does so in a state of thrilling naiveté. Lump’s Kelly McChesney likens it to the early days of video art, before it developed an artistic vocabulary, when pioneers like Nam June Paik were simply exploring what the new medium could do.

“I missed that beginning bubble, when everybody was just grabbing onto the tech-

nology and experimenting,” McChesney says. “There were fails all over the place, but it was a cool time. With virtual reality, we’re in this moment when we don’t know how it’s going to work. Artists haven’t been able to grab hold of this tech until recently, so I’m excited to see how it blossoms.”

Though the consumer market is awash in VR, it’s still expensive enough that many don’t have access to it. Before the War is about letting the community try the technology as well as artists.

At Lump, Jackson wants to make sure visitors are informed before they put on HMDs but then left to their own devices to explore—for a limited time at the opening reception on Friday, or for as long as they’d like through the month of August, but always in pairs.

“When people put on VR for the first time, they want to describe it to people,” Jackson explains. This is true—you feel compelled to narrate the experience, perhaps to assure yourself you’re still there, in your body. Right now, the emotional subtlety of VR art is limited by the sense-shocking novelty of the experience itself.

“People are overwhelmed,” Jackson says. “When you look at Samsung commercials, people put on [HMDs] and they’re blown away—the newness is the whole thing.”

Kinnison, the developer, likens it to early cinema. “You had the train coming at you, twelve frames a second, and everyone jumped out of the way,” he says. “The easiest emotion to convey is fear, as we’ve seen in a lot of virtual reality games. That’s the emotion we want to stay away from, because if you’re not expecting it, it’s a very bad experience.” But there are also important ways that VR is distinct from film, though we always tend to understand new tech in terms of what it threatens to replace.

In an exploration-based medium like VR, “you can’t direct attention with framing or focus,” Kinnison says.

“A lot of the tools developed for cinema just don’t carry over, and I don’t think anybody’s figured out what the new rules are.”

“If you push people through it, you’re just showing them a 3-D video,” Jackson adds. Modest and energetic, he seems almost in awe of the edges of new possibilities glinting before him. “As an artist, it’s not common for me to think that everything is possible. But here, everything is possible.” bhowe@indyweek.com

indyscreen

LANDLINE HHHH Opening Friday, August 4

SCREEN BRIEF DETROIT

HHH ½ Opening Friday, August 4

Landline PHOTO COURTESY OF AMAZON STUDIOS

Fear of Flying

LANDLINE REVIVES THE NINETIES’ ANXIETY AND OPTIMISM

BY GLENN MCDONALD Younger readers might not be aware of this, but the nineties were awesome. A Clinton in the White House, a budget surplus, no wars, no smartphones, and the best music since the sixties. This isn’t an opinion, I’m afraid.

It’s a fact. The nineties were the best.

Set in the summer of 1995, the comedydrama Landline picks up on that decade’s pre-millennial optimism in its story of two upper-middle-class Manhattan sisters who see an intoxicating world unfolding before them. Jenny Slate plays Dana, a recently engaged, twentysomething graphic designer who senses that she really can Have It All, and then dutifully proceeds to screw it all up.

Fear of failure, it seems, is nothing compared to fear of success.

Abby Quinn plays Ali, Dana’s seventeenyear-old sister, a good-hearted but increasingly reckless club kid scared by her own bright future. Ali procrastinates on her college applications and samples various drugs at raves, hoping to derail her own life. She’s afraid she won’t live up to the expectations of her parents, played by Edie Falco and John Turturro, who have issues of their own.

When the sisters discover that their dad is having an affair, the intrigue provides a welcome distraction until it becomes clear that this loving family is in genuine peril.

Landline is a happy reunion for director

Gillian Robespierre and her muse, Slate.

Their previous collaboration, Obvious Child, was one of 2014’s best, funniest films. Here, they expand on their unique dynamic by telling a story that swerves from poignant confessions through filthy jokes and back again to complex matters of the heart. All the performers deliver, and there is some seriously courageous emotional honesty on display concerning love and sex, fear and failure, family and loss.

Lest this all sound too heavy, rest assured that Landline is plenty funny, too. The comedy flows organically, in and around the scenarios, flaring up at unexpected times—just like in real life. The movie wears its nineties cultural references lightly, and it’s fun to see people using pay phones again, not to mention shopping in CD stores and cueing up PJ Harvey and the Breeders.

In rhythm and tone, Landline is in the same key as other Sundance-style indie comedies—The Kids Are All Right, My Sister’s Sister, Twentieth Century Women. But it has a secret weapon in Slate, who’s quickly becoming one of the most interesting screen actors working today. Her range really is astonishing, I can’t think of any other performer who can make me laugh hard, then cry hard, within thirty seconds. Seriously, I timed it. arts@indyweek.com

Detroit is not for the faint of heart.

Kathryn Bigelow throws us directly into the 1967 Detroit riots to fend for ourselves amid a sickening onslaught of racially motivated violence and hatred. It’s genuinely hard to watch.

But the portrayal of law enforcement’s gross, inhumane treatment of black people, which disturbingly resonates in America today, must be seen.

Shot by Barry Ackroyd in a powerful docudrama style, the film careens through three acts. The first establishes an almost war-torn city. The second is concerned with the abuse and torture of seven black men by three white cops, which took place in the Algiers Motel. Three of the unarmed, innocent black men are murdered in cold blood, leading us into the final act: the trial.

Enter a poorly cast John Krasinski (Jim from The Office), who kicks off an emotionally misfiring third act with his distracting stardom. He certainly lacks the gravity for a scene in which all the murdering authorities get off scotfree, leaving us queasy.

Make no mistake, this is a war film—the third in a thematic trilogy from Bigelow—and it retains the director's insistence on finding fresh perspectives in the heat of battle. It just does so on a smaller scale. But its scope is wider than usual, to a fault.

Against a backdrop of international warfare, The Hurt Locker focused on a dissident bomb-squad sergeant, while Zero Dark Thirty zoomed in on the tactical prowess of a CIA operative.

But Detroit is so dispersed that characters who should be central slip through the cracks. Screenwriter Mark Boal distances us from the characters so much that it becomes glaringly obvious in the third act, when the names of the murdered still aren’t familiar. Still, the film stings when we think of trials like those of the officer who killed Philando Castile, reminding us that legally sanctioned racism persists in insidious forms. —Luke Hicks

INDYweek.com | 8.2.17 | 19

indystage

UPRIGHT CITIZENS BRIGADE Friday, August 4, 8 p.m., $24–$33 Carolina Theatre, Durham www.carolinatheatre.org

J

ames Smith III—yes, his friends do call him “James the third”—is a comedian from Akron, Ohio, whose credits include the Black Men Can’t Jump (in Hollywood) podcast, three dramatic lines on Law & Order: SVU, and a very rousing performance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech in second grade. But mostly, he’s known for his prolific improv work with Some Kid, Take it Personal, and Upright Citizens Brigade.

Upright Citizens Brigade—the notable improv company founded by Amy Poehler, Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh in the late nineties—is sending a group of players to perform original ninety-minute sets around the country, including a stop at the Carolina Theatre on Friday. Improv is a game with rules, rounds, and characters where performers create jokes instantaneously in reaction to audience suggestions.

In order to be a successful improviser, performers should be able to think on their feet, say “yes and” to all propositions—and, apparently, have a working knowledge of late-Renaissance principles of comedy. The INDY recently spoke with Smith to discuss moms, commedia dell’arte, and what it’s like being the only black person on a stage.

My mom was like, "What did you mean by that?"

And what I meant was that Tyrese is a beautiful man.

Model Citizen

UPRIGHT CITIZENS BRIGADE’S JAMES SMITH III ON COMEDY, CODE SWITCHING, AND BEING FRIENDS WITH ROBOTS

BY KATIE JANE FERNELIUS

INDY: There are different boot camps for becoming a comedian—sketch comedy, stand-up, improv. What drew you to improv and to joining Upright Citizens Brigade?

JAMES SMITH III: Improv was what I was introduced to first; I did it as a kid. I did, like, commedia dell'arte in my performingarts middle school. And I was always a fan of Whose Line Is It Anyway? and Wild ‘N Out. At what point did it no longer become schoolwork, but something you wanted to make as a career for yourself?

The real moment that I wanted to become an actor was in the second grade. I did the last ten lines of the “I Have A Dream” speech for a play. I was really scared and crying. I did it. And after I was done, the audience cheered uproariously—probably because I was so nervous and they wanted to make me feel better!

You’ve talked a lot about being one of the few black people in Ohio. Was your school like, Oh my gosh, we have a black kid this 20 | 8.2.17 | INDYweek.com

James Smith III PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARTIST year, we should have him perform the “I Have a Dream” speech?

[Laughs] I didn't start being one of the few black people until I went to the performing arts school. There weren't a lot of black kids in drama. Drama was not the thing that the black kids did.

So much of your non-improv work concerns race—the Black Men Can't Jump (in Hollywood) podcast, the YouTube sketches on tokenization, or even your stand-up routine where you talk about being “black-ish.”

How does race manifest in improv work?

The typical experience of a lot of black people in improv is that you're one of the few on your team. One time I was on tour [for Upright Citizens Brigade] and I was on a team with three white people, and a young lady wanted us to address that “straight white men get everything they want.” A teammate came out onto the scene and was like, “Hello, I’m a straight white man, give me this job!” The other person in this scene played along and was like, “Yes, right. Hello, straight white man. You can have whatever

you want. You have no experience? Great, come in.” And it was this really fun scene just sort of poking at this idea. Then I came in a little later in the scene and put on a stereotypical old-black-man voice. My idea as I entered was, Oh, I’ll come in and be more qualified for this position than this guy, but I’m the janitor. I did that and the other two white people in the scene looked at me like deer in the headlights, because they were like, Oof, I don’t know how to attack this.

A year later I was improvising with some of the same people and I ended up being a robot in a scene. And somebody said something like “You people” to the robot. And then we were playing this game of, Oh, the robot is like people of color. And we were very much playing exactly those tropes. Someone came on the scene and said, “Some of my closest friends are robots!” It was playing with the idea that we’re really addressing race, but without it being as scary as the other scene, directly saying, “Black people aren't getting ahead. White people are.” And the scene was very successful.

It’s hard. Everyone tries to be respectful and doesn't want to ignore these realities, but also, sometimes, it's easier to drop into the code switching.

Does your mom get your jokes?

