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
At first glance, this piece of old-school tattoo-style art is gorgeous, and one wonders who the artist is and perhaps thinks of looking him or her up for a tattoo…
But on closer inspection, it’s pretty clear that it is not a wise idea to get a tattoo from this otherwise talented artist — unless you want nonwords like “dieing” permanently embedded in your dermis. You’d end up on Failblog for sure.
On a slightly related note, it looks like the first-ever Black Hills Tattoo Convention is coming up this September in Rapid City. And holy cow, Lizardman will be there. Mark your calendars now.
Art Alley is an alley in downtown Rapid City, connecting Sixth Street to Seventh Street between Main and Saint Joseph. Its walls, signs, and even dumpsters have become a community-produced, open-air art gallery that constantly evolves.
The other bands put on an energetic, ear-splitting show, but for my money, This Is Hell from Long Island was the best of the bunch:
Shows at TREA are always a bit of a hoot due to the somber portraits, flags, memorials, and so on in the background. More photos to come: Get Back Up, Rust Belt Lights, Bane, and a police officer who crashed somebody’s party.
I have never been to or even heard of Younglife prior to seeing this flyer, but apparently it exists. The address is 318 Mount Rushmore Road, and they’re hosting an all-ages show this Saturday.
It appears to be a multicultural ministry focused on adolescents. That’s a great spot for all-ages shows, since some venues have alcohol and smoke and other things parents might not want their kids exposed to; this opens the local music scene up to more people. One nagging question presents itself, however: all past performances by local metal band Man of Straw have featured a steady stream of profanity; will they tone it down at all for this venue?
Every South Dakota news outlet this side of the Missouri will spend the next couple weeks pretending they’re super-cool, using biker slang and ogling bikini babes. They’ll humiliate themselves, offend regular readers/viewers, and give you all yet another reason to dislike journalism.
Every outlet but this one, that is. I have neither the time, inclination or money ($120 for an Aerosmith ticket? Are you HIGH?) to cover the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, so if you’re interested, sorry. You’ll have to go to www.sturgismotorcyclerally.com or any of dozens of other blogs, TV stations, newspapers, etc. for news, concert reviews, reports of gang shootings, pictures of nude girls on motorcycles, and so on.
I do, however, want to bring your attention to two events, open to those 21 and older. The first is this show at the Gallows on Sunday, Aug. 2, featuring a variety of local bands playing original music:
I particularly recommend Man of Straw, the Outsiders, and I Told You to Wait in the Trunk, all of which have been featured on this blog before.
The Chicago-based hard rock band has played in Rapid City several times over the past few years in pubs and hotels, but they’ve earned the bigger gigs: their song “Raw Dog” was featured in the Guitar Hero II video game, and their most recent album, “Whatever Gets You Off,” was produced by Nikki Sixx. I’ve interviewed them in the past, and these guys are wild — fun, dedicated, loud and talented, ordinary guys despite the sudden explosion of fame. They play straight-up rock ‘n’ roll with a variety of influences, so check them out.
That’s it for Dakota Disco’s rally coverage. However, you’re welcome to send me any photos or stories of your adventures in Sturgis to ruth@dakotadisco.com and I’ll post them.
Rapid City’s free Summer Nights concert series continues this Thursday, July 30, with blues guitarist Hamilton Loomis. The Grammy-nominated musician is a protégé of Bo Diddley; here’s a quote from his bio:
“I grew up not only listening to blues, but Otis Redding, Booker T., Sam & Dave, and Stevie Wonder … and that funky stuff you hear probably comes from me being a Prince fan,” says Loomis.
As usual, music runs from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. or so on Seventh Street in downtown Rapid City, and there will be kids’ activities and jumping castle, food vendors, arts and crafts, and a beer garden for those of age. Arrive early if you want to park anywhere near the event, or park at The Journey and ride the trolley to Seventh Street.
Recently I saw “Single White Female” for the first time. During a scene in an elevator early on in the movie, one gal explains to the other that the elevator’s old and sticks sometimes, so there’s a screwdriver tucked away in a handy spot. I turned to my viewing buddy and said, “I bet somebody gets stabbed with that screwdriver.” And sure enough, at the climactic moment of the film, someone is stuck through with that very screwdriver. Yawn.
