Also, Rick Springfield at Reynolds Performance Hall, 'Gone with the Wind' at Ron Robinson, 5th Annual World Cheese Dip Championship at Bernice Garden, Halloween, Dia De 'Lost' Muertos at Lost Forty and Babes in Toyland at Juanita's.
by Will Stephenson and Lindsey Millar
THURSDAY 10/29
RICK SPRINGFIELD
7:30 p.m. Reynolds Performance Hall, UCA. $32-$35.
"When I turned fifty," Rick Springfield wrote in the preface to his 2010 memoir, "I wrote a song about my life so far, to see if I could fit it into a three-minute pop tune. I could." Then came the lyrics to the song, which is called "My Depression." It's his whole life, as he said it would be, from his birth, through the post-war baby boom, JFK's assassination, his introduction to drugs and music, his experience in Vietnam ("killed a man"), his move from Australia to the U.S. and early encounter with TV stardom on "General Hospital" ("Hollywood sex-rat, been there, done that"), his father's death, the collapse of his personal life and the loss of his faith, his downward spiral into gray despair ("Prozac, lithium, could never get enough of 'em"), his infidelity, his sleeping pills, his fame, his pain. This is the Springfield I like, the one who wakes up in the video for 1983's "Affair of the Heart" in a sweaty, neon nightmare — who shatters his mirror and struts fearlessly into the depths of the dream. It's worth mentioning that he also shatters a mirror in the video for his biggest hit, "Jessie's Girl," a fragile ode to sexual jealousy. He's always shattering mirrors. He explains that in "My Depression," too: "Looking in the mirror and thinking how it used to be," he writes. "Oh my God, it's my life." WS
FRIDAY 10/30
'GONE WITH THE WIND'
7 p.m. Ron Robinson Theater. $5.
Number of Hollywood executives who passed on "Gone with the Wind": 6. Number of Academy Awards won by the film: 10. Amount paid for the film rights: $50,000. Amount earned by the film in the year of its release: $59 million. Number of actresses auditioned for the role of Scarlett O'Hara: 1,400. Number of days it took Ben Hecht to write his first draft of the screenplay: 7. Number of days spent on the film by director George Cukor: 18. By his replacement, Victor Fleming: 93. By his replacement, Sam Wood: 24. Length of the film's rough cut: four hours and 25 minutes. Number of people present at the premiere in Atlanta: 300,000. Number of the film's many black actors invited to the premiere: 0. Percentage of TV viewers who watched its network TV debut: 65 percent. Total worldwide earnings, adjusted for inflation: $3.44 billion. WS
FRIDAY 10/30
PALLBEARER
9 p.m. Vino's. $10.
If Halloween weekend is about immersing yourself in negativity — dark colors, minor-key emotions like fear and revulsion, the grotesque as an aesthetic — there is no better or more profound way to do this than to go see Pallbearer. It will be like sinking into a sensory deprivation tank of negativity, so that we can all better focus on the profound void at the center of existence. The group's members, who are also probably the most successful and visible and widely acclaimed exports from Little Rock's music scene around at the moment, draw from a vast tragic canvas of despair, doom metal at its most satisfying and sonically thrilling. If you live here and haven't seen them, you're missing something big — like living in Athens, Ga., in the 1980s and skipping out on R.E.M. Opening will be Memphis band Dirty Streets, and Vino's will also screen the 1987 vampire classic "The Lost Boys" outside on the patio at 7:30 p.m. WS
SATURDAY 10/31
5TH ANNUAL WORLD CHEESE DIP CHAMPIONSHIP
Noon. Bernice Garden. $8 adv., $10 day of.
