Thrills and spills from the Black Hills: the entertainment scene in Rapid City, South Dakota, and beyond
Thrills and spills from the Black Hills: the entertainment scene in Rapid City, South Dakota, and beyondThrills and spills from the Black Hills: the entertainment scene in Rapid City, South Dakota, and beyondThrills and spills from the Black Hills: the entertainment scene in Rapid City, South Dakota, and beyondThrills and spills from the Black Hills: the entertainment scene in Rapid City, South Dakota, and beyond
DIY literally means do-it-yourself, but it’s come to mean a lot more than that — it’s a lifestyle, an attitude, a moral code. Less Wal-Mart, more bicycling, or something along those lines. “DIY or Die” is also a copyright-free documentary.
Rapid City’s “DIY or Die” on Friday, May 1, will feature The Bismarck, a punk rock quartet from Seattle. Their MySpace page indicates this band is a perfect fit for this show: “They book their own shows, engineer and release their own records, silkscreen their own shirts, load their own gear, drive their own van and - grudgingly - write their own promotional spew.”
This is not The Bismarck’s first time in Rapid City. In fact, their online photo album includes a pic taken at the late great St. Joe Pub.
Also on the lineup are local acts Old, American Heavy Metal Weekend, Sonic Future, and Corporate Lemonade Stand. All of these bands play their own instruments; all — with one glaring exception — write their own songs. (The one group that does play covers usually pretends they wrote the songs, and I think that counts.)
Catch the action at 7 p.m. at The Retired Enlisted Association, 1981 E. Centre Street, across from Western Dakota Technical Institute. Admission is $5 all ages.
Looking to the left… a dead zone. But to the right — quite lively:
Rushmore Mall, like most malls, is pretty vacant on a Wednesday night in April. What, then, accounted for last night’s commotion in these drab fluorescent hallways?
Over the Years, a hardcore band from Rapid City, donned surgical masks (soon removed) and proceeded to power through a lineup of original music before a backdrop of trendy band tees. Their style was fast, classic, unapologetic, with a solid rhythm and fierce screaming. The volume wasn’t as loud as a normal concert — no earplugs required — but this show was no shrinking violet.
The crowd spilled out into the mall proper, a lot of hip kids in tight pants and a few gawking elders. It was a nice crowd, though, and a welcoming atmosphere — no obvious rent-a-cops standing around glaring with folded arms, or anything like that. Just music, and people who like music.
Over the Years played one song, then took a 5-minute break, played a couple more tunes, took a break, resumed the show… it was an unusual format, to say the least. Between sets, the audience dispersed to browse the stores and food court. If I were cynical, I’d think that was probably the point. But cynicism aside, it was a fantastic show, and kudos to Hot Topic for hosting it. This is the third concert that the local Hot Topic has hosted; previously VonVeederVeld and I Told You to Wait in the Trunk have performed at the same store, and several more are scheduled in the next couple months. An employee told me that the neighboring businesses don’t mind the noise too much — they are warned in advance, although there was still one complaint when I Told You to Wait in the Trunk played. That’s understandable for one of the loudest bands in Rapid City.
According to the same employee, the openness to local music is indeed a corporate policy with Hot Topic. Bands that perform typically give the store a demo to send on to corporate headquarters, which surely has something to do with convincing top local bands to perform (unpaid) at the mall, of all places.
Well, not entirely unpaid. From the looks of Over the Years’ donation cup, they may have made enough to buy themselves a little Taco Bell later on:
Here’s a photo from Black Hills Community Theatre’s newest production, “Nunsense,” which premieres Friday in the theater space at Rushmore Mall. This one looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun. Check back for a full review before the premiere!
Yes, that’s a nun in back doing sound. AWESOME.
Catch “Nunsense” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 1, and at 7:30 p.m. every Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. each Sunday, through May 17. Tickets are $18 adults, $16 seniors/military, and $11 students. Go to www.bhct.org for details.
No, you didn’t misread that. Hot Topic, at the mall, is supporting local underground bands.
After years of refusing to even sell CDs by local musicians (a friend who worked as a manager once explained everything had to be from corporate), the Rapid City Hot Topic store is launching what appears to be a series of free local concerts with a performance by Over the Years, a relatively new hardcore band based in Rapid City. The show starts at 7 p.m. in the Rushmore Mall.
It’s certainly an interesting and even exciting new direction for Hot Topic, a store “specializing in music and pop culture based clothing and accessories, including licensed music.” (That’s one way to describe it; one could also call Hot Topic “Wal-Mart with eyeliner.”) With the death of the American mall regularly in the news — check out deadmalls.com — live music is a novel way to tempt people to come to the mall. Naturally, they hope you bring your wallet.
