Weekend Out - April 16-18, 2010

Whenever someone asks me what my favorite single show experience of all time is, I quickly answer "Broken Social Scene at Lollapalooza 2006". It was a tight show shoehorning this massive supergroup into a 45-minute timeslot ahead of the weekend's top-billed act, Red Hot Chili Peppers, but what they brought was a uplifting, brilliant, magical, life-changing experience that no band would envy following up. Tonight, Broken Social Scene return to Ohio for the first time since their 2007 tour supporting Kevin Drew's wonderful BSS Presents album Spirit If.. with Wu-Tung rapper Ghostface Killah and hip-hop/dance/rock mash-up artist Milkman. What else could matter this weekend with that happening, right? Well, there are some other exciting events going down including opening weekend of Kings Island theme park in Mason, Ohio, The Antlers with Phantogram at The Basement, Red Sparowes and Caspian playing with one of my favorite new bands of 2010 - Fang Island - up in Cleveland, and Brother Ali and Best Coast each at Kenyon College's Horn Gallery.

Friday

• Canadian supergroup Broken Social Scene and Wu-Tung rapper Ghostface Killah headline Ohio Wesleyan University's SpringFest 2010 with mash-up artist Milkman opening. $20. Doors @ 6.
• Brooklyn indie rock band The Antlers come to The Basement bearing the beautiful and melancholy tracks from their "best of" 2009 album, Hospice, with electropop duo Phantogram. $12. Doors @ 8.
• The North American premiere of Miroku by KARAS comes to Ohio State University's Mershon Auditorium with the show starting at 8pm.$10 for students. $26 for general public.
• Wall Street hosts Red Light Girlie Lounge with Viva Valezz & The Velvet Hearts with burlesque performances throughout the evening. Doors @ 11pm. $3 lounge admission.
• Bobby Hamlin, "the Man with a Thousand voices", performs at Club Diversity at 9:30pm.

Saturday

• Kings Island theme park opens for the season. New for 2010 is Planet Snoopy, which replaced the park's Nickelodeon Universe.
• Hip hop artist Brother Ali takes on the Horn Gallery at Kenyon College in Gambier, OH.
• Wild Goose Creative pulls in Pull the String Productions to teach scenic improvisational technique classes that focus on preparing the student for on-stage performance. 11am – 4pm. Later on, Heather Evans, Chris Junker, Wild Animals (AJ and Katie Babcock) and Anderson Cale (Anderson and Cale) play benefit concert to help raise money and awareness for the Price of Life Invitational, a unique, city-wide campaign to help address and put an end to human trafficking. The show starts at 8 and the cost is only $5.
• Trio Norwin Mergler with Lisa Imondi & Pat Landishis performs at Club Diversity with a great mix of older & newer sounds at 9:30pm.

Sunday

• Lo-fi pop band Best Coast play the Horn Gallery at Kenyon College in Gambier, OH.
• Post-rockers Red Sparowes, Caspian, and Fang Island rock out at the Grog Shop in Cleveland. $10. Show @ 9.
• Karaoke with DJ Dawn starts at 7pm at Club Diversity.