Calendar of Events in Los Angeles

Monday, April 08
• 
  Rihanna
  Staples Center

  The Barbadian pop rebel joins forces with musical cohorts Nicki Minaj, Wiz Khalifa, Illy Da King and A$AP Rocky for the Los Angeles stop of her Diamonds World Tour. Although recently panned by some critics and fans for a very public reunion with former abuser Chris Brown, she remains unapologetic. In a January interview with Rolling Stone, the free-spirited star explained: "We value each... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Write Club Los Angeles
  Bootleg Theater

  Fight Club is so passe; these days, even word lovers hold clandestine get-togethers for the sake of a good (literary) fight. Celebrating a year going strong, Write Club Los Angeles tonight hosts another unique showdown where brave souls put their writing chops to the test. Two writers get two different ideas thrown at them and seven minutes to read the resulting piece. The audience then... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Thao & the Get Down Stay Down, Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside
  The Troubadour

  Usually, when songwriters are as wickedly intelligent as Thao Nguyen, they tend to write morbidly gloomy and/or overly serious anthems of great meaning and purpose. That's not to say the Virginia native doesn't have her grand and heavy mood swings -- sometimes every few seconds in the same track -- but she and her San Francisco band usually construct sunny, ebullient indie-pop songs that are... Read more about this event >>

• 
  360 Sound: The Columbia Records Story
  Grammy Museum

  Dig Columbia Records' short list: Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Robert Johnson, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen and Willie Nelson. Sean Wilentz -- America's hippest historian -- has written an epic tome called 360 Sound: The Columbia Records Story (Chronicle Books), detailing the label's 125-year stretch. "More than I had known,... Read more about this event >>

• 
  S.O.E.
  Atwater Village Theatre

  Build a better mousetrap, it is said, and the world will beat a path to your door. Or at least to Atwater Village, where playwright Jami Brandli's clever, three-character riff on the venerable West End murder mystery The Mousetrap is attempting to give Agatha Christie a run for her money. Call it a hipster whodunit. Actually, "who-maybe-dunit" might be the better descriptive, because in... Read more about this event >>

• More Monday Events >>

Tuesday, April 09
• 
  Tom Sizemore
  Book Soup

  Tough-guy character actor Tom Sizemore's mind-boggling devotion to the fine art of self-destruction has long been legendary. With his new tell-all memoir, By Some Miracle I Made It Out of There, Sizemore details his life as a meth-head so resolute that in 2006 alone he managed, while living in a drug-treatment center no less, to fail court-imposed drug tests seven times in one month, along... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Won Ju Lim: Selected Sculptures
  Patrick Painter, Inc

  Artist Won Ju Lim studied architecture before she studied sculpture and began her career in the early aughts with crisp, colorful models of stacked cities and local landmarks. Her Broken Landscapes series, which she exhibited for the first time circa 2007, felt darker. She would re-create local and not-so-local vistas -- hills inspired by Highland Park or by Hawaii -- in miniature, building... Read more about this event >>

• 
  The 4 & 20
  All Star Lanes

  Against all odds, there is yet another reason to frequent Eagle Rock's All Star Lanes. If glow-in-the-dark bowling, embarrassment-indifferent karaoke and recession-friendly drinks aren't enough to tempt, here's another delight: novice comedy. The 4 & 20 is a weekly selection of four of the city's up-and-coming comedians, hand-picked by host Brandie Posey, eagerly trying out new material in... Read more about this event >>

• 
  End of the Rainbow
  Ahmanson Theatre

  Judy Garland's legendary triumphs and tragedies, dish and dirt have been chronicled so often and in so many forms, it would seem no nuance is left to be unearthed. Then there is Tracie Bennett, a performer whose colossal vocal and emotional power in End of the Rainbow pull us eagerly into a known quantity of expected bathos, then without warning sheds sentiment in favor of caustic reality,... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke
  Catalina Bar & Grill

  Pianist-composer Chick Corea’s 59 Grammy nominations are the third most of any artist in the history of the awards, and his 20 wins tie him with guitarist Pat Metheny for the most by a jazz musician. Bassist Stanley Clarke has been with Corea off and on since Corea’s first award for 1976’s “No Mystery” from fusion supergroup Return to Forever. For six nights in... Read more about this event >>

• More Tuesday Events >>

Wednesday, April 10
• 
  Megafauna, Dr. DeVito, The Face, Blue Blazer
  Central Social Aid & Pleasure Club

  Austin’s Megafauna make feral prog-punk with (of course) mega-intensity, the kind of thing that switches from heartbreak to mindmelt in the time it takes to touch toe to guitar pedal. Case in point: minute 2:44 on 2012 track “Love Project,” where guitarist and singer Dani Neff steps back and lets her song crack wide open. “Keeping the peace made me weak on my... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Lost & Found Film Club
  Cinefamily/Silent Movie Theatre

  We're pleased to hear that a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign ensured that Cinefamily will have the digital projection equipment to comply with the latest arm-twisting from the big Hollywood studios. But the theater still celebrates the ephemeral with its monthly "Lost & Found Film Club" series, which showcases its impressive library of 16mm films. Hosted by Cinefamily programmers... Read more about this event >>

