A s temps top 60 degrees, New Haven is heating up anyway with a great mix of live music and—a week after the parade, following additional celebrations—St. Patrick’s Day.
Tuesday, March 12
At 5 p.m. at Three Sheets, the next Brew and Glue, a “do-it-yourself collage event” with all supplies provided, coincides with Taco Tuesday.
At 7 p.m., a house concert at a “Branford/Stony Creek” location disclosed to RSVPers features “critically acclaimed folk singer and accordionist Alex Cumming as he celebrates the launch of his brand-new album, Homecoming, an exciting album full of toe-tapping tunes, beautiful ballads and rollicking choruses. There will also be a post-concert jam session, so be sure to bring along an instrument.”
Also at 7, Best Video’s “March Monster Madness” screening series continues with The Descent, a movie that invokes our primordial fear of dark, tight spaces—and our fear of what might dwell within them.
Wednesday, March 13
Nine days after the release of her 11th album, Good Life, Grammy-winning recording artist Ledisi comes to the Shubert for a 7:30 show. “Good Life is a celebration of Ledisi’s artistic journey, encapsulating the myriad emotions and experiences that define the human spirit. With her signature blend of soul, R&B, and jazz influences, Ledisi continues pushing contemporary music’s boundaries.”
Friday, March 15
A new exhibit, Year of the Dragon, opens today at the Yale University Art Gallery, featuring “nearly 30” depictions of “dragons on folding screens, other paintings, textiles, ceramics, ivory, and woodblock prints” dating from the 1600s to the present. “In the West, the dragon has historically been characterized as an evil creature, flying through the air while breathing fire from its mouth, but in the East, the dragon is believed to possess power in the celestial realm and to pour out blessings in the form of rainwater over swirling wind… Taking inspiration from East Asian history, folklore, and myth, these works demonstrate a long, complex, and continuing artistic tradition around this fantastical creature.”
Opening at noon, Armada Brewing celebrates “the kickoff of St. Patrick’s Day weekend with beers, [a] food truck and Irish tunes.” (The food truck is scheduled to arrive at 4.)
If something harder is more your speed, coffeeshop/event space Gather kicks off The Whiskey Sessions, a “whiskey flight night” series, at 7 p.m. Starting with North American-sourced spirits, “sip on some top-notch whiskey, mingle with fellow enthusiasts, and get served with some geographical whiskey knowledge.”
Saturday, March 16
Starting at 11 a.m., Stony Creek Brewery’s sixth annual Shenanigans Irish Festival promises a day “filled with live music, games, dancing, Irish-themed food, beer, friends and of course Shenanigans.”
Hamden’s The Cellar on Treadwell welcomes a trio of musician’s musicians: Chris Spedding, a venerable rock guitarist and producer who “turned down the Rolling Stones, stood in for Jimmy Page, and was the first man to record the Sex Pistols”; session drummer-to-the-stars and longtime Late Show with David Letterman band member Anton Fig; and bassist Keith Lentin, whose past collaborators, aside from Spedding, Fig and a host of others, reportedly include Keith Richards.
At Three Sheets, the latest installment of the Art In The Back… Music In The Front series goes sideways, in a good way. The art is a group show of works by more than a dozen artists, each tasked with reimagining found thrift store pieces, while the music comes from local world music connoisseur DJ Shaki.
Sunday, March 17 – St. Patrick’s Day
The Irish-American Community Center celebrates the holiday all day, with a reservation-based Irish breakfast from 9 a.m. to noon and live music most of the afternoon and evening.
From 2 to 6 p.m., Kehler Liddell Gallery hosts an opening reception for dual exhibitions: Matthew Garrett’s Hindsight, a “reinvestigation of approximately 15 years worth of black and white negatives, looking for what was missed at the time”; and Mark St. Mary’s Lost in the Shadows, “investigat[ing] and play[ing] with the intersection of light, shadow, and surface.”
Starting at 3 in Woolsey Hall, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra performs “Mozart’s lovely Clarinet Concerto” (featuring NHSO principal clarinetist David Shifrin) as well as “Esmail’s imaginative ‘Testament’ and Tchaikovsky’s powerful ‘Pathetique’ Symphony.”
From 5 to 7 at Best Video, “enjoy a pint” while Irish music act Failte, using “fiddles, Irish blackwood flute, whistles, octave mandola, bodhran and banjo,” conjure “an evening of memorable songs, haunting airs, and cheerful jigs and reels, some of which have been vigorously preserved and passed down over generations…”
Meanwhile, starting at 6, local rock band Modern Refuge play Irish pub The Trinity, which is bound to be busy all day.
Written by Dan Mims. Image 1 features Ledisi. Image 2 features Chris Spedding. Image 3 features Modern Refuge performing at The Trinity on St. Patrick’s Day last year. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations, prices and other details before attending events.
