Celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of P.T. Barnum, Barnum’s FUNundrum! is a special tour of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus. It features more than 130 performers from six continents. See your favorites, plus new acts like pirates, mermaids and two-tiered trampolines. Show up early for a free preshow. Find Tickets, Madison Square Garden, 7th Ave & 32nd Street, New York, NY 10001.
Based on the best-selling novel by Gregory Maguire entitled “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West,” is a story about the witches of Oz before Dorothy arrives from Kansas. With music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz (Godspell), Wicked tells tale of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West and her former best friend, Glinda, the Good Witch. Elphaba, born with emerald green skin and a fiery spirit befriends Glinda who is beautiful and popular while both are attending Shiz University.
The friendship starts shows cracks as Elphaba and Glinda’s personalities begin to form. Their disagreements on the Wizard’s ruling of Oz, their vastly different personalities and a rivalry over the same love interest threatens to upset the order at their university. Appropriate for children ages 8 and up. Find tickets for the show at the Gershwin Theatre, 222 West 51st St., New York, NY 10019.
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A hardcore band straight out of Brooklyn, Incuria’s music is violent and aggressive, far above the typical Brooklyn hardcore band. Their songs have been described as “songs that make you want to kill and die at the same time”. Find Tickets.
Little Dragon is a Swedish alternative pop band that combines soul with electropop. The band consists of four high school friends that were chosen as one of Beyond Race Magazines’ “50 emerging artists”. Find Tickets.
Apollo Sunshine’s alternative rock music has landed them on Amazon.com’s Best of 2005 list as well as “An Artist to Watch” according to Rolling Stone. Drew Barrymore is such a big fan of their song “Breeze” that she fought to get it on the “Whip It” movie soundtrack by saying “it ends the movie. It was just a perfect song”. Find Tickets.
A group that Clash calls “Sufjan Stevens meets an unplugged Arcade Fire,” I spoke with founder and lead singer, Sindri Mar Sigfusson, via tele as he prepared to leave for Seabear’s first U.S. tour. Aged 27 years, Sindri’s at that dangerous rock age. “My birthday’s in May,” he says. “I hope I’ll make it until then.”
His band, Seabear, is poised to be the next big thing out a very miniature country known as Iceland. Of Iceland’s population of 317,000, seven instrument-bearing 20-somethings have come together to form Seabear. Already out in Europe, the group’s third major album, We Built a Fire, is due out Tuesday, March 16, 2010, and the band members are packing their bags as we speak for shows in Austin, New York City, Cambridge, Mass., and across the Northeast.
Sindri bought his first electric guitar when he 19 or 20. He took lessons for three months, then started noodling around on his own. “I wasn’t very good,” he says, but he plugged into his computer and started sampling, mixing and combining sounds. He would keep playing music as he worked his way through art school, and his solo act soon morphed into Seabear.
“I didn’t expect it to happen like it that,” Sindri says. “When I started recording it was never my intention to play live … When you start playing live, I think the music changes quite a bit. I’m very happy about that.”
Indeed, rumor has it Seabear’s latest disc is more upbeat, lending itself to livelier shows. That’ll be a good thing for the band’s debut at South by Southwest in Austin. They’re scheduled to play live four times between March 17-20 throughout Austin (see the full list on their MySpace page).
“Our soundman in Europe, he asked us to go to a hot sauce shop in Austin and buy him the hottest sauce they have,” Sindri says. Beyond that, the group doesn’t have a lot of set plans outside of performances. They plan to hit up Graceland on the drive from Austin to the East Coast. “We’ll just look around,” Sindri says, “Go to Wal-Mart, do the tourist thing.”
When I ask Sindri if he has any advice for aspiring musicians, he’s quick to say persistence is the most important ingredient. “I think you probably have to write 500 bad songs until you come up with something that you like and you’re happy with. … It’s 50 percent believing in yourself and 50 percent of being critical with yourself.”
It’s a formula that seems to have worked for Seabear. “I don’t know if I ask anymore than this,” Sindri says. “Getting to play a lot and not like losing money on it. I think we’re in a very good place right now. (I hope we) keep on being happy with what we’re doing. It’s best when you release albums, not have any expectations, and just be happy with how things are.”
Seabear will play two shows in the New York City area. One at the Mercury Lounge on March 25, and one at Southpaw on March 26.