One time, I talked about how Tyrese is a beautiful man. I said that repeatedly on a podcast. And I identify as a straight, hetero male. But after listening to that episode of the podcast, my mom was like, “What did you mean by that?” And what I meant was that Tyrese is a beautiful man. So I think my mom does get my comedy, but sometimes she is trying to navigate: What does it really mean though? arts@indyweek.com

stage

HONOUR

HHH ½ Through Saturday, August 12 Ward Theatre, Durham www.wardtheatrecompany.com

Lust for Life

STAGE BRIEF

PASSION COLDLY PURSUES ITS PREY IN WARD THEATRE’S INTELLECTUALLY SUBTLE, EMOTIONALLY MUTED HONOUR

GLORIOUS! THE TRUE STORY OF FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS, THE WORST SINGER IN THE WORLD

BY BYRON WOODS

Through Sunday, August 6 Theatre in the Park, Raleigh www.theatreinthepark.com

T

o be clear, Ward Theatre Company’s production of psychological drama Honour is no thriller or murder mystery. But early on, its almosttitle character, a middle-aged writer and poet named Honor Spencer (Nancy Ellis), makes it clear that a literary imagination is nothing to be trifled with. The first hint comes as Claudia (Katie Sheffield), an aggressively ambitious young journalist, interviews Honor for a story on her husband, Gus (Tom Stackhouse), a veteran journalist. Writing, Honor asserts, involves toughness and watchfulness: “As Graham Greene said, ‘In every writer, a chip of ice.’”

We feel that sharp analytical chill on several occasions after Gus tells Honor he’s leaving her for Claudia, ending a thirty-two-year marriage. “I feel as if I’m dying, and I’m not ready to die yet,” he says. Honor considers the remark and the man before offering a cool response: “What a shame.”

Just enough words and deeds follow to demonstrate that, when someone sees deeper into the human psyche than you do, it’s unwise to quickly renounce all claims to her sanctuary or hospitality.

But playwright Joanna Murray-Smith’s potentially prosaic narrative of marital infidelity and betrayal extends into a clear-eyed investigation of how differently millennial women measure the worth of their relationships and careers than previous generations did.

Despite Claudia’s emotional blind spots, Honor ultimately must acknowledge the direct challenges she raises about her choices in her literary and domestic life. It rings true when Claudia improbably tells Honor’s daughter, Sophie (Alexandra Petkus), that she believes the breakup is saving Honor’s life. But the exceedingly tough love cuts both ways when Claudia cannot

Tom Stackhouse and Katie Sheffield in Honour PHOTO COURTESY OF WARD THEATRE COMPANY begin to answer Honor’s incisive questions about the human heart. Never challenge a poet on her native ground.

Unfortunately, a directorial miscalculation or two mars this inquiry into modern relationships. In her successful attempt to avoid garish emotional overstatements, director Wendy Ward overcorrects Stackhouse and Sheffield toward performances that remain too internalized. After almost mechanically trading lines in the fourth scene, Gus never found adequate emotional bandwidth in the show we saw. Though he and Claudia conspicuously refer to passion as the mainspring of their relationship, we see precious little of it on stage.

Only Ellis and Petkus effectively escape the dampening minimalism.

It’s truly innovative when Honor’s daughter, away at college, gets the news about her family’s breakup via Skype. But telltale lags in the dialogue during scenes with her projected character attested to a technical or timing glitch with prerecorded video. Jean Synodinos’s soulful original songs deftly underscore relationship dynamics, and the set design transforms the studio into an intimate upscale living room. But this honorable effort works more on an intellectual level than an emotional one. bwoods@indyweek.com

HHH

Almost any entertainer who plays birthdays, bar mitzvahs, and weddings will tell you (after a couple of drinks, at least) that most gigs, to various degrees, are performed en masque. Cultivating a pleasant poker face and a taste for irony are often as crucial to the professional performer as are artistic and technical prowess.

That’s why we keep looking to Brian Westbrook, who plays Florence Foster Jenkins’s piano accompanist, Cosmé McMoon, in Glorious! at Theatre in the Park. As in the region’s previous two theatrical iterations of the story (Souvenir from Ghost & Spice in 2009 and from Theatre Raleigh in 2013), McMoon seems to be the only one onstage who is aware that the New York society matron and self-styled coloratura soprano is actually a total washout as an opera singer. As always, the question remains: How long can he possibly keep a straight face at his employer’s incompetence?

Under Ira David Wood IV’s direction, the sophistication and warmth that veteran actor and vocal coach Alison Lawrence brings to the deluded diva is abetted by Vicki Olson’s droll costumes and props.

In supporting roles, Ian Bowater convinces as St. Clair, a louche British expat and occasional actor. Judie Brown amuses as Dorothy, a designer and would-be maneater. But the night is Westbrook’s, as his character walks a razor’s edge through a recording session and concerts at the RitzCarlton and Carnegie Hall.

Playwright Peter Quilter fleshes out more of Jenkins’s world and McMoon’s character than Stephen Temperley’s earlier effort—perhaps too much, with scenes that belabor this crew’s eccentricities.

Editing them, along with lengthy video montages, slow transitions, and needlessly extended demonstrations of Jenkins’s atonality, would have made for a production more svelte than the current two-anda-half-hour version. —Byron Woods

INDYweek.com | 8.2.17 | 21

WHAT TO DO THIS WEEK

Tarish “Jeghetto” Pipkins with the Resistance Goddess puppet from Paperhand’s Of Wings and Feet PHOTO BY ALEX BOERNER

THURSDAY, AUGUST 3– SUNDAY, AUGUST 13

FRIDAY, AUGUST 4– MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 4

OF WINGS AND FEET

The Southern auxiliaries, garden clubs, Jaycettes, and ladies who lunch would like to make it known that ours is still the land of gracious living. So the baby shower Mama Jubilee is planning to host for her doting daughter, Maggie, will be a serene pageant of decorum and taste, plus, thoughtful (and pricey) presents. It will not be a venue for untested recipes, escalating intra-cousin feuds, alcoholic fits of distemper or, worst of all, smug northerners. Playwright Maribeth McCarthy, who has apparently been to a few of these affairs herself, directs this fly-on-the-wall comedy, in which a genteel Southern social event inexorably skids toward total chaos, in the Women’s Theatre Festival’s comedy-based summer season. —Byron Woods

Paperhand Puppet Intervention reminds us that when one is looking at humanity, it sometimes helps to take the long view—like that of the giant tortoise, which can live for more than two and a half centuries. In Paperhand’s eighteenth-annual summer puppetry pageant at the Forest Theatre in Chapel Hill, fantastical masked stiltwalkers, vividly painted papier-mâché puppets, and multistory marionettes operated by multiple people examine present-day humans from the viewpoints of the time-tested tortoise, the dubious kiwi, and that uncanny mimic, the lyrebird. Then the Paperhand Band ushers us into the Circus of Beginnings and Ends, in which we contemplate the environmental wonders and challenges of our times. Of Wings and Feet also continues into the fall with runs at the North Carolina Museum of Art and the Carolina Theatre of Greensboro. —Byron Woods

MEREDITH COLLEGE’S STUDIO THEATRE, RALEIGH 8 p.m. Thu.–Sat./3 p.m. Sun., $10, www.womenstheatrefestival.com

FOREST THEATRE, CHAPEL HILL 7 p.m. Fri.–Sun./various matinees, $10–$15, www.paperhand.org

SWEET TEA AND BABY DREAMS

22 | 8.2.17 | INDYweek.com

SUNDAY, AUGUST 6

PLANNED PARENTHOOD BENEFIT

As the Senate deliberates the fate of health care for millions of Americans, organizations that provide invaluable, lifesaving services like Planned Parenthood are squarely within conservatives’ sights. This Sunday-afternoon triple bill showcases timeless musical offerings, largely from eras past, to support a cause that speaks urgently to the moment. The Vibe Killers, a raucous covers outfit led by the Backsliders’ Chip Robinson, will survey the rich catalog of Neil Young, while Faux Hawks, featuring members of Raleigh jangle kings The Connells, will lay into the songbook of reluctant protest singer Bob Dylan. And providing a final burst of testosteronefueled rock, The Whom are on hand to bash out the thunderous tunes of the English band responsible for “We Won’t Get Fooled Again,” “My Generation,” and other songs that resonate in our perilous times. —David Klein KINGS, RALEIGH 4:30 p.m., $10 suggested donation, www.kingsraleigh.com

8.2–8.9 Burritos-Tacos-Nachos-Housemade Salsa-Margaritas!

Laetitia Sadier Source Ensemble PHOTO

BY OLIA EICHENBAUM

711 W Rosemary St • Carrboro • carrburritos.com • 919.933.8226

TUESDAY, AUGUST 8

LAETITIA SADIER SOURCE ENSEMBLE

London’s Stereolab is synonomous with a certain aesthetic, a boho blend of retro-futurist lounge jazz and arch elevator music, which exerted a powerful influence on the baroque sound that was just starting to be called “post-rock” when the band formed in the early nineties. It went on “indefinite hiatus” eight years ago, but Stereolab’s Laetitia Sadier has kept the style alive and evolving in a steady solo career. In March, she released Find Me Finding You as a not-quite-solo project, using the moniker Laetitia Sadier Source Ensemble. It’s a cool, supple LP, but its easygoing and often shimmery instrumentation stands in contrast with Sadier’s pointed lyricism. “Can I love you and stay free?/ We are made to love, not to fall in love,” she sings on “Love Captive.” Too bad the Cradle’s back room isn’t outfitted with overstuffed couches and dim floor lamps for Sadier’s stop, but she’ll keep you on your toes anyway. Art Feynman opens. —Allison Hussey CAT’S CRADLE BACK ROOM, CARRBORO | 8:30 p.m., $12–$14, www.catscradle.com

WHAT ELSE SHOULD I DO?

