Also, "War Eagle, Arkansas" in Argenta, 2nd Friday Art Night, Arkansas Times Firkin Fest, Seratones at White Water, Legends in Argenta and Indiafest.
THURSDAY 5/12
JAY FARRAR
8 p.m., South on Main, $25-$35.
For devotees of Son Volt, Jay Farrar's recent re-release of the album "Trace" on the 20th anniversary of its debut is a history: It traces Farrar's songwriting back to its origins. The 37-track anthology is decorated with unreleased demo tracks for songs that are now considered alt-country anthems, as well as a live performance recorded at Greenwich Village's The Bottom Line and several songs from Uncle Tupelo, the group that preceded Son Volt (and whose tumultuous dissolution resulted in bandmate Jeff Tweedy's forming Wilco). Farrar is on tour in support of the retrospective album, and brings his travelogue-style honky-tonk to South on Main. Rumor has it he's been playing alongside Son Volt's original pedal steel player, Eric Heywood, on his latest dates, and that the duo captivated audiences at January's 30A Songwriter's Festival. SS
THURSDAY 5/12
DOGTOWN FILM SERIES: 'WAR EAGLE, ARKANSAS'
7 p.m., Argenta Community Theater, $5.
Shot entirely in Northwest Arkansas on a budget of barely over $1 million and written by Little Rock's Graham Gordy, "War Eagle, Arkansas" portrays a symbiosis between two young men struggling to develop a sense of direction in a small town in rural Arkansas, and the ways in which the security of their friendship is strained by the symptoms of growing up — the introduction of an appealing girl, the promise of a college scholarship. Inspired by a real-life friendship between Vincent Insalaco III and Tim Ballany, the movie grasps at expressing the nuance of what we often reductively call "disability." The film won Best Picture at the Breckenridge Film Festival, the Hollywood Film Festival and California Independent Film Festival when it premiered in 2007, and is the second in a series of classic films to be shown at the black box theater on Main Street as part of the Dogtown Film Series, an almost-monthly series (they're taking a pass in July, during the summer production of "La Cage aux Folles") that will run through the remainder of the year. SS
FRIDAY 5/13
2ND FRIDAY ART NIGHT
Downtown. 5-8 p.m.
Arkansas Capital Corp., the Historic Arkansas Museum, the Butler Center galleries, the Cox Creative Center and Matt McLeod Fine Art Gallery will stay open after hours for the monthly trolley-assisted art stroll. Virmarie DePoyster, Heidi Hogden, Logan Hunter and Anna Sheals are showing work in an exhibition called "Naturals" at the Capital Corp.; Robert Lemming and Louis Watts are the featured artists at HAM, where Marchese Hendricks will perform live music and Bubba's Brewing Co. will serve up suds; music by DJ Harlem Jones will fill the Butler Center galleries, where the shows "Culture Shock: Shine Your Rubies, Hide Your Diamonds," "Twists and Strands" and "Jeanfo" continue. Paintings by Jude Harzer, sculpture by Wayne Salge and jewelry by Sage Holland will be among the works at McLeod, and Cox Creative Center is showing "Little Rock Young Artists." To hear music by The Salty Dogs and down a brew from Stone's Throw Brewing, head over to the Old State House Museum. LNP
FRIDAY 5/13
ARKANSAS TIMES FIRKIN FEST
6 p.m., Argenta Plaza, 520 Main St., $35 adv., $40 day of.
