Billy Strings Confirms Fall Headline Tour 

billy strings tour

Billy Strings is one of the most exciting musicians playing music today. At least in my opinion, and according to the concert recordings I’ve seen. Dude is a hell of a guitar player, a good singer, and quite the performer. He’s got a bit tour coming up and here are the dates. You can buy tickets on his website.

He’s coming to my neck of the woods in May. Things have been tight for me and my family but I’m gonna do my best to find a way to see him.

BILLY STRINGS CONFIRMED TOUR DATES
BOLD on-sale this Friday, April 28 at 10:00am local time

April 29-30—Los Angeles, CA—Hollywood Bowl – Willie Nelson’s 90th Birthday (SOLD OUT)

May 11—Morrison, CO—Red Rocks Amphitheatre (SOLD OUT)

May 12—Morrison, CO—Red Rocks Amphitheatre (SOLD OUT)

May 13—Denver, CO—Mission Ballroom (SOLD OUT)

May 17—Phoenix, AZ—Arizona Financial Theatre (SOLD OUT)

May 19—Los Angeles, CA—Greek Theatre (SOLD OUT)

May 20—San Diego, CA—Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre (SOLD OUT)

May 21—San Diego, CA—Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre

May 24—Las Vegas, NV—Brooklyn Bowl (SOLD OUT)

May 26—Napa, CA—BottleRock Napa Valley 

June 2—Austin, TX—Moody Center

June 3—Austin, TX—Moody Center

June 7—Tulsa, OK—BOK Center

June 9—St. Louis, MO—Chaifetz Arena

June 10—Indianapolis, IN—TCU Amphitheater at White River State Park (SOLD OUT)

June 11—Indianapolis, IN—TCU Amphitheater at White River State Park (SOLD OUT)

June 13—Cleveland, OH—Jacobs Pavilion (SOLD OUT)

June 14—Cleveland, OH—Jacobs Pavilion (SOLD OUT)

June 16—Clarkston, MI—Pine Knob Music Theatre (SOLD OUT)

June 17—Chicago, IL—Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island (SOLD OUT)

July 13—Cary, NC—Koka Booth Amphitheatre

July 14—Cary, NC—Koka Booth Amphitheatre (SOLD OUT)

July 15—Cary, NC—Koka Booth Amphitheatre (SOLD OUT)

July 19—Norfolk, VA—Chartway Arena

July 21—Bridgeport, CT—Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater

July 22—Essex Junction, VT—Midway Lawn at Champlain Valley Expo (SOLD OUT)

July 23—Essex Junction, VT—Midway Lawn at Champlain Valley Expo (SOLD OUT)

July 25—Boston, MA—Leader Bank Pavilion

July 26—Boston, MA—Leader Bank Pavilion

July 28—Portland, ME—Thompson’s Point (SOLD OUT)

July 29—Portland, ME—Thompson’s Point (SOLD OUT)

July 30—Newport, RI—Newport Folk Festival (SOLD OUT)

August 7—Frankfurt, Germany—Batschkapp

August 8—Berlin, Germany—Huxleys

August 9—Hamburg, Germany—Grobe Freiheit 36

August 11—Gothenburg, Vastra Gotaland County—Way Out West

August 12—Oslo, Norway—Oya Festival

August 24—Knoxville, TN—Knoxville Civic Coliseum (SOLD OUT)

August 25—Huntsville, AL—Orion Amphitheater

August 26—Huntsville, AL—Orion Amphitheater

September 14—Louisville, KY—Bourbon & Beyond Festival

September 22—Buena Vista, CO—venue announcing soon

September 23—Buena Vista, CO—venue announcing soon

September 27—Nampa, ID—Ford Idaho Center Arena

September 29—Portland, OR—Moda Center

September 30—Portland, OR—Moda Center

October 1—Seattle, WA—WAMU Theater

October 4—Sacramento, CA—Golden 1 Center

October 6—Stanford, CA—Frost Amphitheater

October 7—Stanford, CA—Frost Amphitheater

October 8—Stateline, NV—Tahoe Event Center

October 10—West Valley City, UT—Maverik Center

October 13—Independence, MO—Cable Dahmer Arena

October 14—Independence, MO—Cable Dahmer Arena

October 31—Grand Rapids, MI—Van Andel Arena

November 6—Amsterdam, NL—Paradiso

November 7—Amsterdam, NL—Paradiso

November 8—Antwerp, BE—De Roma

November 10—Cologne, DE—Carlswerk Victoria

November 11—Luxembourg—den Atelier

November 12—Munich, DE—Neue Theaterfabrik

November 14—Paris, FR—La Cigale

November 15—London, UK—Roundhouse

November 17—Manchester, UK—Manchester Academy

November 18—Glasgow, UK—O2 Academy Glasgow

November 19—Birmingham, UK—O2 Academy

December 6—Greensboro, NC—Greensboro Coliseum

December 8—Baltimore, MD—CFG Bank Arena

December 9—Baltimore, MD—CFG Bank Arena

December 12—Pittsburgh, PA—Petersen Events Center

December 13—Pittsburgh, PA—Petersen Events Center

December 15—Wilkes-Barre, PA—Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza

December 16—Syracuse, NY— The Oncenter

December 29—New Orleans, LA—Uno Lakefront Arena

December 30—New Orleans, LA— Uno Lakefront Arena

December 31—New Orleans, LA— Uno Lakefront Arena

Awesome ’80s in April: Night Game (1989)

night game poster

Jaws (1975) is one of my all-time favorite movies. It is practically perfect in every way. It is a film I’ve seen dozens of times. It is a film that I put on when I’m sick and miserable. It cheers me up every time. I love Roy Scheider in that film and he’s only my third favorite character in that film.