BASILISK AT LOCAL 506 (P. 32), BEFORE THE WAR AT LUMP (P. 18), BLONDIE AT RED HAT AMPHITHEATER (P. 17), FOR THE LOVE OF BOOKS & RALEIGH AT THE SHERATON (P. 31), RHIANNON GIDDENS AT NCMA (P. 25), GLORIOUS! AT THEATRE IN THE PARK (P. 21), HOMESHAKE AT KINGS (P. 27), HONOUR AT WARD THEATRE (P. 21), STEPHANIE LEATHERS AT PLEIADES (P. 30), SHANE CHARLES SMITH AT THE CARRACK (P. 29), UPRIGHT CITIZENS BRIGADE AT THE CAROLINA THEATRE (P. 20) INDYweek.com | 8.2.17 | 23

indy week’s

8/48/6

FATHER OF THE BRIDE

8/108/12

WAITING FOR GODOT

PRESENTED BY ONE SONG PRODUCTIONS

TH 9/14

TH 9/28

FR 9/29

PRESENTED BY ENO RIVER PLAYERS

BILL FRISELL: HARMONY

FT. PETRA HADEN, HANK ROBERTS & LUKE BERGMAN

MYKKI BLANCO

Campus Guide

W/ ZENSOFLY

CO-PRESENTED WITH THE NATIONAL HUMANITIES CENTER

JAKE XERXES FUSSELL & NATHAN BOWLES

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11/14 COUSIN STIZZ ($15/$18 ON SALE 8/4) 11/18 CULTS ($19/$21) 5/25/18 PETER HOOK & THE LIGHT ($28/$31)

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MERGE RECORDS

8/3: TRIANGLE MEETS TRIAD:

10/4 TROUT STEAK REVIVAL ($12/$15) 10/7 MAX FROST ($12)

9/1 ROKY ERICKSON W/ DEATH VALLEY GIRLS ($25/$28)

VIOLET BELL, SAM FRAZIER, ABIGAIL DOWD

10/10 BANDITOS W/CALEB CAUDLE ($10/$12)

9/2 ELLIS DYSON & THE SHAMBLES ALBUM RELEASE PARTY W/ KATHARINE WHALEN'S SWEDISH WOOD PATROL, YEAUX KATZ, PLUS BULLTOWN STRUTTERS AND IMAGINE CIRCUS ($10)

8/4 BROTHERS TRAVERSHIP W/ APPLES AND AIRPLANES ($8/$10)

10/14 MATT POND PA W/ WILD PINK ($25/$28)

8/8 LAETITIA SADIER SOURCE ENSEMBLE W/ ART FEYNMAN 8/9 SLAUGHTER BEACH, DOG W/ SHANNEN MOSER ($10/$12)

10/22 PICKWICK ($12/$15)

9/8 LAST PODCAST ON THE LEFT ($25/$28) 9/10 TANK AND THE BANGAS W/ SWEET CRUDE ($12/$15) 9/14 SWERVEDRIVER ($20) 9/21 QUICKSAND W/ NO JOY ($20/$24) 9/23 LIARS ($17/$19) 9/27 PSYCHEDELIC FURS W/ BASH & POP ($28/$30) 9/29 PINBACK AUTUMN OF THE SERAPHS 10TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR 9/30 TIMEFLIES: TOO MUCH TO DREAM TOUR W/ DAWIN, LOOTE ($25/$28) 10/2 RAC ($22/$25) 10/4 CAMERON ESPOSITO AND RHEA BUTCHER: BACK2BACK $32.50 (SEATED SHOW) 10/7 LANY THE LANY TOUR PART 2 W/ DAGNY ($20/$23) 10/10 MURA MASA ($17/$20) 10/12 TURNOVER ($17/$20) 10/13 CHELSEA WOLFE** W/ YOUTH CODE ($20/$23) 10/14 RIVER WHYLESS ($14/$16) 10/16 KALI UCHIS W/ PHONY PPL ($15/$18) 10/20-21 YEP ROC 20 YEAR CELEBRATION ($14/$16) 10/24 TED LEO AND THE PHARMACISTS ($16/$18) 10/25 JOSH RITTER & THE ROYAL CITY BAND ($27.50; INCLUDES ALBUM DOWNLOAD) 10/26 SAN FERMIN W/ GRACIE AND RACHEL ($15) 10/27 AMINE ($22/$25) 10/29 GRYFFIN ($17/$20; ON SALE 8/3)

SONGWRITERS IN THE ROUND: JON SHAIN & FJ VENTRE

10/24 JESSICA LEA MAYFIELD W/ BLANK RANGE ($15)

8/10 WYATT EASTERLING ('DIVINING ROD" LP RELEASE PARTY) W/ ROD ABERNETH ($15, SEATED SHOW)

10/25 THE ALTERNATE ROUTES W/ NICK FRADIANI 11/3 ALL THEM WITCHES W/ KING BUFFALO

8/11 THE SECOND AFTER CD RELEASE PARTY

11/4 THE HOTELIER W/ OSO OSO, ALEX NAPPING ($13/$15)

8/17 THE SEVEN DEADLY BIBS, DURHAM UKULELE ORCHESTRA, SHANE COOLEY & THE MIDNIGHT GIRLS ($8/$10)

11/11 ARKELLS 11/12 OVERCOATS ($10/$12)

8/18 BRICK + MORTAR W/ THE MOMS, LONNIE WALKER ($10/$12)

11/13 DAVID BAZAN ($15) 12/1 ALLAN RAYMAN ($18/$20) 12/5 DAVID RAMIREZ: WE’RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE ($15/$17) CAROLINA THEATRE (DUR)

8/19 THE ROOSEVELTS W/ KATIE ROSE 8/22 DURAND JONES & THE INDICATIONS ($10/$12)

12/6 THE MOUNTAIN GOATS DPAC (DUR)

8/25 ALL GET OUT W/ RATBOYS, WILD PINK ($10/$12)

11/25 ST. VINCENT MOTORCO (DUR)

8/26 THE ORANGE COUNTY OPRY FT. PERFORMANCES BY LESTER COALBANKS & THE SEVEN SORROWS, JOHN HOWIE JR., ELLA BERTRAM, THE APPLE CHILL CLOGGERS & MORE ($10)

9/12 BLACK JOE LEWIS & THE HONEYBEARS ($15/$17) 11/4 BORIS “DEAR/25TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR” W/ MUTOID MAN, ENDON ($18/$20) RED HAT AMPH. (RAL)

8/28 SHABAZZ PALACES W/ PORTER RAY ($17/$19) 8/31 SAUL ZONANA

10/2 THE HEAD AND THE HEART W/ THE SHELTERS LINCOLN THEATRE (RAL)

9/1 THE OLD CEREMONY W/ BEAUTY WORLD ($10/$12) 9/2 MCCAFFERTY AND REMO DRIVE W/ ALMOST PEOPLE ($10/$12) 9/8 THE OBLATIONS CD RELEASE SHOW W/ DARK WATER RISING

8./26 DELTA RAE W/ THE CHURCH SITTERS NC MUSEUM OF ART (RAL) 8/12 AN EVENING WITH MERGE RECORDS

9/13 FRANKIE ROSE ($10/$12) 9/16 CRANK IT LOUD PRESENTS: JASON RICHARDSON W/THE REIGN OF KINDO, STOLAS ($13/$15) 9/17 CAAMP W/ DOC ROBINSON ($10/$12) 9/21 COLTER WALL AND TYLER CHILDERS ($12/$15; ON SALE 8/4)

8/19 TIFT MERRITT AND FRIENDS W/ MC TAYLOR OF HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER, ERIC SLICK OF DR. DOG, ALEXANDRA SAUSER MONNING, AMY HELM, AND THE SUITCASE JUNKET SHAKORI HILLS COMM. ARTS CTR.

9/25 THE CRIBS ($18/$20)

10/31 JR JR ($16/$18)

9/27 TOGETHER PANGEA W/DADDY ISSUES, LALA LALA ($12/$14)

11/7THE STRUMBELLAS W/ NOAH KAHAN ($22/$25)

10/1 ELECTRIC SIX ($13/$15)

11/11 SAINT MOTEL ($22/$25) 11/12 LUNA W/ ELEANOR FRIEDBERGER ($20/$23)

10/23 TREVOR SENSOR ($10/$12; ON SALE 8/4)

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8.2–8.9

WED, AUG 2 2ND WIND: Yeaux Katz; 7-9 p.m., free. • BLUE NOTE GRILL: Nikki Hill; 8 p.m., $10–$15. • THE CAVE: August Residency: Spencer Lee; 9 p.m., $5. • HUMBLE PIE: Peter Lamb & the Wolves; 8:30 p.m.

• IRREGARDLESS: The Holland Brothers; 6:30 p.m. • LINCOLN THEATRE: Michelle Branch; 8 p.m., $25–$125. • MOTORCO: Pig, Julien-K, Ghostfeeder, Roseclouds, Tescon Pol; 7:30 p.m., $15–$20. • THE PINHOOK: Heartscape Landbreak, Treadles, Dunums; 8 p.m., $8. • POUR HOUSE: The Hollows, Primate Fiasco; 9 p.m. • RED HAT AMPHITHEATER: CMT’s Nashville In Concert; 7:30 p.m. • SLIM’S: Black Naked Wings, Girl Werewolf; 9 p.m., $5. • THE STATION: Saving Space Showcase: Hardworker, Magnolia Project, Mona Dowell, The Barangay; 9 p.m., $7. • THE SHED JAZZ CLUB: Triple Entendre; 8 p.m. • THE VIEW: Are you DOWN? (Dance On Wednesday Night); 9 p.m.-1 a.m., $5.

Rhiannon Giddens PHOTO

THU, AUG 3

BY JOHN PEETS

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9

RHIANNON GIDDENS Even if Rhiannon Giddens had never done anything other than help to front The Carolina Chocolate Drops, her place in the roots music kingdom would have been assured. The Chocolate Drops’ mission was to reclaim the African-American stake in traditional folk and string-band music, all the while shifting between faithful evocations of the old-school styles and updates that incorporated all manner of modern modes without betraying the essential intent of the tunes.

The band found both commercial and aesthetic success, but Giddens ultimately decided she had something more to give than being a singer and multi-instrumentalist— she’s more or less capable of playing any damn thing with strings on it—in the band.

It doesn’t seem that any official statement of dissolution for the Chocolate Drops has ever been issued, but after the tour for the band’s 2012 album, Leaving Eden, Giddens decided to strike out on her own.

With Giddens’s first solo record, 2015’s Tomorrow Is My Turn, we began to learn just how much we didn’t know about her talents, no matter how closely we might have followed her previous work. Besides

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CONTRIBUTORS: Jim Allen (JA), Elizabeth Bracy (EB), Timothy Bracy (TB), Grant Britt (GB), Charlie Burnett (CB), Kat Harding (KH), Allison Hussey (AH), David Klein (DK), Charles Morse (CM), David Ford Smith (DS)

dipping into folk, blues, and gospel sources, she unveiled a knack for tossing jazz, country, and more into her potent cocktail. The world duly stood up and took notice.

Earlier this year, Giddens unleashed her follow-up album, Freedom Highway, an outing that upped the artistic ante even further. While her interpretive powers were certainly no secret by this point, Giddens emerged as a striking songwriter this time around. Though she made space for a few covers of Mississippi John Hurt, Richard Farina, and The Staple Singers, her own tunes dominated the album. If she wasn’t fully regarded as Americana royalty before, she undoubtedly earned that status on the strength of her second solo statement.

Will Giddens keep pursuing the singersongwriter route? Will she revert to a more interpretive approach? Will she wind up reuniting with her old bandmates, either for good or for one last go-round? No one knows, but none of that is important at the moment. All you really need to concern yourself with is the fact that Giddens is at the top of her game. —Jim Allen N.C. MUSEUM OF ART, RALEIGH 8 p.m, $32–$45, www.ncartmuseum.org

Alesana RALEIGH Warped Tour vets SCREAMS Alesana revivetheir mix of pop-metal hooks and post-hardcore aggression in their hometown of Raleigh for a night.

