Weekend fixer-upper projects
Paul Metzger got off his own darn duff and fixed 'er up for better banjo living.
The weekend ahead clearly favors the handyman and -woman willing to spruce up, feng shui, and re-functionalize those frumpy old living spaces with a bit of old-fashioned elbow grease. Begin clearing the cobwebs out of the ol' tool shed and hit the garage first, with two bands who don't even need lyrics to create what are effectively pop songs. Ampline (playing at The Frequency) lumbers along like a smartly refurbished post-punk airstream, and two-piece El Ten Eleven (playing at the Rathskeller) boasts the unexpected power of a lime-green Fiero with a new V8 slipped in under the hood. Still, sometimes a more dramatic project is in order, so if you're the kind who can be talked into building on a full-blown home extension with a half-bath and walk-in closet, Mount Eerie's Phil Elverum (playing Saturday at the High Noon Saloon) is your chum: He recently added on a black-metal wing to his folk-styled digs at ol' Casa Eerie.
But perhaps there's more to be said for makin' do with the home you've got. For example, the earth. Running Friday through Sunday at a bunch of venues across downtown, the second Tales From Planet Earth Environmental Film Festival might guilt you out of buying that new dolphin-skin sofa, but it'll at least instill clean domestic habits and willpower on a somewhat grand scale. You know who else ain't too good to live in the same spot? Ace Frehley. The former Kiss guitarist (playing Saturday at the Majestic) seems to take as much pleasure as ever in his well-worn classic-rock digs. And if you're the kind to burn down the house where you grew up without so much as a rough home-makeover wishlist in hand, head over to Out!Cast Theatre's premiere production, Dog Sees God: Confession Of a Teenage Blockhead. The demented Peanuts parody opens Friday night at the Bartell.
Sunday wraps it up with a couple of world-class renovators: Old Crow Medicine Show (playing at the Barrymore Theatre) took this musty old Appalachian cabin and converted it into a rustic-chic rock club with a full bar; while banjo player Paul Metzger (at The Frequency) converts his instruments of choice into multi-tonal surrealist palaces. But first, fill your internal toolbelt with the outlandish crusted concoctions at REAP Food Group's Pie Palooza.
