A West Palm-raised pop-rock siren returns for a hometown concert, new exhibits are unveiled for Delray’s First Friday Art Walk, and a sci-fi masterpiece opens in Lake Worth Beach. Plus, a Jerry Garcia birthday bash and more in your week ahead.
WEDNESDAY
What: Cassadee Pope
Where: Respectable Street, 518 Clematis St., West Palm Beach
When: 6:30 p.m.
Cost: $20 GA, $70 VIP with meet-and-greet and tour poster
Contact: 561/832-9999, sub-culture.org/locations/respectable-street
We expect an emotionally charged performance—even more than we usually get—from spunky rocker Cassadee Pope at this hometown performance. A West Palm Beach native, Pope graduated from Wellington High before co-founding the short-lived but influential pop-punk act Hey Monday. A tryout on the third season of “The Voice” then led to a mentorship under Blake Shelton, whose tutelage helped her win the season and reshape her sound into a modern country aesthetic; she topped the genre’s charts with her 2013 solo debut Frame by Frame. But country, Pope now says, was never an ideal fit, and earlier this year she announced her departure from the style, in part for political reasons. Her fourth album Hereditary marks a return to infectious pop-rock anthems, which she’ll play this week in all of their glory, after opening sets from the Foxies and Natalie Taylar.
THURSDAY
What: Jerry Garcia Birthday Celebration
Where: Funky Biscuit, 303 S.E. Mizner Blvd., Boca Raton
When: 7 p.m.
Cost: $20-$25
Contact: 561/395-2929, funkybiscuit.com
Jerome John Garcia was born Aug. 1, 1942, and shed his mortal coil far too young, at 53, in 1995. In between, as the lead guitarist of the Grateful Dead, Garcia played more than 2,300 concerts in one of the most storied careers in rock music, essentially inventing the modern jam band and composing such enduring statements as “Uncle John’s Band” and “Dark Star.” His insistence to never play a song the same way twice inspired countless devotees, imitators and tributes who, like Garcia, took their cues from jazz improvisation to ensure each performance is a unique one. In South Florida, no band has honored the Dead’s pioneering spirit more than the indefatigable Crazy Fingers, which will perform Garcia’s greatest hits and more.
FRIDAY
What: First Friday Art Walk
Where: Downtown Delray Beach
When: 6 to 9 p.m.
Cost: Free
Contact: 561/243-1077, downtowndelraybeach.com
The First Friday of the month is always cause for celebration in downtown Delray, as 14 art spaces throughout the region stay open late, some offering wine and quick bites along with world-class art. At Arts Warehouse, Friday marks the opening receptions for two solo exhibitions: Katya Neptune’s “Echoes Unveiled,” featuring large-scaled mixed-media photo transfers of women and children photographed in Rwanda in 2012 and 2014; and “Coming Home” by Dominique Denis, whose abstract works reflect on her childhood, heritage and lived experience as a Haitian-born artist. At Cornell Art Museum, there is still time to catch “Central American Modernism” and “Oceana Phenomena,” while Arts Garage’s gallery is showcasing the local photography exhibit “Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder” and solo works from the existential painter Hal Yaskulka.
FRIDAY TO SUNDAY
What: Screenings of “The Beast”
Where: Lake Worth Playhouse’s Stonzek Theatre, 713 Lake Ave., Lake Worth Beach
When: 6 p.m. Friday; 1, 4 and 7 p.m. Saturday; 2 and 5 p.m. Sunday
Cost: $9
Contact: 561/296-9382, lakeworthplayhouse.org
One of the best-reviewed films so far year, “The Beast” has earned praise for its audacious science-fiction conceit as well as what many have called a career-defining performance from lead actor Lea Seydoux. In the French-Canadian co-production directed by enfant terrible Bertrand Bonello (“Nocturama”), Seydoux lives in a dystopian future in which emotions have become a threat to an A.I.-driven world. In a move to “purify” her DNA, she enters a machine that transports her to two of her past lives—in Belle Époque Paris and 2014 Los Angeles—where she falls in love with different iterations of the same damaged soul. A thriller with a bonkers premise and an inventive time-jumping narrative, “The Beast” opens at Lake Worth Playhouse for one weekend only.
SATURDAY
What: Emo Night Karaoke
Where: The Banyan Live, 8199 Southern Blvd., Suite B, West Palm Beach
When: 9 p.m.
Cost: $15
Contact: 561/855-0626, thebanyanlive.com
From emo-centric music festivals to comeback albums from some of its seminal bands, a subgenre once ridiculed as punk’s overly sensitive cousin has undergone an impressive rehabilitation. It remains a style that’s difficult to define—one person’s emo is another person’s pop-punk, is another person’s post-hardcore—but if you’re a fan of heart-on-sleeve lyrics delivered with earnestness, angst and immediacy, you’ll probably find a worthwhile tune to select at this special karaoke night, where singers have the opportunity to perform in front of a live band. So revisit Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Jimmy Eat World, Paramore and their ilk, find the hit that speaks to you, grab the mic, and save the tears for later.
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