The real highlight on the bill is opening band Harm. The group blends the sing-scream attack of married couple Billie and Andrew Cloer, supported by the fierce rhythm section of Ernest Smith Jr. on bass and drummer Winston Amos. The group recently garnered some viral attention via some footage of a show at a grocery store in Hickory. With Alteras, Misery Loves Company, and Mourning After. —CB [KINGS, $12–$15/9 P.M.]

Dreamsofthedevil HEAVY As part of an LIFTING evening-long career retrospective, longtime stalwarts of the metal scene Karl Agell and Scott Little will recast tunes from their stints in bands like Corrosion of Conformity and Kinghitter in an unplugged setting. It may not be electric, but don’t expect the Kingston Trio,

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either. Malcolm Tent and Pleasures open. —TB [THE STATION, $7/8 P.M.]

Faun and a Pan Flute CRITTER Psychic travelers of JAMS the Sun Ra variety, the Atlanta experimental ensemble Faun and a Pan Flute render mind-bending excursions into the mystic utilizing guitars, horns, marimbas, and strings on tracks like the slow-building atonal psych-jazz “John” and the stoned neo-soul of “Cool Galaxy.”

Proudly avant-garde without creating a litmus test for noise tolerance, the band recalls the playful side of Rahsaan Roland Kirk circa The Inflated Tear. The Muslims and Bloodworth open.

—EB [NEPTUNES PARLOUR, $10/9 P.M.]

Gov’t Mule BLUES Quit sitting around BURNS complaining about how much better Warren Haynes could have done in Dead & Co. than John Mayer. Not that you’re incorrect, but hey. On their new LP, Haynes and the boys flex their musical muscles at what they do better than just about anybody— delivering blistering blues-rock.

That’s what you want to get a piece of, especially when they take it to the stage and let the jams fly. —JA [RED HAT AMPHITHEATER, $23–$190/6:30 P.M.]

Local Band Local Beer: The Bronzed Chorus GOLDEN After guitarist VOICES Adam Joyce overcame a bout with rheumatoid arthritis, The Bronzed Chorus, the decade-old Greensboro duo of Joyce and drummer/keyboardist Hunter Allen, returned last fall with Summering, the band’s first release since 2009. Both on record and in a live setting, the duo storms forward with a brand of post-rock that sounds fresh in a genre sometimes plagued with sound-alikes. Dumb Waiter and Zephyranthes open. —CB [POUR HOUSE. $3–$5/9 P.M.]

Mightier Than Me WRONG Born three decades ERA too late, Greensboro’s Mightier Than Me would have been an ideal 1970s arena attraction, vested with the hook-intensive guitar heroics of Van Halen and the dour gravitas of Blue Öyster Cult. As it is, the band is a formidable riff machine with just the right chip on its shoulder. LaureNicole, Marye Amanda, and Louis Waymore open. —EB [DEEP SOUTH, $10/8:30 P.M.]

Songwriters in the Round: Triangle Meets Triad SONG A battle of the CIRCLE bands is almost a cliché, but songwriter battles are far less common. It may not be a contest, but tonight’s bill brings together some talented tunesmiths from two distinct regions. Representing the Triangle is a pair of duos: master guitar picker Jon Shain and bassist FJ Ventre, and Violet Bell, aka Lizzy Ross and Omar Ruiz-Lopez. Greensboro multi-instrumentalist Sam Frazier and soulful singer Abigail Dowd are the visiting team, but with this lineup, everybody stands to win. —DK [CAT’S CRADLE BACK ROOM, $12–$15/7:30 P.M.] ALSO ON THURSDAY 2ND WIND: 2 fer; 7:30-9 p.m.

• AMERICAN TOBACCO AMPHITHEATER: Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley, Acoustic Manner; 6-9 p.m. • BLUE NOTE GRILL: Nash Street Ramblers; 7-9 p.m. • IMURJ: Official Carolina Music Awards Pre-Concert; 7 p.m., $5–$10.

• IRREGARDLESS: Terry Wiley Duo; 6-9 p.m. • MAC’S TAVERN: The GrassCats; 7:30-10:30 p.m., free. • PIOLA: Chris Reynolds Trio; 6:45 p.m.

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render their incomprehensiblein-any-language ultra rage nearly palatable. The drums-first track “Bleed” even suggests the glam-rock band the band has always probably wanted to be but were too afraid to ask.

YC-CY, Dirt Queen, and Night Battles open. —TB [SLIM’S, $5/8 P.M.]

All Time Low PRETTY A decade ago, All LOW Time Low was one of a big handful of yelping young pop-punk bands hoping to be the next New Found Glory, Fall Out Boy, or All-American Rejects.

Though they never got quite that big, they’ve still enjoyed a consistent career of cranking out shallow tunes that resonate with angsty youth. “Last Young Renegades,” from this summer’s Last Young Renegade, is a touch darker than the band’s previous work. Even so, it feels more like an aesthetic turn toward Nickelback-adjacent jock rock than significant songwriting growth. SWMRS, Waterparks, and The Wrecks open. —AH [THE RITZ, $45/7 P.M.]

Microwave Dave and the Nukes NUCLEAR James Brown’s THREAT hysterical delivery of “Night Train” blows you off the rails with its ferocious speed and intensity. But Microwave Dave and the Nukes’ version slows it down enough to get you onboard with a laid-back blues takeoff before accelerating like a runaway freight train. All aboard for a hard-rocking rail ride. —GB [BLUE NOTE GRILL, $8/9 P.M.]

Milo and the Doldrums MELLOW Northern Virginia’s POP Milo in the

dedicated downers who abhor a party vibe are advised to avoid attendance. With Porch 40 and Stig. —JA [POUR HOUSE, $5–$7/9 P.M.]

Rebirth Brass Band NOLA This invaluable, BRASS thirty-four-yearold institution featuring the cream of the Crescent City’s finest players is currently eight members strong and remarkably adroit at rendering the full swath of the New Orleans sound from traditional Dixieland to Meters-style funk to contemporary hip-hop. —EB [DURHAM CENTRAL PARK, FREE/6 P.M.]

Rebirth Brass Band PHOTO COURTESY OF CROSSOVER TOURING

Ki:Theory SECRETS If you’ve ever found OF NIN yourself yearning for new music from Nine Inch Nails with a slightly less comfortable Trent Reznor, you can satisfy those desires by looking toward Richmond, Virginia’s Ki:Theory. Ki:Theory’s music is heavy, with deep synths complemented by energetic guitar riffs. Weighty as the music may be, soft singing unexpectedly ties the songs together in a way that’s not too playful or overwrought. Real Dad and Janxx open. —CM [LOCAL 506, $10–$12/8 P.M.]

Kourvoisier LOCAL Armed with witty BEATS punch lines and metaphors, Kourvioisier has a playful and laid-back style of rapping. His new album, No Drive, was produced by Durham producer Dre Rubio, whose beats display impressive range, beginning with jazzy sampling on the opening track, “Welcome to Our World,” before jumping over to a trippy indigo side with “Exteriors.” Lil Bob Doe and King Draft share the stage for the party. —CM [THE PINHOOK, $5–$10/8 P.M.]

Doldrums plays an ingratiating, largely unhurried version of melodic indie pop with a winsome jangle that recalls everything from the stylish shoegaze of mid-nineties Manchester to the spiderwebbed guitar seizures of early Modest Mouse. When they finally discover their one truly unforgettable song, just look out.

Kid Brother and I, Anomaly open.

—TB [THE CAVE, $5/9 P.M.]

Trae Pierce & the T-Stones FUNK Bassist Trae Pierce FUN sports some serious cred, having previously played with everybody from The Ohio Players to The Blind Boys of Alabama, even picking up a few Grammy Awards along the way. But with The T-Stones, Pierce combines his deeply ingrained funk feel with some raw, bluesy rock ‘n’ roll for an amalgam that’s equal parts groove and grit. Warning:

Smoke from All the Friction ELECTRO A Raleigh POP electropop duo with a laudable flavor for atmospheric soundscapes and memorable melodies, Smoke From All the Friction vacillates from the moody, Cocteau Twins-like meditation of “Cozy Cowards” to the straightforward EDM come-ons of “Cross & Tattoo.” Tyler Bradford Wright, Retro Candy and But You Can Call Me John open. —EB [THE MAYWOOD, $8/8:30 P.M.]

Town Mountain PLAIN If you like your GRASS bluegrass tricked up with the flavor of the day, there’s plenty of that sort of thing around, but if you’re after a band that knows its high lonesome sound from the bottom up and makes no bones about it, take a ride with these Asheville boys. They’re not hidebound traditionalists stuck

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9

HOMESHAKE

Homeshake’s Peter Sagar PHOTO BY SALINA LADHAS

in a retro rut; they just don’t like to gimmick up their ’grass with anything extraneous. Carrboro’s Blue Cactus opens with sweet, sad songs. —JA [CAT’S CRADLE, $12/9 P.M.]

Travers Brothership FRATER- Led by twin NAL SOUL brothers Eric and Kyle Travers, this Ashville ensemble blends an alt-rock edge with some syncopated, funky grooves and soul sizzle in an organic, airy way. —JA [CAT’S CRADLE, $8–$10/8 P.M.] ALSO ON FRIDAY BEYÙ CAFFÈ: Russell Favret; 7 & 9 p.m., $11. • BLUE NOTE GRILL: Duke Street Dogs; 6-8 p.m., free. • BYNUM FRONT PORCH: Swift Creek; 7 p.m. • DEEP SOUTH: Ignite Mindz, Ghost Dog, Tucson; 9 p.m. • IRREGARDLESS: Doug Largent Trio; 6:30 p.m. • LINCOLN THEATRE: Cosmic Charlie; 9 p.m., $12. • MEADOWMONT VILLAGE: The Holland Brothers; 6-8 p.m., free. • MYSTERY BREWING PUBLIC HOUSE: Radar’s Clowns of Sedation; 8-11:30 p.m. • SHARP NINE GALLERY: Sean Mason Trio; 8 p.m., $10–$15.

SAT, AUG 5 August Alsina GROWN Crooning heart‘N’ SEXY throbs will never go out of style, and August Alsina follows in that tradition on the R & B front. His songs about “gripping” women “like the bottom of the bottle” and having them “roll on the wood,” are almost exclusively aimed at women already in committed relationships, which makes his confusion over why “you refuse to see my love is true,” comical.

He’s a showpiece for outdated black masculinity, but damn if he doesn’t sound good. With Tone Stith and Professor Toon. —CM [THE RITZ, $28–$85, 8 P.M.]