On May 8, another concert hosted by Hot Topic will feature Johnny Kamikaze & the Skuds, a genuine street punk band also hailing from Rapid City. It’s not exactly a DIY show, but this is a group that plays gutsy originals on socially progressive topics; wonder how the mall walkers will react to “American Holocaust”? (Lyrics available at the band’s website.)
Hot Topic is indeed reaching out to underground music — still, I doubt we’ll ever see Disorderly performing the anti-commercialism anthem “Jesus Owns Hot Topic” at the mall anytime soon.
Last night’s nostalgic concert of the greatest Big Band hits of the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s opened with “Contrasts,” a tune Jimmy Dorsey himself wrote in the 1930s and used as his theme song.
The 14-member Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra includes trumpets, trombones and saxophones, percussion, bass and piano. Band leader Bill Tole actually toured with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra (Jimmy’s brother) following college, and also portrayed Tommy Dorsey in the 1977 film “New York, New York.” Tole played trombone occasionally but also frequently just stood by and snapped his fingers or tapped his toe in a gentlemanly way.
To a packed house, the band performed a variety of enjoyable songs: an instrumental arrangement of “It Had to Be You,” as well as “The Johnson Rag,” a lively tune popular with swing dancers.
Between songs, Tole chatted with the audience: “Is there anyone here over 50?” he asked to laughs and cheers from what seemed like most of the audience.
“I just wanted to make sure you didn’t come here to see a rap program,” he continued.
Wild laughter followed that statement; he then said, “I always thought wrapping was something you did at Christmas.” This statement was also very well received.
For much of the concert, I felt like an outsider: I’m over 30, but I haven’t yet reached that “kids these days” phase. And while swing dancing and Big Band music are indeed popular with younger generations today, this concert seemed geared toward the people who originally fell in love to these charming songs, people who wanted to spend an evening listening to the soundtrack to sunny days past.
The music and atmosphere were comfortable, nostalgic, and smooth; the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra plays the big hits just as they were meant to be played — as Tole said, there were no surprises “for anyone over 30.” Greats such as Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington and Frank Sinatra all made an appearance in the musical selections. Joining the band for about half the songs was singer Nancy Knorr, in a slinky red sparkly dress. She joked about how young people “haven’t understood a lyric in 30 years” and sang in a smoky, classic style.
With beautifully performed standards like “All of Me,” “Orange Colored Sky,” “Take the A Train,” “Fly Me to the Moon,” “Green Eyes,” “Sentimental Journey,” and more, this was music made for dancing, and while everyone kept their seat in the theater, surely many memories were doing the jitterbug and Charleston the way only memories can.
The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra has been performing for over 70 years — meanwhile, this concert wrapped up the Rapid City Concert Association’s 71st season.
The schedule for Season 72 has just been announced, and it’s exciting; stay tuned for details.
Under the leadership of Bill Tole, the legendary Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra will perform jazz, pop and swing classics tonight, April 27, at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center.
The show begins at 7:30 p.m. in the theater, but it’s wise to arrive early if you want a good seat. Doors open about 6:45 p.m. Tickets cost $20 for adults and $10 for students and are available at the door.
The performance wraps up the Rapid City concert Association’s 2008-09 concert series, which has featured fantastic acts as varied as the National Lutheran Choir and the Canadian tenor trio Romanza. I’m already looking forward to the 2009-10 season.
The Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour comes to Rapid City this weekend, when the best of the annual Canadian festival celebrating films about mountains, daredevil feats and general outdoors-y stuff will be screened beginning at 6:30 p.m. tonight and tomorrow, April 25 and 26, at the Elks Theatre. Here’s the trailer, complete with avalanches, bears, skiers, and tightrope walkers:
Whew. Definitely not for the faint of heart.
Different films will be shown each night. For a complete list and more information, go to the Dahl Arts Center website. Tickets are $14 advance (probably too late for that); $12 for Dahl members; and $16 day of show.
Alternatively, if you’re in Spearfish, I recommend stopping by the Backporch, where local psychedelic rockers the MadHats will perform at 9:30 p.m. tonight, Saturday. No cover.
Engaging, funny, and all-around impressive, Thursday night’s concert by Cherish the Ladies is sure to be one of the highlights of 2009.
The civic center theater was stuffed nearly to capacity for the event, which was part of the Rapid City Concert Association series. Arriving later than usual, I was forced due to the open seating to sit way in the back. Way back. A couple women in the row ahead of me were sharing a pair of binoculars.
