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Nothing leaps from the listings this week and grabs my nose ring to lead me to a particular event, so why don’t we just take a stroll through the lovely fields of Springfield entertainment, plucking luscious blooms of talent wherever we desire?
The Sandinista Jr. All Ages Open Mic at the Pizza Machine (107 W. Cook St., 217-788-5976), hosted by N.I.L.8 bassist Bruce Williams, is one rocking place to be this Thursday, starting at 9 p.m. The wild and crazy pizza joint is entertainment in itself, what with its curious decorations and peculiar embellishments, but at an open mic the audience is both the act and the draw. An all-ages crowd usually means an audience of under-21-year-olds, but let’s hope that people of all ages really do show up, because the mingling of young, old, and in-between is a good thing, especially when it comes to the arts. The perpetually youthful Williams is the perfect guy to navigate the sometimes rocky waters roiling between the ages. Williams also hosts the big-brother Sandinista Open Mic at Café Kanichi-wa (117 S. Grand Ave. E., 217-544-3500) every Tuesday, but you do need to be 21 or older to attend that one. Kids, it’s worth the wait. Now, Friday is a tricky night, but I think we can plot a course for an interesting, if not memorable, journey. Here’s the plan. First, get your tickets to the Robert Burns Night Dinner, sponsored by the delightfully entertaining folks of the St. Andrews Society of Central Illinois (call John Moore at 217-652-0399). The event, honoring the great Scottish poet with traditional food, including haggis (look it up), music, and dancing, is always colorful, to say the least. The festivities begin around 5 p.m. at the Route 66 Hotel & Conference Center (625 E. St. Joseph, 217-529-6626). At this point you’re already near Stevenson Drive, so when the Burns dinner winds down and someone informs you of the ingredients in haggis and the bagpipes are wailing through your brain, head on down to Chrome (3075 Normandy Rd., 217-638-9217) for some hard-hitting local rock and metal music. The Black Ops, with Agent eTed on the skins (and getting under yours), are on the schedule, along with such other provocatively named groups as Bitch Slap Barbie and Negative Nation, to name a couple of winners. Why not give it a try? It’s only an idea in need of action and a few hours out of your lifetime. After a good night’s rest to let your molecules recover from the divergent forms of music you’ve thrust upon them, try a couple of pleasantly gratifying Saturday-night choices. Molly Mathewson and Friends (Molly’s dad, Mark Mathewson, and Ann Bova) play pleasing folk/bluegrass-inflected songs at the Abraham Lincoln Unitarian Universalist Congregation (745 Woodside Rd., 217-585-9550) for a Prairie Grapevine Folklore Society event that gets under way with a 7:30 open stage before the 8:30 p.m. concert. Paul Henry plucks stunning classical pieces on guitar at the First Presbyterian Church (321 S. Seventh St., 217-726-8991) for a Springfield Classical Guitar Society concert (now in its 10th year!) starting at 8 p.m. By this point in the weekend you could sure use a quietly stimulating concert in a sanctuary to ease the mind and please the soul; plus, Henry is an incredible guitarist who actually studied under the world-famous Andrés Segovia. Geez, I’m worn out just thinking about it all — and it’s only Saturday night on our list of exciting things to do. Perhaps we can lounge around on Sunday and watch football games — are they still going on? Or then again . . .
Contact Tom Irwin at tirwin@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Jan 10-16, 2008.