The point of this story is, most movies are predictable, formulaic, heavy-handed crap.
Which is why I so enjoy the monthly selections of the Voices of the Heartland Independent Film Society. And this month’s film, “Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles,” was no exception. Presented Monday night at the Elks Theatre, the 2006 drama by director Zhang Yimou focuses on the efforts of a man to reconcile with his son after a decade of silence on both sides. Upon learning that his son is dying, Mr. Takata suddenly decides to travel to China to film a mask opera that his son had planned to film someday.
The Japanese man is stoic, restrained, a man of very few words who is guided by a well-intentioned translator who actually speaks little to no Japanese. He encounters difficulties every step of the way and soldiers on. It’s as unpredictable and compelling as real life, only more so, and by the end I cared so deeply I could hardly breathe. It certainly doesn’t end up where you would expect.
The film’s pace is relentless and gorgeous, and the scenery is stunning: the Badlands are anthills compared to the great mountainsides, and this is a film definitely worth seeing on the big screen. “Riding Alone” was a beautiful movie, and unusually accessible as far as foreign film goes — because Mr. Takata is a foreigner in China. As an American watching a Japanese film, it’s easy to relate to his difficulty with the culture and language of another country.
“Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles” has several very funny scenes, as well as a completely unexpected poo episode, but it also brought me to tears more than once — so if you’re the type, have a hanky handy, and don’t watch it with someone who would snicker at your sniffles.
The storyline was touching, straightforward, and utterly clear in spite of being subtitled. Those subtitles are well written, although it’s not always immediately clear what is said in Mandarin and what in Japanese until the father asks for something to be translated.
Next month’s selection, a documentary about Hurricane Katrina titled “Trouble the Water,” will be shown at the Elks on Monday, Aug. 31.
It’s a solid lineup: Bane, This Is Hell, Get Back Up, Rust Belt Lights, and Empires will perform this Thursday, July 30, at The Retired Enlisted Association in Rapid City. This hardcore show is presented by Loveless Booking. Man, that’s a lot of MySpace links in a row.
TREA is located at 1981 East Centre Street, across from Western Dakota Tech. Admission is $10 all ages.
Last night’s show at the old Storybook Island park shelter was a comedy of broken drumsticks, late-arriving bands, and an audience that left before the music finally started.
The show conflicted with a Japanese movie at the Elks (more on that later) that started at 6:30 p.m., while the show was to start at 7 p.m. I went to the movie and then swung by Storybook Island, where at 8:45 the stage was still silent. Finally local band Disorderly played a few songs — including my favorite, “The System,” as well as their standard cover of Doom’s “Police Bastard” — with various intermissions for broken drumsticks, phone calls, and cigarettes. Although there were only a handful of people watching, the trio still played hard and fast, to the point of nearly vomiting.
Disorderly didn’t, though — vomit, I mean. That I know of.
As they wrapped up, dark had fallen some time ago, and the night air was chilly. I remembered that I am old, and have to be at work early in the morning, and decided to go home — just as the out-of-town pulled into the parking lot and began to unload their gear.
Dogsholylife was probably fantastic, but for me, the night was over.
A grindcore band from Portland that has absolutely nothing to do with the hit movie of the same name that I never saw but most people did, Superbad, will perform once again in Rapid City on Tuesday, July 28, at The Retired Enlisted Association in Rapid City. Admission is $7 all ages, and music is advertised as beginning at 7 p.m. (That doesn’t necessarily mean music will actually start before 8:30 p.m.)
Superbad is touring with Noisear, more grindcore, but this time from New Mexico; and Roskopp, grindcore from Denver. Adding some genre variety is the lone local band, Disorderly, who plays punk — but they’re still pretty loud and fast.
Here’s a live clip of a Superbad performance:
True story — when I hit “play” on that video, my cat stopped washing herself and stared at my computer in alarm, as if she expected it to explode. Clearly, you should not bring your pets to this show.
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