Jenny Besetzt LOVE ‘EM Last year, Raleigh’s TENDER Jenny Besetzt found its second LP, Tender Madness, in the No. 6 slot on Bandcamp’s list of the best records from 2016.

The exposure was well deserved; singer John Wollaber’s brooding baritone leads the post-punk band through sometimes winding, sometimes drifting, always compelling songs. Wing Dam opens with fuzzed-out,

Homeshake tumbled out of Edmonton, Candada, the same music scene that’s given us the likes of Calvin Love and Mac DeMarco. The overlap between Homeshake and the latter was once much bigger: Peter Sagar played guitar on the road with DeMarco from 2012 through 2014. But on his own with Homeshake, Sagar executes a vision all his own—one that, on the surface, sounds like a slacker daydream but which yields plenty of rewards upon deeper listening.

In February, Sagar released Fresh Air, his third “proper” Homeshake LP (his earliest releases were a 2013 cassette and a digital mixtape). Fresh Air opens with a smooth, elastic guitar line on “Hello Welcome,” which cedes to the taut and crispy percussion of “Call Me Up.” The record quickly reveals itself as an escape, an appropriate soundtrack for a long, aimless walk on a drizzly gray day or a sunnier one spent inside with all of the shades drawn. It’s not exactly a downer record, but it speaks to those occasions of feeling frustrated, stuck, apathetic, or just plain lazy. Sagar wraps these sentiments with slick but restrained instrumentation. A

catchier-than-hell indie rock from Baltimore, while members of local outfits ET Anderson and Secret Guest team up for a special “Secret Anderson” set in the first slot. —CB [KINGS. $8–$10/9:30 P.M.]

screechy-guys-in-tight-pants rock to down and dirty, heart-stealing soul-crooners, Spank’s scorched earth delivery system gets it well done, served up smokin’ hot. —GB [BLUE NOTE GRILL, $8/8 P.M.]

The Liberty Circus

Kasey Tyndall

FOR A Outraged by the rise CAUSE of xenophobia and inspired by the traveling carnival theatrics of Bob Dylan’s legendary Rolling Thunder Review, singer-songwriters Malcolm Holcombe, Al Maginnes, RB Morris, and Alan Kaufman conceived The Liberty Circus as a traveling showcase and benefit. The bulk of the proceeds are dedicated to organizations working to preserve and protect the rights of immigrants and refugees nationwide. They’ll be joined by local performers for an evening of poetry, song, and protest. —TB [POUR HOUSE, $15–$20/2:30 P.M.]

COUNTRY Raleigh’s City Limits PARTY Saloon celebrates its thirteenth anniversary with Kasey Tyndall, a North Carolinato-Nashville transplant. She’s a sweet Southern songwriter, making the rounds in Music City with some of the industry’s best, and she’s a safe bet for any country fan. Chip Perry opens.

—KH [CITY LIMITS, $10–$15/8 P.M.]

Spank HARD Spank’s frontwomSLAP an, Marie Grimsey, lashes out with leather-lunged vocals to showcase arena rock, soul, and funk classics. From

ALSO ON SATURDAY BEYÙ CAFFÈ: RC & The Gritz; 7 & 9 p.m., $19. • THE CAVE: MammaBear, Sherry, Foxy Gloss, Solo Basura; 9 p.m., $5. • DEEP SOUTH: Aslan Freeman; 10:30 p.m. • FLETCHER OPERA THEATER: 10th Annual Carolina Music Awards; 8 p.m. See page 16. • IMURJ: Parallel Universe Showcase; 7:30 p.m., $7. • IRREGARDLESS: Michael Jones Duo; 6-9 p.m. Gregg Gelb and Steven Anderson Jazz Quartet; 9 p.m. • LINCOLN THEATRE: Phish Live from New York City Webcast; 7 p.m., free.

bouncy, fuzzy bass line powers “Every Single Thing,” but he laments, “Feeling so out of touch, staying inside too much.”

These ruminations occasionally veer toward the adolescent, though. The title of “Khmlwugh,” for example, is an anagram of the song’s refrain: kissing, hugging, making love, waking up, getting high, delivered as a slow tumble of words. It’s a respectable to-do list, of course, but something about the track and delivery feels immature.

But even those youthful moments feel agreeable in the larger framework of Fresh Air. Don’t we all occasionally wish to be liberated from the disappointments and anxieties of adulthood from time to time?

Around the time of Fresh Air’s release, Sagar told The Fader that he was interested in eventually making what he called an “ambient relaxation tape.” It would be an intriguing, but not entirely nonsensical move. For all his associations with lo-fi indie and revival R & B, Sagar excels at making music to drop out to.

—Allison Hussey KINGS, RALEIGH 9 p.m., $12, www.kingsraleigh.com

THE MAYWOOD: Apples and Airplanes, The Wormholes, Trike; 9:30 p.m., $8. • MYSTERY BREWING PUBLIC HOUSE: Katharine Whalen; 8-11:45 p.m. • THE PINHOOK: Privxte: Dance Party Refined; 10 p.m., $7. • POUR HOUSE: Machinefunk: A Tribute to Widespread Panic, The Freeway Revival; 9 p.m. • RED HAT AMPHITHEATER: Blondie, Garbage; 7 p.m. See page 17. • RUBY DELUXE: DJ Luxe Posh; 10 p.m. • SCHOOLKIDS RECORDS (RALEIGH): JULIA., Cities; 7 p.m. • SHARP NINE GALLERY: James Suter Trio; 8 p.m., $10–$15. • SLIM’S: Dissin Terry, Snake & The Plisskens, Few Good Things; 9 p.m., $5. • THE STATION: Shakedown Street: Grateful Dead Tribute; 7 p.m., $7.

Jazz Saturdays; 2 p.m., free.

SUN, AUG 6 Essex Muro FUZZY All fuzzed-out roar PUNK and menacing ambience, the terrific Raleigh punks in Essex Muro conjure the ghosts of classic SoCal greats like Black Flag and the Circle Jerks, with hints of the artful provocations of Public Image LTD seeping through the slyly artful instrumental passages. They’re just great the way they are, but a subtle sonic cleanup job—with

vocalist Troy Hancock’s arresting yelp mixed slightly more audibly—would make for an intriguing enterprise. Natural Causes and DET open. —EB [NEPTUNES PARLOUR, $7/9 P.M.]

Foreigner, Cheap Trick CLASSIC Decades ago, the ROCK masterful, sardonic trash-pop of Cheap Trick would have been an awkward fit with the heavily manicured, radio-ready product of Foreigner.

Time and nostalgia have a way of blurring such distinctions, making this just another summer tour of bands you’re likely to hear multiple times a day on an iHeart Radio station. Whether or not this is a sad state of affairs is a question open to debate. Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience opens. —TB [COASTAL CREDIT UNION MUSIC PARK AT WALNUT CREEK, $20–$122/7 P.M.]

Sophomore Slump Fest After-Party BLAND If you’re not ready to PUNK end the party after Greensboro’s Sophomore Slump Fest, head to the Pour House for

INDYweek.com | 8.2.17 | 27

an all-ages show featuring both local and touring acts. 7 Minutes in Heaven, Keep Flying, A Summer High, Harbour, The Millenium, Rich People, and North Carolina’s Magnolia are all on the lineup. With a roster of entirely male and almost entirely white bands, though, the festival could better represent what the state has to offer. —KH [POUR HOUSE, $12–$15/3 P.M.] ALSO ON SUNDAY DEEP SOUTH: Live & Loud Weekly; 9 p.m., $3. • IRREGARDLESS: Emily Musolino; 6 p.m. • KINGS: Planned Parenthood Benefit; 4:30 p.m., $10 donation. See page 22. • LINCOLN THEATRE: Phish’s Last Night of the Bakers Dozen; 7 p.m., free.

• RUBY DELUXE: No Dudes Pwr Hr with DJ D/X and DJ Thunder Thighs; 10 p.m. • WEST END WINE BARDURHAM: Eric Meyer, Noah Sager & Friends; 4-6 p.m., free.

MON, AUG 7 Prom HELLA When their songs SOUNDS deign to include vocals, Carrboro noiseniks Prom

paint an audio portrait of how John Darnielle might sound if he fronted an acid flashback experimental noise rock band.

The earnest chiptune bedroom pop of NYC’s Ultra Deluxe and the punk-emo of New Paltz, New York’s Parkways fill out a decidedly eclectic bill. —DS [THE CAVE, $5/9 P.M.] ALSO ON MONDAY BEYÙ CAFFÈ: Verses and Versus DJ Series; 6-9 p.m. • EMPRESS ROOM: Gary Brunotte plays and sings from The Great American Songbook; 8-10 p.m. • IMBIBE: Grewen and Griffin; 7-10 p.m., free. • POUR HOUSE: Abstract Manner; 8:30 p.m. • RUBY DELUXE: DJ Lord Redbyrd; 10 p.m. • THE SHED JAZZ CLUB: Sessions at the Shed with Ernest Turner; 8 p.m., $5.

TUE, AUG 8 Farruko RICO The reggaetón craze SUAVE hit America hard from the early to mid-aughts, and it fizzled out when EDM became more popular among college students. Along the way, it’s

heavily influenced hip-hop and abetted the emergence of trap music. But EDM and Caribbean music have always shared a kinship, so the emergence of Farruko, a Puerto Rican reggaetón and bachata singer who harnesses the essence of the trap side of popular music, is no surprise. —CM [THE RITZ, $40/8 P.M.]

Adam Torres INDIE This peripatetic FOLK folksinger with a dedicated cult following renders his slow and lonesome ballads in a wounded warble, with the money shot coming in the form of a soaring falsetto that he deploys to maximum dramatic effect on tracks like the seasick slow-burner “Juniper Arms.” Tending toward rustic accompaniment and a general aura of gauzy despair, Torres’s material is light on lyrical specifics but demonstrates an inarguable talent for conjuring atmosphere. Alexandra SauserMonnig opens. —EB [THE PINHOOK, $10/9 P.M.]

ALSO ON TUESDAY CAT’S CRADLE (BACK ROOM): Laetitia Sadier Source Ensemble, Art Feynman; 8:30 p.m., $12–$14. See page 23. • IRREGARDLESS: William D. Burton; 6:30 p.m. • POUR HOUSE: The Howling Tongues, Behold the Brave, Reese McHenry & The Fox; 9 p.m. • RUBY DELUXE: ET: Copula; 11 p.m.

WED, AUG 9 The Gotobeds PISS Pittsburgh TAKERS post-punk ironists The Gotobeds come adorned with plenty of cult signifiers.

