The Next 96 Hours: Theatre, blues and rootsy rock

Apr 19th 2012

Good options abound this weekend - regardless of the weather - and it's going to be tough to balance all of it. Let's look at the highlights. 

Starting Thursday night at The State Room, Portland's Quick and Easy Boys, pictured above, bring their original rock sound in for a Thursday night concert. This is at least their third SLC visit and it's fun to watch a hard-working build its fan base sans big record sales or radio play.  Instead, they're doing it the old-fashioned way through hard work and good live shows. Tickets are still available.

This Saturday night offers a rootsy diversion as The White Buffalo, headlines a gig with country-rock locals Triggers & Slips opening the concert at 9 p.m. This should be a terrific night of Americana music and tickets are $12. 

Also Saturday Bay area jam-rockers Tea Leaf Green bring their road-tested show into the Urban Lounge along with Silent Comedy as the openers. Silent Comedy is also well worth seeing. They played a fun, interesting set last year opening for country troubadour Ryan Bingham. Tickets are on sale for $15 at 24tix.com.

Don't forget this weekend that Ballet West continues its production of "Emeralds" by George Balanchine and set to the music of Gabriel Faure. This should be a dramatic, colorful production well worth your time. Multiple showings are set for Thursday through Saturday. Tickets are at arttix.org.

And finally on Sunday, blues guitar slinger Joe Bonnamassa will headline an 8 p.m. Kingsbury Hall show on Sunday. Although I love the blues in general, I've never quite cottoned to Bonnamassa's white-boy sounds. However, I'm in a bit of a minority on this and he certainly has his fans. Kingsbury is a great place to hear any act and this should be a nice night. Tickets remain on sale at arttix.org.