Killswitch Engage

“Just how ‘metalcore’ are Killswitch Engage?” you ask. Well, the Massachusetts-based quintet penned a single for the Resident Evil franchise, provided the entrance theme for WWE wrestler CM Punk, and toured enough on the Warped and Headbanger’s Ball circuit for MTV to name them “one of the founders of metalcore.” But get this: The band had big enough metalcore cojones to name their latest album simply Killswitch Engage, even though they’d already used that eponymous title for their 2000 debut.

This is not to say that the other two bands on Saturday’s bill don’t also know a thing or two about cojones. An updated version of the ’80s hardcore thrash band Cro-Mags will join Killswitch Engage, and they once tried to incorporate Hare Krishna of all things into hardcore. And Dark Tranquility are a Swedish death metal band. So, you know what that means—yup, cannibals.

Killswitch Engage, Cro-Mags, and Dark Tranquility come to Northern Lights (1208 Route 146, Clifton Park) on Saturday (March 20) at 7 PM. Tickets are $32. Call 371-0012 for more info.

Convergence Vocal Ensemble

It does any music lover good to attend a choral performance in a cathedral. Architecturally, most cathedrals were designed to enhance musical worship in its purest form—the human voice.

Tomorrow (March 19), Albany’s Cathedral of All Saints—the magnificent Episcopal cathedral in the shadow of the State Education Building—will play host to “an evening of contemplative a capella choral works” performed by the Convergence Vocal Ensemble.

Convergence features a diverse collection of singers from odd corners of the country—Massachusetts, Texas—who have wide musical experience and impressive resumes in common. We know this from reading the detailed list of credits provided by the ensemble; you can take our word for this. The program will include works by Tavener, Pärt, Tallis, Monteverdi, Savoy, de Lassus and more.

Convergence Vocal Ensemble will perform tomorrow (Friday, March 19) at 8 PM at the Cathedral of All Saints (62 S. Swan St., Albany). Tickets are $20 general admission, $15 seniors, $10 students. For more info, call 301-3323.

Fish Tank

The story of British film Fish Tank’s breakout star probably got as much publicity as the film itself. Katie Jarvis was spotted by a casting agent while arguing with her boyfriend in an Essex train station. The teenager had no acting experience; she didn’t even believe the agent was legit. But at the end of what reads like a contemporary fairy tale, Jarvis turned in a performance that the Washington Post called “tender, spiky and utterly fearless in its physical and emotional range.”

Set in a bleak public-housing estate, the story of volatile loner Mia Williams on the cusp of adulthood lacks the glass-slippered conclusion. But helmed by director Andrea Arnold (who took home an Oscar in 2004 for her similarly-themed short film Wasp), Fish Tank’s brutal authenticity snagged the Jury Prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival and the 2009 BAFTA for Outstanding British Film.

“A coming-of-age story for Mia, who will at least have a shot at happiness,” says The Wall Street Journal, “and a coming-into-mastery story for the writer-director, Ms. Arnold, whose prospects seem limitless.”

Fish Tank will be screened at the Saratoga Film Forum (Dee Sarno Theater, Saratoga County Arts Council, 320 Broadway, Saratoga Springs) tomorrow and Saturday (March 18-19) at 8 PM and Sunday (March 21) at 3 PM. Tickets are $7, $5 for forum members and students. For more info, call 584-3456.