Iowa City Weekender: February 17-19

If you are a regular reader of this here column, you’ll know that I spent some time last week talking about my personal excitement at the exhibition games of Jeopardy! that were being played this week between two historical champions of the game and Watson. After seeing it, I’m not sure I had the right to be so excited about that whole affair because it was embarrassing to watch the humans get beat that badly. That being said, this is, actually, a pretty exciting weekend coming for the town. Keep reading to find out more about its majesty.

THURSDAY

Coolzey w/ Liberty Leg, We Shave, The Whether Report(featuring Jarrett Mitchell), Samuel Locke-Ward and DJ Dr. Dawn Dre Awesome! // Blue Moose Tap House // 8:00 PM // $6, All Ages

Much like underground mc Edan, Iowa’s Coolzey shares an affinity for old school hip-hop. Rapping over traditional boom-bap breaks, Coolzey’s flow is reminiscent of Kool Keith as it’s always rhymes, but it doesn’t always fall on the beat. It might be from psychological problems like Keith, but I think it’s mostly drug-related. Anyway, all of this isn’t to suggest that he doesn’t know what he’s doing. On the contrary, his flow’s smooth and rather smart. He can definitely rock the show, and his style is generally awesome. He’s the headliner on an all-Iowa special and the Blue Moose, which also features upstarts We Shave and local bon vivant Sam Locke-Ward.

As we all know, the music doesn’t stop on Thursday in Iowa City. This week is a very good example of that.

FRIDAY

This Friday, there are three really good shows, ones that will pretty much please everyone in this fair city.

hellogoodbye w/ Jukebox the Ghost, Gold Motel & Now, Now Every Children // Blue Moose Tap House // 5:30 PM // $15, All Ages

Although hellogoodbye have gone through a lot of changes, but one thing hasn’t changed: hellogoodbye is a pop band. There are no other words to describe their sound. They write super sweet, pretty pop songs that make girls swoon and touch the heart of all the awkward boys in the world. Travelling with a solid backing cast including the swiftly rising Gold Motel, hellogoodbye will be playing an intimate show in the upstairs of the Blue Moose.

Deerhoof w/ Ben Butler and Mousepad, Nervous Cop & The Tanks // Blue Moose Tap House // 7:00 PM // $12 Adv, $14 Day of Show, All Ages

If the words “super sweet” turned you away from hellogoodbye, Deerhoof might be more of your speed. Legends of the indie underground, Deerhoof has always displayed a weird balance between fully experimental, inaccessible sounds like DNA and straight-ahead pop songs. I saw Deerhoof in concert years ago (actually ran front of house for them; they required “a very good sound system” without any other specifications) and it was a thoroughly entertaining show. If you are up for a challenge, I highly recommend attending this show for the fact that both Deerhoof is the headliner and, if that’s the same one that I think it is with the drummers of Deerhoof and Hella, the Nervous Cop set should be one to behold.

For those of you who checked out at the words “indie,” “experimental,” “challenge,” or “inaccessible” in the Deerhoof write-up, this is my metaphorical peace pipe. We all know the Uniphonics. We’ve seen them at Jazz Fest or playing at the Yacht Club. They know how to rock it. They’ll make your body move and groove to their jazz/funk sound. With Twin Cats, The Uniphonics will bring the quality show that they are known for to the fans that love them.

That’s enough music for now. Let’s move to Saturday.

SATURDAY

Rather than throwing more music at you, I’m going to talk about other arts. The first ones will be theater.

All My Sons // Riverside Theatre // 7:30 PM // $12-26, All Ages

This weekend marks the last weekend of Riverside Theatre’s 30th Anniversary performance of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons. A play that forced Miller to appear in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee during the Red Scare, All My Sons is an examination of the American Dream and the damage that war does to us all. It’s an emotional, affecting play, one that should only be handled by professionals like those at the Riverside Theatre.

10 Minute Play Festival // UI Theater Building // 8:00 PM // $5/ Free for UI Students, All Ages

Seventy undergraduate playwrights wrote 10-minute plays and submitted them to the Theater Arts department at the University. Out of those seventy, only seven were chosen. This week, the public will get to see the ones that made the cut. It will be interesting to see what the youth are working on now.

Anthology Reading // Englert Theatre // 8:00 PM // Free, All Ages

For a series that regularly has readings in backyards and dives like The Foxhead, Anthology is presenting in one of the great spaces in this town: The Englert Theatre. For the uninitiated, take about 6-8 writers (poets, essayists, playwrights, screenwriters, doesn’t matter), give them around 5 minutes to make a presentation, mix, and you’ve got yourself an Anthology reading. It’s really rather fun and a good way to find out why people make such a big deal about us being a city of literature.

While computers may become our overlords very soon, this is one weekend in which we can relax and celebrate our humanity and the different talents that we have that a computer will never have. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen a funky robot or a robot throw a complex, multisyllabic rhyme that’s right on time. When I see that, then I know it’s all over. Think about that while you’re out having fun.

Have a nice weekend!

~LV