If consistency and predictability characterize the world of mass-produced domestic beers (or "flavored water," as they are referred to on the menu of Hot Springs' Steinhaus Keller), a firkin is its direct opposite. Like a temperamental heirloom sourdough starter, beer cask-conditioned in a firkin has not been tampered with by external processes. That is to say, nobody has come along and carbonated or pasteurized it — its fizziness comes only by way of the CO2 produced by the lusty interaction of sugar with the yeast that resides in the beer naturally, the way beer was made before industrialization reared its homogenizing head. This can have some wonderful effects on the finished product. The beer, not having been robbed of its natural vitamins and minerals, can take on all sorts of flavors you'd never get from regular kegged or bottled beer. These nuances can come from the vessel itself, or from some ingredient the brewer introduces. Common firkin additions include fruits, spices, liquors, herbs and coffee. However, the antiquated process also makes the ale impractical to preserve for long periods of time, much less to transport for mass consumption. Fortunately, these casks won't travel far. Tickets to the inaugural Firkin Fest in Argenta will get you access to the 15,000-plus samples of beer from 17 breweries (including novel varieties like an elderflower IPA, a peanut butter mocha brown ale and a grapefruit radler), food from eight local restaurants and music by Fellowship Hall Sound artists Isaac Alexander and Jason Weinheimer. The tapping of a firkin is an evanescent thing, a fleeting moment, a foamy ephemera — be there. SS
SATURDAY 5/14
SERATONES
9 p.m. White Water Tavern. $7.
Mere days after Fat Possum records drops "Get Gone," the Seratones' highly anticipated debut album, the quartet will throw down at the White Water Tavern, and despite the fact that these SXSW darlings will no doubt look as cool as the other side of the pillow, their sound is drenched in sweat. Frontwoman A.J Haynes' vocal tremolo is to die for, and despite being able to create a thick wall of sound, the band also leaves enough space in its groove for you to feel the hefty, syncopated offbeat that makes it so contagiously danceable. It evokes the best bits of hard-driving rock bands like J. Roddy Walston and the Business, and makes you feel like things could veer toward the sacred or bizarre at any moment — perhaps a result of these longtime friends' shared crawls through the weirder musical corners of their native Shreveport, La. The Uh-Huhs will get things shaking, and two of its members will do double-duty with Bombay Harambee, whose set is sure to show off plenty of the smart stuff that fills their Western-pulp styled pop-punk album, "Goldmine." Do your wallet a solid and heed the warning on the show's event page: "This will likely be the last time you can catch the Seratones anywhere for a mere $7." SS
SATURDAY 5/14
LEGENDS IN ARGENTA
4 p.m. Sixth and Main streets, North Little Rock. $5.
One might contest the propriety of using the word "legend" to describe folks who are still active on the artistic scene, whose careers we don't yet view in the retrospective mirror, but when the lineup includes Mulehead and Nick Devlin, the word seems entirely appropriate. These folks helped shape the Little Rock music scene as we know it, and their performances Saturday at the corner of Sixth and Main in Argenta will help fund September's Legends of Arkansas concerts, a marathon of music that will celebrate the embarrassment of riches we've got in our state's collective discography. Sarah Cecil, a preteen with an undeniable knack for acoustic guitar and vocally difficult cover songs, will perform, and agile bass-baritone songwriter Brian Nahlen will join Devlin with sweet, sunny tunes that will make the whole affair feel straight out of a storybook. Ghost Bones takes the stage, too, showing us what you get when a bunch of kids from Hot Springs rips into tight B-52's-style noir with a Juliette Greco lookalike at the helm. Food trucks will be out in force, and some independent entrepreneurs will be vending (or hyping) their creations. The event is sponsored by 107 Liquor, so intoxicants will be well represented, too: Post Winery and a bevy of local breweries will have provisions on hand. SS
SUNDAY 5/15
INDIAFEST
11 a.m. River Market pavilions. Free.
If the photos from Little Rock's first Indiafest in 2015 are any indicator of what awaits attendees this year, it will inspire the same loyalty that created the logistical need for a "drive-thru" line at the annual Greek Food Festival. Over 5,000 people showed up last year to experience the multidimensional display of Indian culture, which too often gets relayed to our senses as a distilled version of itself: Bollywood, mehndi tattoos, saag paneer. After all, India is nearly five times bigger than Texas (and almost four times as populous at the U.S.), and consequently its traditions vary widely across its regions. The pappadams, vindaloo and korma may be presented at Indian restaurants as one kind of cuisine, but they all hail from different places, just as sarees are draped differently in Karnataka from the way they are in bustling New Delhi. If you feel you've got a long way to go in understanding India's multiplicity, you're not alone, and this is a prime opportunity to broaden your idea of what it means to say something is "Indian." There'll be food and goods for sale and performances until 7 p.m. SS