Arts DEVO

Spring rising? Who the hell knows what the weather will bring this Chico spring? I’ve seen everything here this time of year—creek-flooding downpours, April hailstorms. But I also wouldn’t be surprised if we had no rain—just three extra months of summer before summer. I just hope that we get more than a couple springy weeks like the yummy breezy 80-degree one we’re in now, because there is a huge, fresh pile of fun scheduled over the next few months.

The weekend forecast The Naked Lounge is hosting a very springy art party, Friday, March 14, 7-9 p.m., to kick off Garret Goodwin’s print show, It’s Not a Diary, It’s a Journal. Fresh-faced troubadour Fera provides the acoustic jams. And the Blue Room Theatre is going nuts with two funky shows: The hilarious and badass Betty Burns returns to the theater for two nights (Friday and Saturday, March 14 and 15, 7:30 p.m.) with a freak-filled variety show: The Hoedown Variety Talent Show, Hootenanny Southern Review, and showing Friday and Saturday, 10:30 p.m. for the next two weekends: Twilight Zone Live.

Theater deluge There are several more intriguing local productions flooding the boards this spring. The multidiscipline Uncle Dad’s Art Collective is taking on All in the Timing, David Ives’ collection of idiosyncratic comedy-sketch one-acts (March 20-22, at 1078 Gallery); Jerry Miller directs Leading Ladies at Theatre on the Ridge in Paradise (March 27-April 19); the Blue Room stacks the deck with the return of the kick-ass rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch (March 27-April 12); Chico State’s spring musical is the Monty Python-inspired comedy Spamalot (April 30-May 4); and up at TOTR, Rogue Theatre honcho Joe Hilsee takes the reins for Jon Robin Baitz’s Drama Desk-winning (and Pulitzer Prize-nominated) 2012 play, Other Desert Cities (May 29-June 22).

Two concerts My guess: Thirty fun shows will happen in Chico between now and summer. Here are two: MaRMITS, Pageant Dads and Mint Shekels, March 27, at Café Coda. From the MaRMITS website: “If you can imagine early Animal Collective jamming with the Muppet Babies, then you just about described the MaRMITS.” All right, I’m buyin’. Also, Schoolboy Q, of Black Hippy (with Kendrick Lamar), and the rapper whose album Oxymoron debuted at the top of the Billboard album charts two weeks ago, is actually coming to the Senator Theatre on April 11!

Food trucks, mutant vehicles and one big beer April marks the return of Chico’s monthly food-truck rally, Fork in the Road (make friends at www.facebook.com/forkintheroadchico for updates), and May 9-10, the annual Art at the Matador (no more “Art Fiesta” in the name) returns with a new, funky feature: the Mutant Vehicle Rally on The Esplanade (May 10). Contact Pat Collentine at teslaneon@gmail.com to learn how to take part.

And last. It’s back. Pale Bock—the hefty lager that Chico loved, and has longed for since Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. ceased brewing it five years ago—will once again be on local shelves by the end of the month. The brewery will host a release party in the Big Room, March 24, 6 p.m., with live music by Decades. $5 cover.