Clutch

It’s a rare class of performer who can play the blowout New Year’s bash (Springsteen, Prince, et al.), and an even thinner crowd who can pull off the Christmas Eve set (mostly just Josh Groban and church handbell choirs), but that strange Bermuda Triangle of days between Christmas and New Year’s—when most self-respecting individuals are home playing World of Warcraft in their new slippers—is reserved for the most elite set of hard-touring live bands.

Count Clutch among them. The Maryland-based hard rock quartet have built pretty much everything they do on the reputation of their live act, and they tend to log upward of 100 shows per year. It’s a back-to-basics approach befitting their heavily blues-influenced sound, and it famously caught the attention of jackass Bam Margera, who directed the video for “The Mob Goes Wild” in 2004.

Doomriders, Lionize, and Never Get Caught open.

Clutch will play Northern Lights (1208 Route 146, Clifton Park) on Tuesday (Dec. 29). Doors open at 6:30 PM. Tickets are $23. Call 371-0012 for more info.

Miracle on 34th Street

Maybe you’re just not ready to surrender your Christmas spirit. Maybe you’re looking for a nostalgic family adventure over the holiday vacation, or perhaps the chance to see a 1947 Christmas classic on the big screen at the Palace Theatre is just too heartwarming to pass up.

Whatever your reason for extending the season, the folks at the Palace invite you to continue the sprit with a post-christmas screening of the holiday favorite Miracle on 34th Street. Maureen O’Hara, John Payne, Edmund Gwenn, and a young Natalie Wood star in the multi-Oscar-winning story of an unbelieving child and a trial to prove that one magical man really is Santa Claus.

If you’ve never seen it, do so right away. If you’ve seen it a hundred times, see it once more in all it’s big-screen glory, and if you’ve seen it on the big screen, see it again with someone you love. It’s sure to give you something to believe in.

After all, according to one Kris Kringle, “Christmas isn’t just a day, it’s a frame of mind.”

Miracle on 34th Street will be screened at the Palace Theatre (19 Clinton Ave., Albany) on Monday (Dec. 28) at 7 PM. Tickets are $5, $3 for children. For more info call 465-3334.