Weekly Rochester Events #386: The Real Jean Picard Begins

Thursday, June 1, 2006

Well it's been another busy week although one without many words. Starting on Thursday I got out a bit early to get to the opening reception at Image City Photography Gallery (722 University Ave.) featuring work from RIT medical imaging students and gallery members. It was a fascinating collection — I commented that shows with lots of artists exhibiting only a few works each are often quite good because not everyone has a bulging portfolio to select from. That said, the work was all very good.

From there it was off to The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) a bit earlier than usual. As far as I could tell, Dixie Witch makes their own barbecue sauce and sells it at the shows — at this show, they had barbecue chicken. The sauce is very good, reminding me of Cajun food I had years ago in New Orleans in that the spice sort-of sneaks up on you: "oh, this isn't very spicy at all ... is it hot in here? I'm sweating balls."

As for music, first up was Yer Mom (formerly Your Mom) who rocked the hell out of the place. I've found that it's in their third song that they really hit their stride and go completely organic. For you mega-nerds, it's like watching a PLL lock — only hot and on fire — and for you lesser nerds, it's like tuning a manual radio until the stereo light kicks on and rocks you out.

Next was The Grinders who have been around, well, a long time ... and they still bring out some great rock-and-roll. Finishing off the evening was Dixie Witch who play this great hard, rich power-rock with a metal flair. The show was awesome.

On Friday I headed to Monty's Krown (875 Monroe Ave.) with some friends who wanted to see Blue Jimmy play. The band is pretty good ... bar-rock with a country twang. Their repertoire of Paul Simon songs was peculiarly centered around the Graceland album, but that's all right. Preceding them was Dee and the Housecats who I didn't get a chance to hear much — I got the impression it was pretty similar to Dee Adams solo work only with a band.

Saturday night I got to see Anatomy of a Murder at the Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) It was stellar. It's rather long but you don't even notice because it's so well paced. The plot has quite a few twists and turns but none go ninety-degrees like mystery-thrillers today. After that I headed to The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) for the big show. It was a zoo, so I pretty much skipped trying to fight my way in to see the bands, missing The Brokedown, The Hi-Risers, and The Isotopes all but in passing.

Sunday I went with Ali to do a winery tour of Keuka Lake. We hit Bully Hill Vineyards (8843 GHT Memorial Dr., Pulteney) to start with which is a bad idea: you really need a few tastings in you already to tolerate the amateur comedy. Next was Chateau Renaissance (7494 Hatchery Rd., Hammondsport) and McGregor Vineyard and Winery (5503 Dutch St., Dundee), both of which I've been to before. It was a great day and a fun trip.

On Tuesday I was having a pretty crummy day but headed out to The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) anyway. I caught the tail end of Stolen Bigwheels and got to see Yer Mom (formerly Your Mom) play again. The two of them got together with Brian afterward to approximate Gaybot — ironically, it was much more structured than Gaybot usually is (ironic if you know Joey, Aimee, and Brian, I guess.)

Wednesday night I headed to Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) once again to see Scanners. It's a weird ass movie, that's for sure. I'm not sure if there's a political statement behind it in any concrete sense, but the special effects are still quite remarkable.