Bus 174

On Valentine’s Day in 2000, a bus hijacking in Rio de Janeiro became, through continuous live TV coverage, an event that transfixed all of Brazil. Using news footage of the four-hour ordeal, Bus 174 tells the story of the hijacking, as well as the personal story of the hijacker: a typical Rio street kid who grew up with no family, no home and no future.

By linking these two stories, director José Padilha attempts to explain the nature of the epidemic of violence that plagues Brazil’s cities. As The New York Times wrote, “Bus 174 is a deceptively straightforward film that has the force of tragedy and the depth of first-rate investigative journalism.” Most other critics have judged his attempt a success, too: Bus 174 turned up on numerous 10 best lists for 2003. Not here, though: Time & Space Limited is hosting the local premiere.

Screenings of Bus 174 will be tomorrow (Friday, Feb. 6) and Saturday (Feb. 7) at 7:30 PM at Time & Space Limited (434 Columbia St., Hudson). The Sunday (Feb. 8) screening is at 5 PM. Tickets are $5 for TSL members, and $7.50 for nonmembers. For more information, call 822-8448.

Evan Dando

It’s been a long, strange trip for Evan Dando. A few years after forming the Lemonheads with high-school buddy Ben Deily in 1987, he left the band to study at Skidmore College, only to return when their punked-out cover of Suzanne Vega’s hit, Luka, became a modest hit in its own right. Deily left a few years later, just before the band signed to Atlantic Records, for whom they recorded the poorly-timed Lovey, followed by the exceptional It’s a Shame About Ray. Of course, that record became best known for the second-pressing tack-on of a punked-out cover of the Simon and Garfunkel classic “Mrs. Robinson.” Dando and company—the company changed several times over the years—went on to record two more albums for Atlantic, both of which were riddled with ill-advised noise experiments and sketchy songwriting. A well-publicized struggle with drug addiction shadowed Dando those last few years, and he broke up the Lemonheads in 1998, causing a great deal of speculation as to his well-being and his musical future. Remarkably, he began to resurface in late 2000, and made his full-fledged return to the spotlight—clean and sober—with last year’s excellent Baby I’m Bored (Bar None).

Baby, recorded for the most part with producers extraordinaire Jon Brion (Fiona Apple) and Bryce Goggin (Pavement), received a series of deep tongue kisses from the music press, and for good reason. To call the album a return to form would be selling it short: It’s Dando’s best work since Ray, and easily his most mature-sounding release yet. Since coming back around, he has kept real busy, cowriting a song for the latest release by the Dandy Warhols (whose Courtney Taylor-Taylor is the heir apparent to Dando’s bleary-eyed former persona) and collaborating with electronica auteur Craig Armstrong, in addition to maintaining an extensive touring schedule. Response to his recent shows has been overwhelmingly positive. Word is he’s having a lot of fun onstage and doling out bucketfuls of old favorites to the delight of longtime Lemonheads fans, and now he’s back in the states for a brief jaunt in between trips to Spain and his adopted homeland of Australia.

Evan Dando will perform this Saturday (Feb. 7) at Iron Horse Music Hall (20 Center St., Northampton, Mass.). Willy Mason opens the 10 PM show. Tickets are $12.50 in advance, $15 at the door. For more information, call (413) 584-0610.

Henry Rollins

By his own admission, Henry Rollins (who appears at the Egg on Sunday) has been treated pretty well by punk rock. Sure, he’s been bonked on the head by hurled objects and spit upon more often than your average cubicle slave; but then again, all that suffering bought him a home in L.A. and a spiffy BMW 540i. So, now, the former Black Flag frontman says, when somebody wants to express—or expectorate—their feelings to him, he’s free to power-window them away. But don’t let Rollins’ success fool you into thinking that you too can simply start up a hardcore band and ride it into a new income bracket. Fact is, the chances of you being able to hang with Hank are significantly less than slim.

First off, Rollins didn’t just start up a band in his parents’ garage to soon thereafter land in the Buzz Bin. He won his front-and-center spot with the already notorious Black Flag by leaping onstage during an appearance in Rollins’ hometown, Washington, D.C., and growling away. Now ask yourself, honestly, do you have those kind of balls? And even if you do, can you truly believe that your favorite band would give you anything other than a proper beatdown for your brass? Rollins, however, so impressed the band that when then-vocalist Dez Cadena decided to move to guitar, Black Flag invited Rollins to fill the spot at mike—and great ferocity ensued. In fact, that word (“ferocity”) and all its conjugations so regularly accompany Rollins’ name that it’s a little jarring to think that the man’s current rep rests primarily on his spoken-word performances.

Even before Black Flag disbanded in 1986, Rollins had begun exploring other avenues of expression, all of which flowered once he was officially solo: He started a book-publishing company that released works by musicians such as Exene Cervenka and Nick Cave, as well as cult literary figures like Hubert Selby Jr.; he had a sporadic gig as an MTV VJ; he appeared in bit parts and cameos in a number of films; he wrote a column for Details; and he won a Grammy for his spoken-word recording relating the quirks of being in a touring hardcore band, Get in the Van. And he hasn’t slackened his pace since. He continues to ply his avant-aggro, and to boil rage and wry observation into hilarious and thoughtful spoken-word performances.

Henry Rollins will perform the spoken-word show Shock and Awe My Ass at the Egg (Empire State Plaza, Albany) on Sunday (Feb. 8). Tickets for the 7 PM show are $20. For more information, call 473-1845.