Scheider was an interesting actor. He starred in many movies through the 1970s and 1980s and was by all accounts a big film star (he made lots of movies up until his death in 2008 but these two decades saw him as a big movie star). But I feel like outside of Jaws, and maybe The French Connection, he’s mostly been forgotten.

He’s about the only thing that makes Night Game interesting. He plays Mike Seaver a Texas cop who might just love the Astros more than his (much younger) girlfriend Roxy (Karen Young). Somebody is slicing and dicing hot blondes on the oceanfront and it is up to Seaver to figure out who.

Given the title and his fondness for the Astros you know the killer is going to have something to do with baseball. If you are a fan there is quite a bit of gameplay on-screen and parts of it are filmed in the Astrodome. If you aren’t, well there is still Scheider doing his darndest to make a limp script exciting.

I didn’t hate it, but it is definitely forgettable. I watched it this weekend and I had to brush up on the plot via Wikipedia to write this review. It feels like a made-for-TV movie but with more violence and naked parts.

Awesome ’80s in April: Yes, Madam! (1985)

yes madam

When I decided to watch a bunch of movies from the 1980s this month I was thinking about all of the stereotypical films from that decade that I knew of as a kid. I was thinking about dumb comedies, big action flicks, slashers, and low-budget B-movies. Lots of other movies were made in the 1980s, of course, but my plan was to stick to the kinds of movies that made me think of the ’80s. I wasn’t interested in foreign language films, or art-house movies.

I’ve mostly stuck to that, but the Criterion Channel is running a series of films starring Michelle Yeoh and I just “had” to watch at least one. Yes, Madam! is the film that made her a star in Hong Kong and is at least partially responsible for a slate of action films starring women that became popular at the time.

Yeoh stars as Senior Inspector Ng, a Hong Kong detective who teams up with Senior Inspector Morris (Cynthia Rothrock in her first big role) from London. They are after some secret microfilm stolen by some gangsters.

Well, actually it was accidentally stolen by a couple of bumbling crooks, but the gangsters want it so you get the cops and the gangsters chasing the dimwits, and the gangsters doing everything they can to keep the cops from getting it first.

It is very similar to a lot of American action movies made in the 1980s. The plot is pretty silly, and the acting is not always great, but the action is a lot of fun. American films tend to involve a lot of gunplay, but Hong Kong films eschew the bang bang for the kung pow. Both types of films usually involve some comedy, but American films tend to have a wise-cracking lead hero, and their Hong Kong counterparts are more slapstick, and more physical with the comedy.

So it is with Yes, Madam! Yeoh and Rothrock kick some serious ass. There are a lot of fight scenes and all of them are fun to watch. The comedy doesn’t fare as well, but I’ve never been a fan of slapstick silliness. It is big, goofy fun, and well worth the watching.

Awesome ’80s in April: The Bedroom Window (1987)

the bedroom window poster

After a work party, Terry (Steve Guttenberg) talks Sylvia (Isabelle Hubbert), his boss’ wife, into going back to his apartment and to bed with him. After the lovemaking, Terry goes to the bathroom. Sylvia hears a noise outside. She sees a man attacking a woman. She struggles with opening the window and the noise startles the man, and he runs away.

She thinks about calling the cops to tell them what she’s seen, but she fears this will lead to her husband finding out about the affair. The next day they learn a different woman was raped and murdered not far from the apartment, just 30 minutes after the attack Sylvia witnessed.

Still fearing retribution from the husband, but now believing the man Sylvia saw was likely the man who murdered the other woman, Terry decides to call the police and pretend he was the witness. Sylvia gives him the details of the attacker and at first, the conversation with the police goes well.

Naturally, there are complications.

In order to arrest the killer they need more information from Terry, but he can’t give that information because he really didn’t witness anything. More murders occur and Terry’s desire to tell the real truth increases, but Sylvia remains unwilling to come forward. Terry does some investigating on his own and meets Denise (Elizabeth McGovern) the girl who was attacked outside his apartment.

The Bedroom Window follows some standard Noir tropes but with interesting modifications. Steve Guttenberg is either a brilliant choice for the lead actor, or an awful one. I know him from the Police Academy movies and Three Men and a Baby. He has such a goofy, gentle presence it is difficult to believe he could seduce someone like Isabelle Hubbert. Though it is quite easy to believe he could be the typical noir patsy.

But that’s just it, Sylvia isn’t the typical femme fatale. She isn’t involved in the murders. She doesn’t set Terry up. She simply witnessed one assault. She does become a cold fish the more Terry tries to convince her to come forward as a witness, but before that, she seems like a lady in a loveless marriage looking for some fun.

