Scott Smith plays the Shipyards
By Steve Newton
FRIDAY: Comedy Here Often?‘s Summer Showcase at 604 Studios features headliner Sophia Johnson, with guests Rory Dunn, George Ridgen, and Rachel Schaefer. Get your laugh on.
FRIDAY: the Blind Pig Festival presents performances by Jay Gavin, COL WILL, and the Steve Kozak Band at Granville Island’s Waterfront Lounge and Theatre Main Stage.
FRIDAY TO SUNDAY: the Arts Club Theatre Company presents the musical Million Dollar Quartet— which depicts the famed 1956 jam session between Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins–at the Granville Island Stage.
FRIDAY TO SUNDAY: the Arts Club Theatre Company presents Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, about the pop phenomenon’s rise to stardom, running to August 6 at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage. You might feel the earth move under your feet.
Videodrome screens at the Rio
SATURDAY: 40th-anniversary screening at the Rio Theatre of David Cronenberg’s disorienting sci-fi/body horror flick Videodrome, starring James Woods and Deborah Harry. That’s one freaky film.
SATURDAY: Surrey Canada Day features free performances at Cloverdale’s Bill Reid Millennium Amphitheatre by Broken Social Scene, Crown Lands, Neon Dreams, Piqsiq, and others.
Nita Strauss plays the Rickshaw
SUNDAY: heavy-metal guitar virtuoso Nita Strauss, formerly of the Alice Cooper band, plays the Rickshaw Theatre, with guests Lions at the Gate. That lady can play!
SUNDAY: Vancouver guitar great Scott Smith of Terminal Station is featured in a free celebration of the music of Santana at the Shipyards, accompanied by organist Darryl Havers, bassist Jeremy Holmes, drummer Geoff Hicks, conga player Liam MacDonald, and timbalero Robin Layne. Maybe they’ll do “Samba Pa Ti”.
SUNDAY: screening at the VIFF Centre of director John Carpenter’s 1981 action flick Escape From New York as part of the Back to the 80s film series. Snake Plissken: the ultimate badass.
Blade Runner: The Final Cut screens at the Rio
SUNDAY: screening at the Rio Theatre of director Ridley Scott’s sci-fi action epic Blade Runner: The Final Cut, based on Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? Come for the action, stay for Rutger Hauer’s soliloquy.