Art
May 30: Off the Grid. Wexner Center for the Arts, 1871 N High St.
This week there’s nothing I want to recommend more highly than Off the Grid. The Wexner Center’s fundraiser for their education programs is also one of my favorite parties of the season. Over the last five years since the annual non-gala fundraiser has morphed into its current form and name, Off the Grid has taken on its own identity and carved out its own demographic: culture vultures like me, young professionals out to see and be seen (and get their first taste of the Wexner Center in the bargain), and a crowd just out to eat some great food and dance to some of the best out of town DJs anyone books.
The selection of local restaurants is always top notch – don’t forget to eat as I have sometimes, too caught up in talking and dancing. The music’s always a righteous dancefloor filler and it gets taken up another notch this year with local electronic artist Giant Claw and Brooklyn DJ Lauren Flax (half of Creep) one of the hottest producers and DJs out there right now.
This marks the end of my two year run on the GenWex Advisory Committee. I know there are a lot of competing choices that night. But if you’re not at Nelsonville Music Festival an hour’s drive away – and if you’re getting down to Oblivians, Budos Band, or Mavis Staples, I won’t question your choices – or seeing the Rolling Stones a fifteen minute walk away, it would be lovely to see you out at this. Starts at 8:00pm. For tickets and more information visit http://wexarts.org/public-programs/genwex/grid-0
Film
May 26: Hard to Be a God. Wexner Center for the Arts, 1871 N High St.
No discrespect to Mad Max, but I feel comfortable saying this is the Science Fiction film event of the summer and maybe the year if you’re my breed of SF fan. That is, the kind of nerd who got his or her head blown open by reading Boris and Arkady Sturgatsky’s The Roadside Picnic as an adolescent (and seeing the Tarkovsky adaptation Stalker in High School or College).
It’s hard not thinking about the discussion of a few sad, small, scared men trying to hem in boundaries and keep people out of that kind of genre work (and the celebration of same) when something that reminds me of the genre work I love most comes out. Those were the kind of voices that made me think SF wasn’t worth bothering with and made it easy for me to walk away – without regret – from almost all cons over a decade ago. I went many years not even checking for what was new on those shelves. In the long term, I know their time is done – with them now emboldened and scared leading a terrifying choir that chokes on dust and sounds like a death rattle. As I try to empathize with my friends fighting the good fight on those fonts, I think it’s more important than ever to celebrate this kind of work.
If you want to think of it as other than science fiction, that’s great too.I’m not that kind of nerd to say “You stand up and say ‘No, this is science fiction! You do like science fiction!'” (Yes, I sat in a panel where someone actually did this about Future Shock or Frankenstein or Rappacini’s Daughter and my sense of fuck this started to harden). But it’s a great example of what those tools can tell us about the future and about the past. This film adaptation, finished by Aleksei German before his death, is supposed to be phenomenal and you can best believe I’ll be there. Starts at 7:00pm. $8 tickets available at http://wexarts.org/film-video/hard-be-god
Music
May 
28: Deicide, Hate Eternal, Entombed AD, and Svart Crown. Alrosa Villa, 5055 Sinclair Rd.
In high school when I got turned onto the Earache school of death metal, that was my punk rock, and while it’s not a huge part of my diet these days, I still get a charge out of putting on Deicide’s Legion or Serpents of the Light, and To Hell with God of a few years ago was a stunning return to form full of catchy riffs and pummeling rhythms. Entombed I took a little longer to warm to – and they’re probably still more often thought of by most readers of this blog as the band Nicke Andersson left to form Hellacopters, but I still put on Wolverine Blues with some regularity and it might be the best example of a fusion of straight-ahead rock and roll with the prickly grind of death metal. I saw Hate Eternal a few years ago at the Newport and Erik Rutan still has that quicksilver guitar tone and mastery of the immediately identifiable riff, this power trio format is a brilliant showcase for him. Svart Crown I just found researching this and they’re a French band in the same scene as Alcest who have a great blacked death groove akin to Ohio’s Skeletonwitch. For someone with my tastes and aesthetic, this is the most stacked metal show to come through town in a while. Locals Lorna Shore and Exudate open along with Reading, PA’s, Black Crown Initiate. Doors 5:30pm. Tickets available at http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=5774665
May 29: E-40 and Mystikal. Xclusive Elite Entertainment Center, 1921 Channingway Center Dr.
Two of the strongest proponents of the regional rap explosion of the mid-late ’90s coming back to town on one massive bill. E-40 helped popularize the Bay Area’s hyphy sound. Mystikal brought a different slowed-down blues shout flavor to the New Orleans flourishing exploding everywhere. These were two voices immediately recognizable the minute they came out of a speaker on a radio or at a party and two indelible songwriters. This venue – a revival and restoration of a classic Columbus dancehall – has been booking killing hip-hop and country acts of late, I haven’t made it to one yet but I’d be remiss not bringing this up to anyone anywhere near my age. St. Louis’ Stevie Stone opens. Doors at 7:00pm. Tickets available at http://www.ticketmaster.com/e40-and-mystikal-columbus-ohio-05-29-2015/event/05004E8DB0D27D04
May 30: Scale Model with Damn the Witch Siren and The Girls!. Wall Street Nightclub, 144 N Wall St.
Wall Street’s principally known as a dance club but they’ve always done other things – drag shows, musical theater – and they’re making a rare foray into live rock bands this weekend with a perfectly chosen bill. Scale Model out of Nashville does a riff on classic New Wave with observational lyrics, a wry sense of humor, and hooks to spare delivered by a ferocious frontwoman, Megan Rox.
They’re paired with two of Columbus’s finest in a similar make-you-dance vein. Damn the Witch Siren, fronted by Krista Botjer, refine their funky throwback dance music at a white-hot pace, better every time I see them with ever-stronger songs. The Girls! came out of the gate with maybe the best hooks in town and their unhinged live show is a fireworks display, a thing of beauty and wonder that will fill a dancefloor in seconds flat; they’re recording again soon so look for new songs through that big, gorgeous PA at Wall Street. 8:00pm doors. $7 cover.
Screen of Distance 