Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

To paraphrase their hit, “Home” is wherever ragtag neo-hippie art rock family band Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros park their big white magic bus. Lucky for us, on Tuesday that’ll be a strip mall in Clifton Park.

Besides 12 bodies, guitars, horns, accordian, drums, and who knows what else, the bus is packed with mythology. As the story goes, frontman Alex Ebert (also of Ima Robot) concieved of the fictional messianic Edward Sharpe after breaking up with his girlfriend, entering AA, and living in a squalid LA apartment. One day he met Jade Castrinos down by the railroad tracks and together they built a band of merry troubadours to tell the saga of Sharpe. Part of the project is a 12-piece video musical, of which the band have completed two sections, but more fun is the band’s live show, which features all the collective clapping, stomping and shouting you’d expect.

We Are Each Other featuring Aaron Embry will open.

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros come to Northern Lights (1208 Route 146, Clifton Park), on Tuesday (July 27) at 8 PM. Tickets are $15. Call 371-0012 for more info.

 

National Peace Conference

This weekend, hundreds of activists and advocates for peace will descend on Albany when the National Peace Conference convenes for a weekend of workshops, lectures and discussions with the leadership of the national antiwar and social-justice movements.

The program includes an impressive roll of speakers, including Noam Chomsky, who will keynote via video, and more than 30 workshops on pressing issues and strategies for approaching them—from counter-recruitment, nonviolent resistance and electoral pressure to the immigration and health-care reform, the Israel-Palestine conflict and the effects of uranium munitions. The conference aims to finalize an action proposal calling for the immediate and total withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and for military funds to be redirected to education, environment, infrastructure and other human needs.

The National Peace Conference kicks off tomorrow (Friday, July 23) at the Crowne Plaza Hotel (State and Lodge streets, Albany) at 7 PM with a panel discussion. Workshops and speakers continue through Sunday. The cost of registration for the full three days is $80; $40 for students and low-income or unemployed individuals. Admission to single conference events is $25. For more info, visit nationalpeaceconference.org or call 227-6947.

 

Jacoby & Pronk and Dancers

Contemporary ballet duo Drew Jacoby and Rubinald Pronk have achieved a rare feat in the dance world. They have forged an independent partnership, sans company, with explosive success.

Jacoby & Pronk recently were featured on the cover of Dance Magazine, who declared the up-and-comers a duo to watch. The story inside raved: “Jacoby’s steely strength and Pronk’s fluid hyper-flexiblity defy the usual gender norms of a ballet partnership. They possess a brimming, almost menacing, energy, and the sense that they are daring each other is palpable.”

This week they bring their prowess to Jacob’s Pillow, joined by Victor Mateos Arellano of Dresden SemperOper Ballett, Shirley Esseboom of Nederlands Dans Theatre, and American Ballet Theatre Principal David Hallberg. These contemporary ballet all-stars will perform an exclusive program for the Pillow, which includes two world premieres and a quartet transformation of the duo’s acclaimed One.

Jacoby & Pronk and Dancers will present their exclusive program at Jacob’s Pillow’s Doris Duke Theatre (358 George Carter Road, Becket, Mass.) tonight (Thursday, July 22) at 8:15 PM; four more performances are scheduled through Sunday. Tickets are $37.50, $34.50 for students and seniors. For more info, call (413) 243-0745.