• 
  T. Kelly Mason: Atmospheric (Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary action)
  Cherry and Martin

  T. Kelly Mason's Typology of Glasses shows a line of casual-looking glassware painted against a baby blue background. The painting is inside a lightbox, backlit by gels and covered with glass. Above that glass, Mason has outlined his glassware in marker, so that the drawing begins to seem almost dimensional. This mix of high-tech and low- recurs throughout his current show at Cherry and... Read more about this event >>

• 
  One Night With Janis Joplin
  Pasadena Playhouse

  The seductive appeal of this musical hagiography by writer-director Randy Johnson is no mystery. Nineteen-sixties rock acts have proved effective boomer bait for fundraising PBS stations for years. That the trend should have morphed into the tribute-concert stage musical merely speaks to graying subscriber demographics and the perennial weakness of the elderly for mythologizing their youth.... Read more about this event >>

• More Wednesday Events >>

Thursday, April 11
• 
  Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s Baroque Conversations
  The Colburn School of Music, Zipper Concert Hall

  Bach’s Partita No. 2 in D minor for unaccompanied violin is one of the major rites of passage for any aspiring violinist. A suite of dances composed of five movements, it culminates in the famous “Chaconne,” a tour de force that demands not only endurance — it goes on for some 15 minutes of unrelieved solo virtuosity — but the ability to make the whole thing... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s Baroque Conversations
  The Colburn School of Music, Zipper Concert Hall

  Bach's Partita No. 2 in D minor for unaccompanied violin is one of the major rites of passage for any aspiring violinist. A suite of dances composed of five movements, it culminates in the famous "Chaconne," a tour de force that demands not only endurance -- it goes on for some 15 minutes of unrelieved solo virtuosity -- but the ability to make the whole thing sound easy, as critics are... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Roger McEvoy Greenwalt
  Los Globos

  An institution-in-the-making in New York City and at Austin’s SXSW festival, Beatles Complete on Ukulele suggests that not only have the Fab Four’s best-known songs withstood the tests of time and bastardization, but that all of them can still emote almost regardless of delivery. The brainchild of producer Roger McEvoy Greenawalt (Rufus Wainwright, Ben Kweller, Nellie McKay etc.),... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Savages, No Bra
  The Echo

  The London band Savages belie their name and their new album title, Silence Yourself, with thoughtful, elliptical broadsides that demand that listeners question everything they know while teaching “ourselves new ways of positive manipulations.” Gemma Thompson’s momentous, foreboding guitar chords hum over Ayse Hassan’s intense, tunneling Joy Division bass lines as lead... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Meg Cranston: Emerald City; Alex Israel: Lens
  LAXART

  Every year, Pantone, the 50-year-old company famous for forecasting which colors will be popular when, names a color of the year. This year, it's emerald green, a color of "elegance and beauty" that enhances "our sense of well-being." Artist Meg Cranston follows such forecasts closely, and, for her current show at LAXArt in Culver City, she painted two walls emerald. She also painted a... Read more about this event >>

• 
  The Grapes of Wrath
  A Noise Within

  There are no weak links in Michael Michetti's staging of The Grapes of Wrath. It is a study of characters adrift, American refugees of the Great Depression, starting with the decision of the Joad family to leave Dust Bowl–cursed Oklahoma for California. On the horizon of the dusty plains is the hope of opportunities afforded by the Golden State, where they imagine they can pluck oranges... Read more about this event >>

• More Thursday Events >>

Friday, April 12
• 
  March Comedy Madness
  The Improv

  March Madness isn't just for basketball or crazy people anymore -- now comedians are getting in on the action. Tonight is the final championship in the seventh annual March Comedy Madness tournament, or, you know, the one elimination competition in March that actually matters. Hosted by comedian and Costa Rican expat Josh Filipowski, at this show, much like life, applause from the audience... Read more about this event >>

• 
  RAC, The Knocks
  Loyola Marymount University

  In a sonic culture where so many remixes are aggressively chopped and screwed versions of their former, nicer selves, the spunky reinterpretations of Remix Artist Collective are a breath of fresh air. That is to say that RAC's current members André Allen Anjos, Andrew Maury and Karl Kling keep things light and utterly indie with their inventive and perpetually joyful reimaginings... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Eben Goff: New Sculpture; John M. Miller: All or Nothing (At All)
  Diane Rosenstein Fine Art

  There's an awful story in art-world lore about the marriage of Ana Mendieta, the elegant earth artist, and Carl Andre, the clean-edged minimalist. She fell from a window one night, possibly pushed by him, and didn't survive. Sometimes this seems like a metaphor for how their sensibilities were too violently divergent to be together. But I've always wondered what would have happened if her... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival
  Empire Polo Club

  Although it’s unlikely that the Rolling Stones and their sprawling entourage will descend on this sun-baked music festival for a surprise set, as was rumored earlier this year, there are still many intriguing storylines scattered among the scores of performers making the trek to Indio over the next two weekends. Friday night is headlined by another band of stony Brits — The Stone... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Monsterpalooza
  Burbank Airport Marriott Hotel & Convention Center