With a range of instruments including the accordion, fiddle, flute, piano, guitar, and penny whistle (which now costs $1,700 instead, as whistler/flutist Joanie Madden pointed out), Cherish the Ladies’ all-acoustic set drew from a rich musical heritage that extended as far back as folk songs from the 1700s and as recent as originals from the band’s latest release (”Woman of the House,” 2005). They played reeling jigs that spun faster and faster, fingers flying and toes tapping like bumblebees, but also swaying ballads with lingering melodies.
Founding member Madden complimented South Dakota on the state’s natural beauty and 75 mph speed limits. Hailing from the Bronx, with a voice as vigorous as her personality, she hardly needed a microphone as she entertained the crowd with expert between-song banter: details of the history of the music, the people onstage, and the band’s touring adventures.
Madden is the must successful whistle player in history, according to the program.
“Cherish the Ladies,” as Madden readily admits, is not the greatest band name. Originally intended as a three-concert project, the group took its title from a traditional Irish jig. The three dates turned into 23 years of touring, and suddenly it was too late to change the name — and today, Madden said with a laugh, “We’re stuck with what we got.”
Along with the storytelling, the visual aspect of the show was often as important as the music.
Partway through the very first number, two step dancers came out and amazed the audience with their talent — during a pause in the music, the dancers kept both the rhythm and melody going with their impressive tapping. Throughout the rest of the show, traditional Irish dancing periodically took center stage.
One member of the tapping, twirling, high-kicking duo was Noelle Curran, a lead dancer in Riverdance. The other was Joe Dwyer, a multiple U.S. National Championship-winning dancer who first performed with Cherish the Ladies at age 7. All grown up now, he recently graduated college with a degree in finance and got a job… with Morgan Stanley.
If you follow economic news at all, you know how that turned out.
Luckily for Dwyer, and everyone in the audience, he had a backup position waiting with Cherish the Ladies.
Also occasionally sharing the stage was a Canadian fiddler and step dancer named Dan Stacey. Seated, he simultaneously fiddled and tapped out percussion with his feet — surely a much harder feat than walking and chewing gum, which so many people can barely manage. Finally Stacey dropped the fiddle, sprang to his feet and started a high-kicking, active style of step dancing, his legs kicking about as if his knees were rubber.
The singer, Michelle Burke from East County Cork in Ireland, is a recent addition to the group and has a youthful, breathy voice and a charming accent, sounding rather like Ambrosia Parsley if Ambrosia Parsley were very, very Irish. Much of the performance was instrumental, but the numbers Burke played a part in were primarily folk songs of heartbreak and heartache, with plaintive lines such as, “Go ahead and leave me, I don’t mind.”
“She has a cute little voice!” exclaimed someone to my left.
It was the band’s first time playing in South Dakota (leaving only Hawaii and North Dakota on the yet-to-see list), so few attendees had ever heard of Cherish the Ladies; for all we knew, Madden cracked, they could be Rosie O’Donnell and the Celtic Spice Girls.
When singer Burke coaxed the audience into a singalong with shaky results, Madden commented, “I’ll keep my mouth shut, because I’m starting to feel like Simon Cowell.”
The entire production felt very professional yet quite intimate and engaging. We could have listened all night, but of course it had to end — here’s hoping that Cherish the Ladies doesn’t wait another 23 years before revisiting South Dakota.
Released in 1987 and based on a book by William Goldman, the film version of “The Princess Bride” is an enduring favorite; over 20 years later, it’s still a whole lot of fun to watch. It has everything — swordfighting, true love, revenge, man-eating rats, and even Andre the Giant. And this Saturday, Andre the Giant will be more giant than ever when “The Princess Bride” plays on the big screen at the Elks Theatre. Showtime is at 9 p.m. (or so) Saturday, April 25.
Tickets cost $5; it’s only $4 if you dress in “Princess Bride attire,” so don’t forget to dig out that six-fingered glove or holocaust cloak before you go.
On a side note, I think this trend at the Elks of playing older movies on occasion is fantastic. What do you say? And what movies would you like to see resurrected onto the big screen?
Right on the heels of Thursday’s concert of traditional Irish music comes a performance by The Muses on Friday, April 24, playing what is advertised as “Celtic music with zing.” The small acoustic band hails from Colorado and performs both originals and traditional songs.
Presented by Dakota Celts, the event begins at 7 p.m. at the Elks Theatre in downtown Rapid City. Tickets cost $10 in advance and $12 on the day of the show, and they are available at the Elks box office.
While you’re at The Muses’ website, check out the original songs posted there — “Sailor’s Curse” is mellow and very pretty, with lilting lyrics and harp, while “Johnny Jump Up” is a merry tribute to hard cider. If you’re still hungry for Irish music after Thursday’s RCCA concert (and I don’t know why you wouldn’t be), this should be a nice way to wrap up the week.
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