08.23.18

PW OPINION PW NEWS PW LIFE PW ARTS
•INTO THE NIGHT•
BY BLISS BOWEN
•NITELIFE•
Thursday Aug. 23 through Wednesday Aug. 29
PLEASE NOTE: Deadline for Calendar submissions
is noon. Wednesday of the week before
the issue publishes.
PASADENA, SOUTH
PASADENA & ALTADENA
1881 Bar
1881 E. Washington Blvd., Pasadena
(626) 314-2077
facebook.com/1881bar
Fridays—Live jazz
Saturdays—Gypsie jazz
Wednesdays—Reggae
The Blue Guitar
Arroyo Seco Golf Course
1055 Lohman Lane, South Pasadena
blueguitar.club
Thursday—John Mayer Trio
The Boulevard Bar
3199 E. Foothill Blvd., Pasadena
(626) 356-9304
blvdbar.com
Fridays—Drag performances hosted by Tia
Wanna every Friday
Cabrera’s Mexican Cuisine
655 N. Lake Ave., Pasadena
(626) 795-0230
cabreras.com
Thursdays—Live jazz
Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays—Karaoke
Coffee Gallery Backstage
2029 N. Lake Ave., Altadena
(626) 798-6236
coffeegallery.com
Thursday—Jim & Anne Curry: The Songs of
John Denver
Friday—The Miskey Mountain Boys
Saturday—Matinee show w/Burgan & Chan
w/Jeremy Burgan; evening show w/Marc Berger
Sunday—Thrive and Survive music business
class; evening show w/Janet Klein & Her Parlor
Boys
Wednesday—David Harvey Presents Kelly’s Lot
and Abby Posner w/Dylan Brody
Der Wolfskopf
72 N. Fair Oaks Ave., Pasadena
(626) 219-6054
derwolfskopf.com
Fridays—“Night Court” features Deejay Kind
Cromang spinning vinyl soul, funk, disco and
boogie
Edwin Mills by Equator
22 Mills Place, Pasadena
(626) 564-8656
edwinmills.com
Saturday—Bri Sarikcioglu
Tuesday—Legendary Bingo fundraiser
Wednesday—Julie Kelly
El Portal Restaurant
695 E. Green St., Pasadena
(626) 795-8553
elportalrestaurant.com
Fridays—Mariachi México
Saturdays—Alanniz
Sundays—Mariachi Bella
Ice House
24 N. Mentor Ave., Pasadena
(626) 577-1894
icehousecomedy.com
Thursday—Thursday Night Live w/Rudy
Moreno; Comedy Pile-Up
Friday—Hollywood Comes to Pasadena; Puro
Pinche Laughter w/Raymond Orta, Mario
Salazar and Rob Jenkins; Late Night Line-Up w/
–CONTINUED ON PAGE 26
‘For a Better Life’
HOPEFUL POP FROM ROONEY AT THE REGENT NEXT THURSDAY
When your whole family
has not only made
Hollywood home, but
also added luster to its myth, it’s
perhaps inevitable that you will
at least try to do the same. To
pop fans, Robert Schwartzman
is known as the shaggy-haired
frontman of Rooney. Film lovers
may know him as the son of
actress Talia Shire, nephew of
Francis Ford Coppola, cousin of
Nicolas Cage and Sofia Coppola,
and brother to the more famous
Jason, who drummed for Phantom
Planet until Hollywood’s calls
became too frequent.
In some respects the footloose
Schwartzman’s career seems like a
search for a sustainable sweet spot
between music and film. His acting
resume’s grounded in inconsequential
appearances in films like “The
Virgin Suicides” and “The Princess
Diaries,” but from high school
through much of the early ’00s his
primary focus was Rooney and, increasingly,
scoring short films and
TV. Then he stepped behind the
camera to direct Jason in 2016’s
piano bar-centered “Dreamland”;
he returned to studio sets to direct
“The Unicorn,” due out next year,
a comedy in which Rooney’s new
single will be heard.
Said single, “Do You Believe,”
released last week, doesn’t have
quite as magnetic a hook as “My
Heart Beats 4 U” (from 2016’s
“Washed Away”). But it sounds
downright lush in comparison to
the more angular, metallic synth
sounds of Rooney’s 2017 EP “El
Cortez,” and it certainly has more
substance than 2010’s tissueweight
“When Did Your Heart Go
Missing?” In a summer of roiling
discontent, the song, which will
likely be a high point of Rooney’s
set at the Regent next Thursday,
is thematically on point. Live,
Schartzman’s proved his mettle
as musician and composer,
holding his own in solo acoustic
settings with no loops or accompaniment
as protective buffer;
but the full-band treatment
underscores the tune’s summery
appeal as well as the lyric’s sense
of purpose.
This way and that way
What’s the difference if we’re
all gonna pay
Uptown, black or brown
Live your religion but we all
hurt the same
Spin its drops of gold
For a better life
The truth is bought and told
For a better life
If ever there was a time crying
out for a “Get Together” type
anthem, this is it. There isn’t a
millisecond of Jesse Colin Young’s
hippie earnestness to be heard
within the sleek constructs of “Do
You Believe,” but its slightly cynical
yet hopeful message still hits
home. n
Rooney performs at the Regent Theater,
448 S. Main St., Downtown LA at 8 p.m.
Thursday, Aug. 30; $20 advance/$25 day of
show. Info: (323) 284-5727. Rooneymusic.
com, spacelandpresents.com
A String Thing
NEW WORLD STRING PROJECT WEAVES
TRADITIONAL STYLES AT CALTECH
The Pasadena Folk Music Society presents the New World String Project in a
Saturday night show at Caltech. The group’s music boasts Celtic, Nordic and
American folk roots in a weave of traditional sound.
New World String Project utilizes traditional instruments to get the musical
message across. Lisa Lynne is an accomplished Celtic harp player and multi-instrumentalist
who has released music on the Windham Hill and New Earth labels. She
performs frequently with fellow Project member and veteran multi-instrumentalist
Aryeh Frankfurter, who is an expert with harps and nyckelharpa, a Swedish instrument
with a bow and keys. The pair is joined by Stuart Mason, vocalist, guitarist, banjo and
mandola player, along with fiddler John Weed, who performs with Mason in Celtic
band Molly’s Revenge.
Weed and Mason have also worked together on various American roots music
projects.
Visit newworldstringproject.com. — John Sollenberger
Music starts at 8 p.m. Saturday in Beckman Institute Auditorium, 400 S. Wilson Ave.,
Pasadena, on the Caltech campus. Tickets are $20 for adults, $5 for Caltech students and
children younger than 12. Call (626) 395-4652 or visit pasadenafolkmusicsociety.org.
08.23.18 | PASADENA WEEKLY 25