  Whether scaly, one-eyed, furry, slimy, winged, shambling or even undead, monsters are a near-universal fascination. Yet lurking among us are a cult of zealots for whom they have almost religious significance. For that sickly sect, Monsterpalooza is like a three-day Christmas in Hades. (That’s a good thing.) A mind-rending compendium of makeup and effects artists, filmmakers, actors,... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Remembrance
  Theatre 40 at the Reuben Cordova Theater

  There's a memorably tender moment, in this production of Graham Reid's 1984 Irish play, when two widowed seniors, Bert (Mik Scriba), a Protestant, and Theresa (Diana Angelina), a Catholic, kiss for the first time. The two always meet in a cemetery, where they regularly tend the graves of their respective sons, both foully murdered amid "the Troubles" in Northern Ireland. Decent, likable... Read more about this event >>

• More Friday Events >>

Saturday, April 13
• 
  The Untamed Youth, Thee Midniters, The Phantom Surfers, Haunted George, Rev. Beat-Man, Deke Dickerson's All-Star Frat Band, The Go Nuts, The Sloths, The Castle Kings, Kim Fowley, Mark & the Escorts, Thee Cormans, The Loons, The Shag Rats, Thee Tee Pees
  The Echo

  While NYC big-beat swamis Billy Miller and Miriam Linna’s Sandy-soaked Norton Records warehouse has enjoyed a variety of fundraising events in the last few months, this flat-out astonishing lineup is the most potent testimony yet to the power of Norton’s achievements and significance. The evening features venerable East L.A. titans Thee Midniters performing a set of their savage... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Groundislava
  Bootleg Theater

  Groundislava is one of those guys who makes music like Tao Lin writes — minimal and atmospheric at the same time. You can focus on each little tiny part or just let yourself dissolve completely. Yes, his recent Katy Perry remix is a bit of a departure, but not as much as you’d think. All the best parts of Groundislava are still there, from the Hirokazu Tanaka–style 8-bit... Read more about this event >>

• 
  The Tamir Hendelman Trio
  Wilshire Ebell Theatre

  Since moving to Los Angeles from his native Israel at age 12, all this pianist has done is win a national Yamaha keyboard competition and tour Japan as a teenager, join the famed Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, have an album (Destinations, 2010) reach No. 1 on the jazz charts and become the pianist for some up-and-coming singer named Barbra Streisand. Hendelman is a virtuoso performer and a... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Los Angeles Dance Festival
  Diavolo Performance Space

  In a season filled with wonderful out-of-town companies dropping in for a bit of SoCal spring, only to take the ticket proceeds back to entertain their home audiences, L.A.’s own bring it all home with the second edition of the Los Angeles Dance Festival. Co-sponsored by Diavolo Dance Company and Brockus Dance Project, the festival fills a weekend with performances by 16 top-notch... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Marilyn: My Secret
  Macha Theatre

  Though iconic Hollywood bombshell Marilyn Monroe's story has been examined and re-examined from almost every possible angle over the years, Marilyn: My Secret, Odalys Nanin and Willard Manus' take, treads ground yet unworn as it explores the star's bisexuality and lesbian affairs. Just after her death in 1962, a robed Marilyn (Kelly Mullis) flits about her dressing room, regaling us with... Read more about this event >>

• More Saturday Events >>

Sunday, April 14
• 
  L.A. Heritage Day
  Pico House

  Don’t even try telling this to those snobbish New Yorkers, but Southern California in general, and L.A. in particular, are brimming with culture — so much so that we need an official day to reflect on the awesomeness of both. Hence L.A. Heritage Day, an event that started in 2008 and brings Angelenos food, activities and booths highlighting more than 50-plus organizations... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Mudhoney, The Freeks
  The Echo

  Although Nirvana and Pearl Jam get most of the credit these days, it was really the mid-’80s Seattle band Green River that set the template for the heavy, sludgy, hard-rock sound that would later be called grunge. Green River singer Mark Arm and guitarist Steve Turner reconfigured themselves as Mudhoney in 1988, releasing fuzzed-out blasts like the contagiously feral anti-anthem... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Merle Haggard
  Canyon Club

  Merle Haggard is the only native Californian ever inducted into Nashville’s most exclusive club, the Country Music Hall of Fame, but he sure as hell does not play Los Angeles anywhere near often enough. And that is a damn shame, because Haggard’s brilliant original compositions and absolutely peerless vocals unfailingly combine to make some of the most mesmerizing music... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Richard Jackson: Ain't Painting a Pain
  Orange County Museum of Art

  "It seems like you love [paint] more than anybody I know," Dennis Szakacs, the Orange County Museum of Art's director, said to artist Richard Jackson a few years ago. "I buy more of it than anybody I know!" Jackson replied. Szakacs has curated a Jackson retrospective at OCMA, "Ain't Painting a Pain." You'll begin seeing not-subtle evidence of Jackson's excessive love as soon as you drive up.... Read more about this event >>

• More Sunday Events >>