Arts DEVO

Ready, set, fall … Friday is the first day of autumn, and in previewing the season, Arts DEVO sees a lot of arts and music choices on the calendar that intrigue him. So, I’m going to just jump right into things … right after I give a quick shout out to Gary Lauten and Sean Rourke Meehan, a couple of former Chico dudes now making films in L.A. and needing your pledges on Kickstarter.com (search: “A Pale Shadow”) by the deadline, Friday, Sept. 23, at 6 p.m., so they can make their short film, A Pale Shadow.

• Sept. 22: The Atheist Comedian, at the Blue Room Theatre: Tonight, at 10 p.m., Sac comedian Keith Lowell Jensen joins the Comedy from the Couch crew fresh off the release of his new comedy album, Cats Made of Rabbits.

• Oct. 1: Babylon Community Arts Center Open House: A group of local artists/rappers—led by glass artist and MC Ben “Tsunami” and MC Tyson “TyBox” Harris—are opening a new community art-making space, gallery and performance venue, and on Saturday, Oct. 1, 3-11 p.m., they’ll be hosting a soft opening/preview with a glass demo and live music by The Noetics, The Dynamics, Adam Mehr and more.

• Oct. 4: Maps & Atlases or Jacuzzi Boys? In the middle of the lineup at the Senator Theatre you have Chicago’s sorta mathy/arty and totally poppy four-piece, or at Duffy’s Tavern you have Miami’s poppy garage-rockers. It’s good to have choices.

• Oct. 6-15: Wittenberg at the Blue Room Theatre.

• Oct. 6-Nov. 4: Collector’s Choice at University Art Gallery: James Snidle’s personal art collection on display, including works by David Hockney, Francis Bacon, Robert Rauschenberg and more.

• Oct. 8: Art Inspired by Art at CUSD Center for the Arts: Performances by Inspire School of Arts & Sciences students inspired by visual art.

• Oct. 22-23 & Oct. 29-30: Open Studios Tour: Artists open their studios, and Chico Art Center guides you along.

• Oct. 23: Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe covers Sticky Fingers at Sierra Nevada Big Room: Normally, the thought of some jammy band covering a dusty rock album from the early ’70s would send me into to a coma of self-preservation. But sax-man Karl Denson and his band lean on a tight funk more than loose noodling, and the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers is hardly dusty. Unlike most AOR fare of the era, the post-Brian Jones, post-Altamont, post-flower power album kicks as much ass today as it did 40 years ago—pure, uncut rock ’n’ roll.

• Oct. 25: Creole Choir of Cuba at Laxson Auditorium.

• Oct. 29-30: Two Days of the Dead at 1078 Gallery: Day one features performances, poetry, music and rituals that “approach the threshold between living and dying,” and day two features death-art workshops.

• Nov. 3-18: Raymond Carver Festival at Blue Room Theatre.

• Nov. 4: “As Alice” at Rowland-Taylor Recital Hall: L.A.’s experimental California E.A.R. Unit ensemble plays Chico State music instructor David Dvorin’s piece on violin, piano, tea cups, saucers, playing cards, clocks, doors, dogs and cats.

• Nov. 8-13: Revenger’s Tragedy at Wismer Theatre: Chico State’s Theater Department tackles this Jacobian thriller that culminates in “a coup de théâtre massacre of epic proportions.” Yes!

• Nov. 13: American Portrait at Laxson Auditorium: North State Symphony goes multimedia with portraits by Ansel Adams shown to the sound of Brubeck’s Ansel Adams: America.

• Nov. 17: David Sedaris at Laxson Auditorium.

• Dec. 1: The Jesus Show at RayRay Gallery: It’s about Jesus.

• Dec. 8-17: Salty Towers at 1078 Gallery: Yeah! The Rogue Theatre crew is bringing in the madcap farce (under the sea!) that Arts DEVO BFFFs and former Chico theater geeks Bryce Allemann and Kathy Hicks wrote in the Bay Area with their Thunderbird Theatre Co.