Early releases oozed out via Gerard Cosloy’s 12XU label, and last year’s referential Blood Sugar Secs Traffic marked the band’s first effort for Sub Pop. Like a less serious version of The Fall or Death of Samantha, The Gotobeds specialize in cheap, brutalizing art rock, chock full of music industry inside baseball and caustic observational wit. As singer Eli Kasan says on “Cold Gold (La’s Alright),” “We’re from America, where we don’t move

on, we just move.” With The Procedure Club. —DS [THE PINHOOK, $10/9 P.M.]

The Melvins SLUDGE Close your eyes GODS and imagine the archetypal purist, obscurerthan-thou record store clerk, the arbiter of all that’s cool, before it all went to shit. He’s wearing a Melvins T-shirt, right? The Melvins, a heavy sludge rock band formed more than thirty years ago, were favorites of Kurt Cobain and are credited with inspiring the Seattle sound before it was termed grunge, but it’s never about who does it first. They still pound it out with primitive fury tempered by goofy humor.

Check out the legendary trio in a rare area appearance (and heck, buy the T-shirt). With Spotlights. —DK [CAT’S CRADLE, $20–$22/9 P.M.]

NC Spirit ‘17 Music Festival LOCAL PRIDE

NC Spirit 17 Festival is bringing

rappers from every aesthetic corner of the Triangle’s hip-hop scene together for a massive evening of music. Usually the Triangle’s hip-hop sub-scenes don’t do shows together, with mainstream-sounding artists like Rome Jeterr and Ivy Monae sticking to their own corners, and gritty lyricists like Konvo the Mutant and Jooselord Magnus stacking lineups with artists of a similar sound. The bill gets even better with the addition of lesser-known artists, too. —CM [POUR HOUSE, $9–$12/8 P.M.] ALSO ON WEDNESDAY 2ND WIND: Yeaux Katz; 7-9 p.m., free. • CAT’S CRADLE (BACK ROOM): Slaughter Beach, Dog, Shannen Moser and Downhaul; 8 p.m., $10–$12. • THE CAVE: August Residency: Spencer Lee; 9 p.m., $5. • HUMBLE PIE: Sidecar Social Club; 8:30 p.m., free. • IRREGARDLESS: Mysti Mayhem; 6:30 p.m. • KINGS: Homeshake; 9 p.m., $12. See box, page 27. • NC MUSEUM OF ART: Rhiannon Giddens; 8 p.m., $27–$45. See box, page 25. • RUBY DELUXE: RRRiot Rock with DNLTMS; 10 p.m.

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FRIDAY, AUGUST 4

SHANE CHARLES SMITH: NATIVE SOIL New York City’s Shane Charles Smith calls himself a conceptual artist, but his new mixed-media works at the Carrack have an aesthetic fullness and a physicality that are not immediately associated with the term. His “Quilt (Map of the Atlantic)”—a great hanging curtain incorporating asphalt from Florida, sand from New York, and clay from North Carolina—plays a heavy, tolling chord in concert with El Anatsui’s “Lines That Link Humanity,” which is currently on view in the African gallery at the North Carolina Museum of Art. In accordance with Sol LeWitt’s conceptual-art dictate—in short, the idea reigns over the artifact—both works foreground a geographic, geological, and spiritual theme, but they do so without forsaking the beauty of form. Throughout the exhibit, Smith’s concern is Earth as a healing home; he blends soft waxes and clays with hard metals in organic forms rich with a universalist terroir. Meet the UNC-Chapel Hill MFA graduate, who also has a permanent commission in the university’s Alumni Sculpture Garden, at this artist talk before the exhibit closes on Sunday. —Brian Howe

“Quilt (Map of the Atlantic)” installed in Native Soil PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

THE CARRACK MODERN ART, DURHAM 6 p.m., free, www.thecarrack.org

OPENING SPECIAL Before the War: EVENT Virtual reality exhibit

by Tyler Jackson, Alisha Hawkins, Doug Kinnison, Derick Childress, Alex Davis, and Fabian Marquez. Aug 4-Sep 16.

Reception: Fri, Aug 4, 6–9 p.m.

Lump, Raleigh. www.teamlump. org. See story, p. 18.

SPECIAL The Color Of Hope: EVENT Group art show with a percentage of sales donated to The Foundation of Hope.

Reception: Fri, Aug 4, 6-9:30 p.m. Local Color Gallery, Raleigh. www.localcoloraleigh.com.

SPECIAL Harry Fenn Is in the EVENT Bathroom Again: Drawings, photographs, and videos by David Politzer. Aug

4-26. Reception: Fri, Aug 4, 6-10 p.m. Artspace, Raleigh. www. artspacenc.org.

SPECIAL Exploring Water’s EVENT Edges: Lori White.

Aug 4–26. Reception: Fri, Aug 4, 6-9 p.m. Tipping Paint Gallery, Raleigh. www. tippingpaintgallery.com.

SPECIAL MidSummer COOL EVENT Down: Water scenes

by Diana Coidan, Lynda Harris, Judy Crane, Rocky Alexander, Kim Maselli, David Oakley, Jean Grunewald, and Nicole Kennedy.

Reception: Fri, Aug 4, 6-8 p.m.

Nicole’s Studio & Art Gallery, Raleigh. www.nicolestudio.com.

SPECIAL Natura Technica: EVENT Paintings by Matt Zigler. Aug 4-27. Reception: Sat, Aug 5, 2-4 p.m. N.C. Museum of

Natural Sciences, Raleigh. www. naturalsciences.org.

SPECIAL One Is a Crowd: EVENT Collaborative selfportraits by Ursula Gullow. Aug 4-Sep 30. Reception: Fri, Aug 4, 6-10 p.m. Artspace, Raleigh. www.artspacenc.org.

SPECIAL Paul Spinak: Metal EVENT and wood. Aug 4-26.

Reception: Wed, Aug 9, 7-10 p.m. Imurj, Raleigh. imurj.com.

SPECIAL What Is Art?: Eric EVENT Sencindiver’s mixed media and conceptual art; Terra Crudup’s master cake art; William Paul Thomas’s paintings; Nama Findley’s writing and paintings; Dave Gray’s writing.

Reception: Fri, Aug 4, 6-9 p.m.

Litmus Gallery, Raleigh. www. litmusgallery.com.

ONGOING

Dickson House, Hillsborough. www.historichillsborough.org.

www.21cmuseumhotels.com/ durham.

Abstract Vision: Paintings

by Sam Ezell. Thru Aug 25.

Whitted Building, Hillsborough.

LAST Annual Consignor CHANCE Invitational: Ceramics by Carmen Elliott and Cathy Kiffney; textiles from Elaine O’Neil; paintings by Henryk Fantazos, Anne Gregory, and Rosie Thompson; jewelry by Rebecca Neigher. Thru Aug 5.

FRANK Gallery, Chapel Hill. www.frankisart.com.

Beyond the Front Porch 2017: Exhibition of work by twelve senior undergraduates. Thru Nov 12. Duke Campus: Center for Documentary Studies, Durham. www.cdsporch.org.

Court and Capital: Art from Asia’s Greatest Cities: Thru Dec 10. Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill. www.ackland.org.

LAST Discover Your CHANCE Governors: Thru Aug 6. NC Museum of History, Raleigh. www. ncmuseumofhistory.org.

Around the Blue Ridge: Photography by The Focus group. Thru Aug 30. Seaboard Wine & Tasting Bar, Raleigh. www.seaboardwine.com.

Barely Civilized: Folk art by Cher Shaffer. Thru Aug 24. Alexander

A Cat-like Whimsy: Mixed media drawings on repurposed material by Rio Aubry Taylor.

Thru Aug 12. The Scrap Exchange, Durham. www. scrapexchange.org.

Cedar Creek Gallery National Teapot Show X: Thru Sep 5. Cedar Creek Gallery, Creedmoor. www. cedarcreekgallery.com.

Collections: Leah Sobsey. Thru Sep 30. 21c Museum Hotel, Durham.

Fluid: Paintings by MyLoan Dinh. Thru Oct 15. Durham Convention Center, Durham. www. durhamconventioncenter.com.

LAST Focus on the Peck CHANCE Collection: Seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish master drawings. Thru Aug 6. Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill. www.ackland.org.

INDYweek.com | 8.2.17 | 29

LAST Go Play: When you CHANCE were a kid, you used to go out and play with your friends. Eventually that turned into the less activityoriented “hanging out,” and finally, it became as virtual as it was real. Physical proximity was no longer a prerequisite for shared experience. Against this trajectory, New Jerseybased artist-technologists Dickie Cox and Mike Richison have installed an array of interactive experiences at SPECTRE Arts. Visitors affect columns of light by moving their bodies and making sounds, use their phones to play an augmented-reality game, and become components in a musical instrument in which turntables stand in for a player piano. If this sounds like escapism, it’s not. The light columns require visitors to interact with one another; the game runs according to spontaneous, userestablished rules; and the musical instrument draws upon a low-tech “score” of stacked Styrofoam. The artists are exploring the crash of behaviors and current technologies, rather than presenting them as a selfjustified, context-less end.

Thru Aug 4. SPECTRE Arts, Durham. www.spectrearts.org.

—Chris Vitiello Group Show: Twenty-five artists and craftspersons. Thru Aug 25. Horse & Buggy Press and Friends, Durham. www. horseandbuggypress.com.

LAST Gun Show: CHANCE Sculptures by David Hess. Thru Aug 6. CAM Raleigh, Raleigh. www. camraleigh.org.

Ed Levin: Jewelry. Thru Aug 25. Melissa Designer Jewelry, Hillsborough.

The Long Goodbye...: Sitespecific installation by Eric Yahnker. Thru Sep 10. CAM Raleigh, Raleigh. www. camraleigh.org.

Looking South: Photography by Eudora Welty. Thru Sep 4. N.C. Museum of Art, Raleigh. www. ncartmuseum.org.

More than One Story | Mas de una historia: Photography.

Thru Feb 1. UNC Campus: Davis Library, Chapel Hill. www.lib.unc. edu/davis.

A Morir: Video installation by Miguel Angel Rios. Thru Sep 17.

30 | 8.2.17 | INDYweek.com

Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill. www.ackland.org.

LAST No Damsel: Paintings CHANCE by Dorian Lynde.

Thru Aug 6. CAM Raleigh, Raleigh. www.camraleigh.org.

One of Many: Prints. Thru Sep 10. Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill. www.ackland.org.

LAST The Elegant Line: CHANCE Abstract mixed media by Sudie Rakusin and clay forms by Susan Filley. Thru Aug 5. FRANK Gallery, Chapel Hill. www.frankisart.com.

LAST Out of the Stable: CHANCE Herb Jackson, John Beerman, Pat Scull, aned Elizabeth Darrow. Thru Aug 8.

