Editor’s Note: Welcome to V3 Weekend, Vanyaland‘s guide to help you sort out your weekend entertainment with curated selections and recommendations across our three pillars of Music, Comedy, and Film/TV. It’s what you should know about, where you need to be, and where you’ll be going, with us riding shotgun along the way.
Music: Vain at Taffeta Music Hall
Rock and roll powderkeg Vain never got the fame and fortune they deserved, but it’s no too late to change that. The San Francisco hard rock band’s incendiary 1989 album No Respect holds up with the very best from the now-redefined “hair metal” genre, and tracks like relentless “Beat The Bullet,” lightning rod opener “Secrets,” and the dramatic and defiant “Down for the 3rd Time” hold up stronger than most of the stuff from that (very missed) era. After releasing new album Disintegrate Together in the spring, Vain are now back on the road and make a very rare New England appearance tonight (October 18) at Taffeta Music Hall in Lowell. For real, we can’t even remember the last time Vain were in town, and Setlist.fm lists their last Boston show as being in 1990 at the fucking Channel. Homegrown NWOBHM-inspired heavy rock brigade Officer X and Roger Chouinard’s very own All Sinners open things up, so this should be a hell of a party that takes us right back to the glory days of glam metal.
VAIN + ALL SINNERS + OFFICER X :: Friday, October 18 at Taffeta Music Hall, 110 Western Ave. in Lowell, MA :: 7 p.m., $40 in advance and $50 at the door :: Event info and tickets
Comedy: Sheng Wang at The Wilbur
As noted in Mic’d Up this week, the live comedy slate is bangin’ around Boston as we roll through October. But Sheng Wang’s two night-, three-show stand this weekend at The Wilbur stands out, and Jason Greenough details why: “His demeanor is as cool as a cucumber, but Wang is delivering straight heat with his latest hour. A few years removed from his debut special, Wang is officially one of the most in-demand voices in comedy, and for good reason as the slow-burn approach to the stage has only bolstered his rank, and it surely hasn’t slowed down any as he continues to take the game by storm, one room at a time.”
SHENG WANG :: Saturday, October 19 and Sunday, October 20 at The Wilbur Theatre, 246 Tremont St. in Boston, MA :: Saturday at 6 and 8:45 p.m. and Sunday at 6 p.m., $32.50 to $42.50 :: Advance tickets
Film/TV: An American Werewolf in London at The Brattle
When does the weekend actually begin? If 3:30 p.m. on a Friday is quittin’ time, then The Brattle is the place to be as the Cambridge indie cinema serves up An American Werewolf in London this afternoon (October 18). The screening is part of a new series appropriately dubbed The Friday Film Matinee, featuring special screenings of 35mm prints (so hey, if you’re reading this too late, make note for future Fridays), and at this time of year, we can’t think of anything better than howling at the screen for John Landis’ 1981 classic. Here’s the word for the young newbies: “Two American tourists on vacation in Britain (David Naughton and Griffin Dunne) are attacked by a beast. One of them survives but finds himself haunted by the other and literally transformed by the experience.” Just the other day we watched the werewolf transformation scene, and forgot how fucking gnarly that shit was. Watch it below.
‘AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON’ :: Friday, October 18 at The Brattle, 40 Brattle St. in Cambridge, MA :: 3:30 p.m., $12.50 :: Event info :: Advance tickets