Denise is an interesting monkey wrench in the proceedings as well. She becomes a secondary love interest to Terry, but she’s also deep into the mix of trying to figure out who the killer is. She seems more out of a detective story – the plucky kid who helps the detective – than a film noir. She’s also the only actor who even attempts a Baltimore accent which is kind of distracting.

Terry makes idiotic decision after idiotic decision which digs him deeper into trouble. The film never quite makes me believe he’s as dumb as his actions make him out to be which caused me to yell at the TV more than once.

Director Curtis Hanson, who would later make LA Confidential one of the all-time great neo-noirs, keeps things moving briskly and with great style. The Bedroom Window isn’t great, but it is well worth watching if you dig neo-noirs with a slice of erotic thrillers thrown in.

The Friday Night Horror Movie: Stage Fright (1987)

stage fright poster

I did work study for the theater department for most of my years at college. I had an amazing time. For each show, we’d spend weeks in rehearsals working several hours every night and building the sets on the weekends. Then we’d put the show on for three weekends in a row. It was a small theater department so we often had folks from outside the school performing and working. It was much more like community theater than your typical university theater.

Everybody working a show from the actors to the director and the stagehands became a small family for a few months. And because it was a community theater often the same people would come back and work the next show, and the next. I made some great, lifelong friends at that theater.

Because of this, I love a movie about theater life. Stage Fright is a pretty terrific slasher film from director Michele Soavi that takes place almost entirely in a theater.

A small theater troupe is rehearsing a show about a serial killer who wears a big owl head while he attacks young women on the city street. It is set to open in just a few days, but the maniacal director Peter (David Brandon) doesn’t think it is ready. He locks all the doors, hides the key, and demands everybody stay all night to perfect the show.

Two actresses, Alicia (Barbara Capisti) and Betty (Ulrike Schwerk) find a way to sneak out because Alicia has sprang her ankle and needs medical attention. The closest doctor is at a psych hospital and naturally, a psycho-killer escapes while they are there and sneaks into their car.

You can guess what happens next. It takes a while for the bodies to start piling up. There is some enjoyable behind-the-scenes at the theater stuff. Some of it is on point, but some of it seems completely ludicrous. All of the cast is hungry, they need the job, they need the money, and they desire the fame. When the first girl dies the police are called and the press shows up. The director immediately tries to use it as a means of drumming up publicity.

But three days before opening night, he also fires one of his lead actresses, rewrites entire scenes, and makes big changes no director in his right mind would do that close to opening.

Not that any of this matters. This is a slasher film, not a theatrical documentary, but this nerd noticed.

Soavi has a great eye. In some ways the film is more Giallo than your typical slasher, which makes sense since he studied under Dario Argento. There is a great visual sense throughout the film, but especially in the last act. There is a scene in which the stage has been set in a most theatrically macabre way and then a fan clicks on and blows feathers all over and it is so strangely beautiful.

The killer wears that giant owl head for the entirety of the film and it is just terrifying. Once the kills do begin they come fast and furious. About halfway through I was mentally writing this review and I thought to myself that there wasn’t much gore for a slasher film. I was oh-so-wrong. Not long after that things get very bloody. The kills are good as the kids say.

The best slashers are typically no more than dumb fun. Stagefright is that, but it has more style, more of that special something that elevates far above most films in the genre. It comes highly recommended by me. Perhaps even more so if you’ve ever done any theater.

Awesome ’80s in April: Silver Bullet (1985)

silver bullet poster

For the last few years, I’ve been steadily (if perhaps a bit slowly) reading my way through Stephen King’s bibliography. I’m not even halfway through. Dude has written a lot of books. People have made a lot of movies based on those books. Most of them aren’t very good.

My working theory is that filmmakers focus on the monsters – the killer clowns, rabid dogs, vampires, and other assorted creatures of the night – and ignore the world-building, the characters, and all other non-horrifying story development. But while readers may come to King for the monsters, they stay for all that other stuff. At least I do. And so the movies wind up focusing on the wrong things that make King’s stories so interesting. That’s my theory anyway.

Based upon King’s Cycle of the Werewolf novella, Silver Bullet is (obviously) about a werewolf stalking a small town. Our hero is young Marty Coslaw (Corey Haim) who is bound to a souped-up wheelchair (which is named, in its very Stephen King way, the Silver Bullet). He has a nagging sister, Jane (Megan Follows) who narrates the film as an adult (another Stephen King trope) and a goofy, alcoholic uncle (a wonderfully hilarious Gary Busey).

There is a lot of small-town life that fills this film. There are community gatherings, family parties, funerals, and lots of Marty showing off his ability to get around without the use of his legs (he climbs trees and into his second-story window). The uncle rigs up an even better souped-up wheelchair that whizzes down the road at 60 MPH.

And of course, there is a lot of mutilations by a werewolf. None of it is particularly well done, and it is all pretty silly. You could call it a bad movie, and you wouldn’t be wrong, but it is also quite entertaining. It is exactly what I want a 1980s adaptation of a Stephen King werewolf movie to be.