Lee Hansley Gallery, Raleigh. www.leehansleygallery.com.

LAST Paintings Here and CHANCE Abroad: John Gaitenby. Thru Aug 5. Little Art Gallery & Craft Collection, Raleigh. littleartgalleryandcraft.com.

Pleasant Places: Digital paintings by Quayola. Thru Aug 13. NC Museum of Art, Raleigh. www.ncartmuseum.org.

Rabbits: In April, the INDY reported on Catherine Edgerton’s Carrack exhibit of art journals and kaleidoscopes, which represented different but complementary approaches to the issue of mental health.

It’s one of the artist’s key areas of activism within the Durham Artists Movement, the multivalent, socialjustice-oriented collective she cofounded. As such, Edgerton’s new exhibit, Rabbits, benefits Art Asylum, which employs creative practices to destigmatize and empower people with mental-health and addiction challenges. The collagebased, limited-edition prints on view and on sale at Urban Durham Realty use the image of the white rabbit to peel back and palpate the layers of white supremacy, a climate in which mental-health struggles for people of color and queer people naturally flourish. Thru Aug 31. Urban Durham Realty, Durham. www.urbandurhamrealty. com. —Brian Howe SPECIAL Rough EVENT Dimensionalities: Audio, video, mixed media by Ian Couture and Jeanine Tatlock.

Thru Aug 7. Reception: Sat, Aug 5, 6-9 p.m. UNC-CH: John & June Allcott Gallery, Chapel

Hill. johnandjuneallcottgallery. blogspot.com.

Serious Fun: Jewelry by Nell Chandler, fiber art by Ali Givens, paintings by Michele Yellin. Thru Aug 20. Hillsborough Gallery of Arts, Hillsborough. www. hillsboroughgallery.com.

stage

Small to Large: Delight in the Practice of Painting: Paintings

by Margie Stewart. Thru Oct 23.

Durham Arts Council, Durham. www.durhamarts.org.

Teens, Inspired: Juried exhibition

by N.C. high school students.

Thru Sep 10. NC Museum of Art, Raleigh. www.ncartmuseum.org.

Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days: Paintings by Chieko Murasugi. Thru Sep 18. Durham Arts Council, Durham. www. durhamarts.org.

Threading Colors: Nora Phillips. Thru Sep 18. Durham Arts Council, Durham. www. durhamarts.org.

LAST Truth to Power: For CHANCE the fifth year in a row, the artists of Durham’s Pleiades Galley are banding together to bring attention to issues of social justice in Truth to Power 5. The exhibit’s title was inspired by a 1955 Quaker pamphlet, titled “Speak Truth to Power,” which promoted alternatives to violence. Local artists working in flat and threedimensional mediums were invited to submit pieces to curator Pedro Lasch, a Duke professor, artist, author, and art juror, who selected several dozen. “Dogma,” a mixed-media piece by Marnie Blum, brings focus to religious tolerance; Malcolm Goff’s digital drawing “The More Things Change...” adds a historic twist to an infamous image taken at a Baton Rouge protest. Thru Aug 6. Pleiades Gallery, Durham. www.

PleiadesArtDurham.com. — Xernay Aniwar Under Pressure: Prints and performance art. Mondays thru Aug 27. Visual Art Exchange, Raleigh. www. visualartexchange.org.

Watercolor Society of North Carolina: Molly Cassidy. Thru Sep 1. Halle Cultural Arts Center, Apex. www.thehalle.org.

You + Me: Photographs from various artists. Thru Sep 4. N.C. Museum of Art, Raleigh. www. ncartmuseum.org.

Stephanie Leathers PHOTO BY KIM GRAY FRIDAY, AUGUST 4

SUNDAY SITES ON A FRIDAY For more than a year now, the choreographer, photographer, and performance artist Stephanie Leathers has been investigating the rapid changes that development has imposed on the civic landscape through Sunday SITES, a series of weekend-afternoon performances in construction sites and public spaces across downtown Durham and surrounding communities. While her installation, slit, is on display during Pleiades Gallery’s socialjustice-themed Truth to Power 5 exhibi-

tion, Leathers and musician Tom Rau will literally show the audience the ropes— lengths of cordage that have physically and metaphorically connected Leathers to various performance sites over the past year.

Then they’ll take their interactive performance outside the gallery to extend their connective process into the surrounding Five Points neighborhood. —Byron Woods

PLEIADES GALLERY, DURHAM

7 p.m., free, www.pleiadesartdurham.com

OPENING

Carolina Theatre, Durham. www.carolinatheatre.org.

Bill Bellamy: Stand-up comedy. Fri, Aug 4–Sun, Aug 6. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh. www. goodnightscomedy.com.

Of Wings and Feet: Paperhand Puppet Intervention. $10-$15. Aug 4– Sep 4. UNC Campus: Forest Theatre, Chapel Hill. www. paperhand.org. See p. 22.

Breadfoot Live and Mettlesome’s Golden Age: Comedy and music. $5. Fri, Aug 4, 10 p.m. The Shed Jazz Club, Durham. www. thisismettlesome.com.

The ComedyWorx Show: New Location: Competitive improv. $10-$12. Fri, Aug 4, 8 p.m.

ComedyWorx, Raleigh. www. comedyworx.com.

Father of the Bride: Play. $9-$12. Aug 4-6. The ArtsCenter, Carrboro. www. artscenterlive.org.

Legends of Comedy: With Talent Harris, Rodney Perry, Chris Thomas, and Chubb Rock. $25-$60. Sat, Aug 5, 8 p.m.

Upright Citizens Brigade Touring Company: Improv comedy. $25. Fri, Aug 4, 8 p.m. Carolina Theatre, Durham. www. carolinatheatre.org.

See story, p. 20.

Wit: An Improv Comedy Game Show: Shane Smith vs. Amy Allen. $5. Sat, Aug 5, 7-8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham. www. thepinhook.com.

ONGOING Anything Goes Late Show: Saturdays, 10:30

p.m. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh. www. goodnightscomedy.com.

Eyes Up Here Comedy: Stand-up comedy by N.C. women. $5. Fri, Aug 4, 8 p.m.

Neptunes Parlour, Raleigh. www.neptunesparlour.com.

LAST  Glorious!

CHANCE The True Story of Florence Foster Jenkins, the Worst Singer in the World: Reviewed on p. 21. $18-$24.

Thru Aug 6. Theatre In The Park, Raleigh. www. theatreinthepark.com.

The Harry Show: Improv host leads late-night revelers in potentially risque games. $10.

Fridays & Saturdays, 10 p.m.

ComedyWorx Theatre, Raleigh. www.comedyworx.com. ½ Honour: Reviewed on p. 21. $25. Thru Aug 12.

Ward Theatre, Durham. wardtheatrecompany.com.

Hot Comedy with Brian Burns: Stand-up comedy

by Pat McLeod, Gretchen McNeely, Josh Rosenstein, Brittany Spruill, and Kathleen McDonald. Thu, Aug 3, 8 p.m.

The Cave Tavern, Chapel Hill. www.caverntavern.com.

Hush Hush: Summer Brews: Interactive comedy. Thursdays thru Sep 1. 8 p.m. Beer Study, Durham, Durham.

LAST Motown the Musical: CHANCE In early 1959, a former boxer named Berry Gordy started a record company in Detroit. He struck chart gold

immediately with Barrett Strong’s prophetically titled “Money (That’s What I Want)” and continued to do so over the next decade. Applying the assembly-line techniques he’d learned while toiling at the local Lincoln-Mercury plant, Gordy grew his label into a hit-maker of mythic proportions. The Motown sound melded the calland-response of gospel music with an R & B backbeat and a smooth, ear-friendly aesthetic that actively sought and found the upper reaches of the charts.

With its tambourine beats, smooth strings, and elegant,

immaculately attired singers, such as Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye, the company brought black music to middle America.

Sounds tailor-made for a feelgood jukebox musical, right?

Well, you can’t really go wrong with a soundtrack featuring folks like the Supremes, the Temptations, and the Jackson 5. $20-$90. Thru Aug 6. Durham Performing Arts Center, Durham. www.dpacnc.com. —David Klein RuPaul’s Drag Race Viewing and Open Amateur Drag Stage: Fridays, 8 p.m. Ruby Deluxe, Raleigh. www.facebook.com/ RubyDeluxeRaleigh.

page

BILL BURTON ATTORNEY AT LAW Un c o n t e s t e d Di vo rc e Bu s i n e s s L a w UNCONTESTED In c o r p o r a t i o n / L LC / DIVORCE Pa r t n e r s h i p MUSIC BUSINESS LAW Wi l l s INCORPORATION/LLC WILLS C o l l e c t i o n s SEPARATION AGREEMENTS Mu s i c

967-6159

(919) 967-6159

bill.burton.lawyer@gmail.com ILLUSTRATION BY STEVE OLIVA

SATURDAY, AUGUST 5

FOR THE LOVE OF BOOKS & RALEIGH The advent of self-publishing platforms has dramatically increased the number of authors in the Triangle, an area with an already rich literary history. The people behind the book-review blog For the Love of Books & Alcohol are tapping into it with For the Love of Books & Raleigh, part of a national series of deluxe-size meet-and-greets for the everburgeoning population of independent and genre scribes. The featured attraction will be more than fifty authors from all over, working in areas ranging from children’s books to sci-fi/fantasy, romance, memoirs, and more, who have signed on to speak and discuss

their work and other aspects of the publishing experience. Some are established, while many more have just gotten their feet wet.

And it’s not just about gathering together a bunch of working authors but also bringing together eager high-school-age authors and those who have only contemplated writing a book, welcoming them into the fold.

—David Klein

SHERATON HOTEL (421 S. SALISBURY STREET), RALEIGH

10 a.m.–4 p.m., $10–$100, www.fortheloveofbooksauthorevents.com

READINGS & SIGNINGS

LITERARY R E L AT E D

Daniel Magariel: One of the Boys. Wed, Aug 9, 7 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh. www. quailridgebooks.com.

Reader’s Party: All ages, open mic option, refreshments. Sun, Aug 6, 2 p.m. Hayti Heritage Center, Durham. www.hayti.org.

Christopher Swann: Shadow of the Lions. Mon, Aug 7, 7 p.m.

Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh. www.quailridgebooks.com.

Visual Love: Ketubah-Inspired Relief Printing: Lecture and craft workshop providing a historical introduction to the European ketubah, or Jewish

T marriage contract; participants then create their own work inspired by ketuboth using block printing and mixed-media techniques. Supplies provided. $15-$20. Sat, Aug 5, 1 p.m. N.C. Museum of Art, Raleigh. www. ncartmuseum.org.

er

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screen SPECIAL SHOWINGS Finding Dory: Movies by Moonlight. $5. Fri, Aug 4, 8:30 p.m. Koka Booth Amphitheatre, Cary. www. boothamphitheatre.com.