There's something poignant and almost pitiful about Arkansans thinking they invented cheese dip. I've long since stopped trying to have this argument, but speaking for everyone who didn't grow up in this state: Huh? Historians of Mexican cuisine passing through town must feel like Chuck Berry fans at an Elvis convention — how did this rumor get started? My deep skepticism notwithstanding — and I mean really deep; bottomless maybe — I wouldn't dream of missing the World Cheese Dip Championship, which returns to the Bernice Garden this Saturday from noon to 3 p.m. The lesson here is: You don't have to have invented something to be really good at making it. Admission is $10, but all proceeds will go to the Harmony Health Clinic, a "free medical clinic for poverty-level Arkansans." WS
SATURDAY 10/31
HALLOWEEN NIGHT
Various venues.
The Ron Robinson Theater presents "Paranormal Theater," a program of local horror and sci-fi short films, 7 p.m., free, followed by a screening of "The Amityville Horror." There will be a live production of Richard O'Brien's "The Rocky Horror Show" at Sway, 8:30 p.m., starring Queen Anthony James Gerard and "a colorful cast of talented locals" ("Audience participation is almost required," they stress), $20. Little Rock punk band I Was Afraid plays at Vino's with Terminal Nation, Knocked Loose, Lowered A.D. and No Victory. Revolution hosts a "Zombie Apocalypse Party" featuring Four on the Floor and deFrance, 8:30 p.m. A Halloween party at Juanita's ("a Killer night of Dancing, Goblins, Drinks and Bass to the face") starts at 9 p.m., featuring a costume contest and several DJs, $5. Afrodesia Studio hosts a tribute to Parliament's classic "Mothership Connection," with performances by Pam Bam, Dino D, Tonya Leeks, Jammin JC, Carter and more, 10 p.m., $10 adv., $15 day of. The White Water Tavern presents its annual Halloween Cover-Up showcase, featuring Iron Tongue performing the music of Guns N Roses and Pallbearer playing as Type O Negative, 10 p.m. (Sea Nanners plays on Oct. 30 as The Strokes). Discovery Nightclub hosts a Halloween party for the late-night crowd; it calls it "our biggest event of the year." WS
SUNDAY 11/1
DIA DE 'LOST' MUERTOS
2 p.m. Lost Forty Brewing. Free.
If you haven't been keeping up with your calendar, I have bad news for you: Get ready for 5 o'clock darkness. Daylight Saving Time ends on Sunday. If you're a cyclist who does not like riding in the dark or during lunch or in the cold (which, presumably, will come at some point), this is especially bad news. So for you — as well as noncyclists who like to drink beer, eat tacos and gawk — Lost Forty Brewing has teamed with Chainwheel, Arkansas Outside, Arkansas Times and our sister publications Bike Arkansas and El Latino to host a Dia De Los Muertos-themed fun ride. Registration for the free ride begins at 2 p.m. Riders are encouraged to dress in costumes. The ride starts at 2:45 p.m., and organizers promise it will be manageable even for those who don't have fancy bikes and are out of shape. The ride returns at 3:30 p.m. Then there's a trike toss. Then, at 4:45 p.m., awards will be given for costumes and lowrider bikes, and at 5 p.m. there's a raffle giveaway of a Townie Electra bike from Chainwheel. LM
TUESDAY 11/3
BABES IN TOYLAND
8:30 p.m. Juanita's. $22.
One of the many great fringe art-punk bands to implausibly find themselves on a major label in the Nirvana era — back when they allowed bands like Sonic Youth and the Butthole Surfers on television — Babes in Toyland has sadly become reduced to its context. They are remembered as proto-riot grrrl, or as Courtney Love associates (she apparently robbed them once; they really hated her; their Wikipedia page seems like one long awkward attempt to set the record straight on this issue). They made three good albums in the 1990s — real searing, fuzz-and-outrage punk rock, like The Breeders but a lot more spiteful. And as of late last year, they've reunited, financed (I read in Rolling Stone) by a corporation created specifically for that purpose by three ex-Google employees. The three band members have struggled in the intervening years with addiction, mental health issues and trauma. "I said I'd never, ever do a reunion," singer and guitarist Kat Bjelland told Rolling Stone. "I just got older and changed my mind, I guess. My son is 15, and I wanted him to see us play. I've played in bands after Babes in Toyland, but I missed my friends." WS