What’s Good 10/20-26

Our weekly guide to what’s going on around Buffalo and in the world of pop culture

Thursday, 10/20

Martin Sexton (Kleinhans Music Hall, 3 Symphony Circle, doors 8pm)
This Syracuse-born singer-songwriter has been a stalwart of the folk scene for decades.

That Comedy Show at Babeville (9th Ward, 341 Delaware Ave., $10-15, starts 8pm)
9th Ward hosts a lineup of local comedians.

Subject Board of Directors Meeting (5:30pm, Google Meet)
Subject is student-run and managed by a non-profit. Our board meetings are open to the public, in case you want to make suggestions or see how the sausage gets made.

Friday, 10/21

Steven Wright (Babeville, 341 Delaware Ave., $39.50-45, 8pm)
The deadpan comedy legend brings his wry one-liners and distinctive monotone to Babeville.
Lucero (Iron Works, 49 Illinois St., $30, doors 7pm)

This Memphis country-punk band is touring behind When You Found Me, their 13th album since forming in 2000.

Burst (Alleyway Theater, One Curtain Up Alley, 7:30pm, plus 3:30 Saturday matinee)
A Silicon Valley hotshot has to juggle a lawsuit, an angry business partner, and an overeager journalist en route to releasing an invention that could change the world. Through 11/12.

Live Band Karaoke, Pop Edition (Rec Room, 79 West Chippewa, doors 10pm, 21+)
Sing your heart out in front of a live backing bad, which tackles a different genre every week. $5 cover if you arrive after 11.

Movies This Week:

In the Heat of the Night (Dipson Amherst Theater)
The Amherst is doing a revival screening of this 1967 classic, in which Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger face racism in small-town Mississippi while investigating a murder. Released at the peak of the Civil Rights era, audiences were thrilled (or outraged) to see Poitier slap a white man, and assert himself with the iconic line, “they call me Mister Tibbs!”

Wendell & Wild (Netflix)
Henry Selick’s stop-motion films (The Nightmare Before Christmas, James & the Giant Peach, Coraline) are always can’t miss, and this time he Jordan Peele, who co-wrote the horror-for-the-whole-family screenplay, and co-stars with comedy partner Keegan-Michael Key as two demons who entice a 13-year-old girl (This Is Us’ Lyric Ross) to summon them to the Land of the Living.

The School For Good and Evil (Netflix)
Paul Feig is a reliable comedy director, but it remains to be seen how he handles this YA fantasy based on Soman Chainani’s epic novel. Feig surrounds young stars Sophia Anne Caruso and Sofia Wylie with a stacked supporting cast — Laurence Fishburne, Charlize Theron, Kerry Washington, and Michelle Yeoh — but the actors are getting a lot more critical praise than the story.

Black Adam (In wide release)
“The balance of power in the DC Universe” sounds like something written less to entice fans and more to appear The Rock, whose Fast and Furious contract famously prohibits him from losing a fight. If Warner Brothers can’t make Superman or Green Lantern work, we don’t have high hopes for this comics back-bencher.

Ticket to Paradise (In wide release)
George Clooney romances Julia Roberts while the two exes sabotage their daughter’s wedding in the hottest romantic comedy pairing of 2002.

Saturday, 10/22

GWAR w/Nekrogoblikon, Crobot (Rapits Theater, 1711 Main St., Niagara Falls, $30 doors 6pm)
Is it worth a trip to Niagara Falls to see GWAR? It’s worth a trip through Hell to see GWAR. This metal band puts on an insane, blood–splattered live show while dressed as alien monsters, and we have utterly failed as a web site and as a society if we can’t convince you to go see them.

Janis Ian (Riviera Theater, 67 Webster St., North Tonawanda)
If against all reason you don’t want to see GWAR, and in fact would prefer the absolute polar opposite of GWAR, there’s always some quiet folk music from the legendary Ian, who had a hit in 1975 with “Edge of Seventeen” and was Saturday Night Live’s first-ever musical guest that same year, and has been writing, performing, and serving as inspiration to a younger generation of singer-songwriters ever since.

Sunday 10/23

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (Shea’s Buffalo, 646 Main St., FREE, 2pm)
See the recent reboot in the best-looking theater in town, as part of Shea’s Free Family Film Series. Tickets are free, but required for entry.

Tuesday 10/25

Kurt Vile (Asbury Hall at Babeville, 341 Delaware Ave., $30-35, doors 8pm)
The former War On Drugs frontman has a burgeoning second career as a singer-songwriter, putting out a solo album every other year (and a terrific collaboration with Courtney Barnett) since splitting with the band.

Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (Netflix)
del Toro is as well-known as a horror superfan as he is a director, so this anthology series — which he curates and hosts, as well as writing two of the eight episodes — should be a treat for fans of the genre.

Thursday 10/27

Star Trek: Prodigy (Paramount+)
This delightful kid-friendly iteration of the venerable sci-fi franchise returns for as second season.

Friday 10/28

Kevin Hart (KeyBank Center, 1 Seymour Knox Plaza, 8pm)
The biggest stand-up going brings his act to KeyBank.