Hidden Figures: Outdoor movie. $6.

Sat, Aug 5, 9 p.m. N.C. Museum of Art, Raleigh. www.ncartmuseum.org.

Lion: Outdoor movie. $6. Fri, Aug 4, 9 p.m. N.C. Museum of Art, Raleigh. www.ncartmuseum.org.

The Sound of Music: Movies in the Garden. Thu, Aug 3, 7 p.m.

Raleigh Little Theatre, Raleigh. www. raleighlittletheatre.org.

White Line Fever: Thu, Aug 3, 7 p.m.

Shadowbox Studio, Durham. www. shadowboxstudio.org.

OPENING ½ Detroit—Reviewed on p. 19.

Rated R. An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power—Al Gore continues to fight climate change at a time when it’s sorely needed in this documentary, disappointingly not titled An Inconvenienter Truth. Rated R.  Landline—Reviewed on p. 19.

Rated R.

A L S O P L AY I N G The INDY uses a five-star rating scale. Read reviews of these films at indyweek.com.  Atomic Blonde—Despite flourishes of ferocity, this Cold War thriller by John Wick codirector David Leitch often seems to coast on its own glib, quirky coolness.

Rated R.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 5

BASILISK

All indie bands now need to minor in marketing, so it wasn’t as big a leap as it might seem when the members of local band Supreme Fiction switched from playing music to filming a web series about appearances, impressions, and snap judgements. In three seasons of Judge a Blank

by Its Blank, Carrboro’s Bryan Reklis, Tim Fenwick, and Kenny Jones take shots at everything from Johnson Motors to Freddie Gage’s infamous sermon LP, All My Friends Are Dead, based on their commercials and covers alone. Billed as Bad News Media, the 32 | 8.2.17 | INDYweek.com

friends will now premiere their first short film, Basilisk, at Local 506 on Saturday, padded out with other local independent shorts as well as sets from local stand-up comics Brian Burns, Aaron Cobb, and Virginia Wallace. Basilisk is a suspense-thriller about a normal guy who meets a mysterious stranger that changes his life—but how?

The trailer gives little away, but, to JABBIB, we’re intrigued to find out the deal with this locally filmed debut. —Brian Howe

LOCAL 506, CHAPEL HILL

8 p.m., $5, www.local506.com

 The Beguiled—Psychological subtleties make Sofia Coppola’s Civil War dream a challenging film, but some storytelling vigor would have made it a better one. Rated R. ½ The Big Sick—Married screenwriters Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon’s autobiographical rom-com truthfully portrays the shifting cultural and romantic landscape of the U.S. Rated R.  Cars 3—Pixar’s latest is a smooth ride because it mainly runs on cruise control and Rocky references. Rated G.

½ Despicable Me 3—This franchise feels just about washed up, but your kids won’t care, because Minions! Rated PG. ½ Dunkirk—Christopher Nolan’s WWII picture is very British and, for better and worse, very Terrence Malick—epic, meditative, and portentous.

Rated PG-13. ½ The Fate of the Furious—The latest Fast & Furious film is outlandish and refreshingly self-aware, giddily embracing both elements of the label “dumb fun.” Rated PG-13.  A Ghost Story—David Lowery explores deep themes in this odd, ominous film starring Casey Affleck as a ghost damned to spend eternity in the place where he died. Rated R. ½ Kong: Skull Island—Set before 2014’s Godzilla, this reboot makes Kong’s origin feel like Apocalypse Now meets Starship Troopers. Rated PG-13. ½ Maudie—This biopic of the Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis doesn’t go too deep but shines with the light of creativity. Rated PG-13.  Megan Leavey—The film lavishes love on the bond of a marine and her bomb-sniffing dog but undersells everything else.

Rated PG-13. ½ The Mummy—Tom Cruise’s increasing creepiness is the biggest impediment to a serviceable creature feature. Rated PG-13.  Spider-Man: Homecoming—Getting back to basics, a fifty-five-year-old superhero feels like a kid again.

Rated PG-13. ½ Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets—Luc Besson breaks the bank for a visually extravagant, emotionally hollow spiritual successor of The Fifth Element. Rated PG-13.  War for the Planet of the Apes—A conspicuous phrase scrawled on a tunnel wall beneath the Colonel’s compound says it all: this is basically “Ape-pocalypse Now.” Rated PG-13. ½ Wonder Woman—This origin story doesn’t shrink from its hero’s beauty or brawn. Gal Gadot strikes the right balance as an idealist who relishes the battle but not the war. Rated PG-13.

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indy week’s

Campus Guide everything you need to know to get your semester started right

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Coalition to Unchain Dogs seeks plastic or igloo style dog houses for dogs in need, as well as indoor metal crates.

To donate, please contact Amanda at director@unchaindogs.net.

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INDYweek.com | 8.2.17 | 33

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7 9 3 6 on 2 9community 1 important issues and9 advocate 5 8for changes that will 9 6make Durham 3 a 5 model progressive 8 city2in the South. 1 1 9 7 2 Give: durhampa.org/member 4 1 6 5 2 1 # 82

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this week’s puzzle level:

TO BE FEATURED IN A GIVE! GUIDE HIGHLIGHT, CONTACT CLASSY@INDYWEEK.COM

★★★★★★★

Who: Durham People’s Alliance 1 7

4 5

crossword If you just can’t wait, check out the current week’s answer key at www.indyweek.com, and click “Diversions” at the bottom of our webpage.

8 1

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There is really only one rule to Sudoku: Fill in the game board so that the numbers 1 through 9 occur exactly once in each row, column, and 3x3 box.

The numbers can appear in any order and diagonals are not considered.

Your initial game board will consist of several numbers that are already placed. Those numbers cannot be changed. Your goal is to fill in the empty squares following the simple rule above.

8

2 4 3 8

7

8

4 6 5 2 9

9 2 7

7 5 36 8

3 9

# 84

3 7 7 5 6 4 3 8 1 9 2

# 84

6

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2 4 6 5 7 1 3 8 9 8 1 5 9 6 3 4 2 7 9 3 7 8 2 4 5 1 6 7 9 3 1 4 6 8 5 2 1 8 4 2 9 5 7 6 3 6 5 2 7 3 8 9 4 1 3 2 1 4 8 9 6 7 5 4 7 9 6 5 2 1 3 8 5 6 8 3 1 7 2 9 4 solution to last week’s puzzle

# 35

8.2.17 2 3 6 7 1

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EMAIL MIKE FOR ADS CLASSY AT INDYWEEK DOT COM

www.sudoku.com 7 9 4 2 5

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MEDIUM

Best of luck, and have fun!

5 8 1 6 4

7

7 6

If you just can’t wait, check out the current week’s answer key at www.indyweek.com, and click “Diversions”.

30/10/2005# 34 # 33 1 8 5 3 6 4 7 9 2 34 | 8.2.17 INDYweek.com 4 7 9| 1 5 2 3 6 8 6 2 3 9 7 8 5 1 4 5 3 2 7 9 1 8 4 6 9 1 4 6 8 3 2 7 5

4 8

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# 35

4 5 9 8 2

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5 1 9 8 6 6 B8ook 4 7your 3 ad 4 3 5 2 1 7 2 3 1 9 1 9 6 5 7

# 36

4 3 7 9 1 2 8 5 6

• CALL 8Sarah • EMAIL 9 1 at 7 5919-286-6642 6 3 2 4 2 5 6 3 8 4 7 9 1 5 8 4 6 2 7 1 3 9 1 7 3 4 9 5 2 6 8

claSSy@indyweek.com

please contact eroberts@indyweek.com

advertise in this space for $55! classy@indyweek.com

COMEDYWORX INTRO TO IMPROV

6/17 12-3PM AND 6/21 7-10PM 919-829-0822 OR COMEDYWORX.COM

Smitty’s First Friday Comedy Show

Comedian

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To advertise or feature a pet for adoption, please contact eroberts@indyweek.com

Friday August 4, 2017

9:00 PM • $10.00 • No Athletic Wear

To advertise or feature a pet for adoption, please contact eroberts@indyweek.com

To advertise or feature a pet for adoption, please contact eroberts@indyweek.com

last week's puzzle

Book your ad • CALL Sarah at 919-286-6642 • EMAIL

claSSy@indyweek.com

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Pathways for People, Inc.

is looking for energetic individuals who are interested in gaining experience while making a difference! Positions available are:

Day Program Instructors Art and general instructor needed for Day Program. Monday through Friday from 9:00am to 4:00pm. Experience with individuals with Intellectual Disabilities required and college degree preferred. Please submit resume with cover letter to Rachael Edens at rachael@pathwaysforpeople.org.

No phone inquiries please.

Adult male with Moderate Intellectual Disability and Down’s syndrome in Raleigh. Monday-Friday from 8:00am6:00pm and occasional weekends. Transportation needed to and from community based activities and the Day Program in Cary (2 days a week). Behavioral experience preferred. Call and ask for Rebecca.

Adult male with Autism in Raleigh. Monday through Friday from 7:30am-6pm and occasional weekends.

Transportation needed to and from community based activities and the Day Program in Cary (3 days week).

Experience with Autism preferred. Call and ask for Michele.

For a list of other open positions please go to:

www.pathwaysforpeople.org

INDYweek.com | 8.2.17 | 35

Earn $8.60 to $12.00 per hour working at NCSU, Duke and ECU football games. Be part of the game!

You must be at least 16 years of age for ushers and ticket taker jobs and at least 18 for security.

Interview Anywhere, Work Everywhere Upcoming Job fairs: • Duke - Coombs Field (Baseball Stadium) on Whitford Dr. Aug 3 & Aug 10- 5pm-8pm Aug 5 & Aug 12- 10am-3pm

• NCSU-Carter Finley Stadium Gate 4, off Trinity Rd: Aug 2 & Aug 9- 5pm-8pm Aug 12- 12pm-5pm

Join the Staff-1 Event Services TEAM! Visit our website at www.staff-1.com or call 919-237-1232

THE INDY'S GUIDE TO THE TRIANGLE

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FINDER

COLLEGE FOOTBALL & BASKETBALL JOBS

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October 4 Deadline: August 30

Contact your INDY ad rep or advertising@indyweek.com for more info

TO A DV E R T I S E I N T H E I N DY: C A L L 9 1 9. 2 6 8 .1 9 7 2 ( D U R H A M /C H A P E L H I L L ) O R 9 1 9. 8 3 2 . 8 7 74 ( R A L E I G H ) • E M A I L : A DV E R T I S I N G @ I N DY W E E K .C O M