✦Weekender✦ Darkest beer | Crotch rock | Famous cheesesteak | Comedy fight 🥊

✦Weekender✦ Darkest beer | Crotch rock | Famous cheesesteak | Comedy fight 🥊
Groin the club: Originally from Tel Aviv, garage-rock foursome The Crotches channel the sweat and swagger of punk greats such as MC5, Dead Boys, and New York Dolls. They've since left the Middle East for the U.S., but they're as rash, outspoken, and loud as ever. Catch The Crotches Jan. 17 at Dive Bar.

FROM CRUISE-SHIP COMEDIES to vintage motorbike shows to junk journal parties, here's what made The List this weekend. Cheers! – Andrew Kiraly 🤍

🚢 Friday Jan 17

  • I'm 99 percent confident there's a nonzero chance that this book sale at the tiny, hella quaint Blue Diamond Library is going to feature some sweet, obscure, random scores. Better yet, it's a good opportunity to take some bucolic Blue Diamond chillaxitude into your cells. Be sure to pour one out for Evan Blythin at the Tree Bar (basically, a tree you can drink under) and nab some lunch at Cottonwood Station. 12p, Blue Diamond Library
  • I went on a cruise once and yes, it was, indeed, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again. But I'd definitely see Four Old Broads on the High Seas, a heartwarming, hijinks-rich play about zany granny cruise-ship shenanigans. 7p, Las Vegas Little Theatre
  • Opera Legends in Black promises to be a night of sonic luxury for the ears and a zippy bit of luft to the soul, celebrating iconic Black opera singers through history. 7p, Whitney Library
  • I'm inferring that the "blocks" in the MLK Weekend Block Party refer to the shipping containers all jostling in joyous unison to the assuredly piquant combo of DJ Memphis Hollywood beats + high school bands. 5p, Container Park
  • The horror, the horror. Literally: Days of the Dead kicks off three days of fan-fueled popcult goodness with star appearances from beheaded I mean beloved franchises ranging from Terrifier to Hellraiser to, for some reason, no kidding, Revenge of the Nerds (including Harold Wormser). The Plaza, 6p.
  • White-knuckling it through Dry January? I heartily salute you with my pinky as I sip a dry martini, two olives, no funny business, and regard you with amused interest. Crush Pad, meanwhile, isn't just offering glib moral support; they've got a full-on Dry January cheese-and-NA-beverage pairing to help carry your denial-frayed nerves through the month. (Yes, you can also choose to have wine). 7p, Crush Pad
  • If you happen to be walking near 18bin on a Friday night, chances are you're inevitably going to be sucked into its irresistible vortex of party-mode oontsa, so you might as well ogle the chrome at Vintage Bike Night while you're there. 7p, 18bin
  • The kids are feelin' brassy at the free Mariachi Winter Festival, where CCSD mariachi students square off for bragging rights. 7p, Clark County Library

🛼 Hella more weekend here, which may contain rabid roller skate dads, rare birds, and exploding fireworks trains:

💄 1929 party | 100k book sale | Symphonic love | Horror con | Ninja park | Scary fetus
The coolest things to do in Las Vegas this week, ever.

🧂 Saturday Jan 18

  • Set your alarm for 6a. Pot of black coffee. Some light yoga. A few passes on the sharpening steel to hone those elbows. Deep breaths. You're primed, you're pumped, you're ready for this: the kickoff of the massive Spread the Word Nevada Warehouse Book Sale. 8a, Spread the Word Nevada
  • Among Indigenous Hawaiians, salt is more than a mere seasoning. Called pa‘akai, it's a revered form of social currency that strengthens community bonds. Produced by Honolulu Theatre for Youth, The Pa‘akai We Bring celebrates the rituals around salt with music, stories, and audience participation. 10a, Troesh Studio at The Smith Center
  • The Dispensary is known foremost as a cozy li'l dive bar and a cozy li'l jazz spot, but their undersung kitchen has been kicking culinary butt forever, serving up what could only be called homestyle bar food. For a limited time, they're selling their famous cheesesteak sammie for a lucky $7.77 on Saturdays. 11a, The Dispensary Lounge
  • It's never too early for a Michelada, quesabirrias and some Eztilo Norte bompin' out some old-school música norteña. 1130a, Broadacres Marketplace
  • A "junk journal" is sorta like a scrapbook, but much more ludicrously messy, random, and chaotically pastichey. Think of it like a super-personal 'zine vomited up by your most errant, urgent artistic impulses. Not only can you skrump up your own cool junk journal at Craft Therapy, you can also learn to make clay ducks, bag charms, wire rings, and waistbeads. 12p, The Gather House
🍫
Dark matter: If you prefer the kind of beer you can chew instead of chug, then porter is the brew for you. And when it comes to this style of famously strong brown ale, Põhjala Brewery, based in Tallinn, Estonia, is the master of the dark arts. The Silver Stamp is tapping a limited-edition keg of one of Põhjala's renowned brews in celebration of Baltic Porter Day Jan. 18 as well as serving up bottles of other popular Põhjala styles ✦ Like your suds a bit more silly? Get frothy with imbibist and comedian Zane Lamprey Jan. 17 at Beer Zombies, or catch a set at one of his two shows at Boulder Cam Brewing Co. Jan. 18 ✦ Beer-wise, I'm typically a fan of head-snapping, buzz-for-buck IPAs, but I hella recommend the Wundernutz! imperial brown ale at CraftHaus – smells like old-school Cocoa Puffs, drinks like a hazelnut-themed frat party (a good thing).

Star burst: The free Astronomy in the Park Jan. 18 event at Lake Mead's Boulder Beach is sure to draw a cosmic-minded crowd – which may include some non-earthling guests. In addition to getting close-ups of Mars, the Great Orion Nebula, and other celestial sights, you'll also learn about the latest research on Fast Radio Bursts, mysterious pulses of radio waves coming from far-flung galaxies billions of light-years away. Photo: Michael Ver Sprill/Dreamstime

▼ Saturday cont'd

  • To say that The Multicultural Bookstore merely opened in late 2023 would understate things. Uh, it's more like it exploded onto the scene with a cascade of cool community events. Hit the Historic Westside and check out their Third Saturdays Poetry Showcase. 4p, Multicultural Bookstore
  • With sufficient imaginative gumption and gallons of wine, you can most assuredly feel like you've entered a magical temporal wormhole. (Trust me, been there.) But don't glug just yet – Vegas Valley Winery's got the time-travel part covered with a Rat Pack throwback theme drenching its lively 7-Year Anniversary Party. 530p, Vegas Valley Winery
  • Improv comedy is a team sport, but it's better when you've got two teams, and it's even better when those two teams are trying to out-funny each other with the sideline help of audience suggestions and brave volunteers. Ready, set, ComedySportz! 7p, Mom's Basement Theatre
  • You might say crooner and pianist Patrick Hogan was destined to be a jazz artist– but his parents certainly helped things along: His standard bedtime lullaby was a recording of Frank Sinatra's "In the Wee Small Hours." 7p, Vic's Las Vegas
  • Key takeaways from HBO's surprisingly interesting Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary: Michael McDonald is the Buddha, Steely Dan is quantum physics, and damn, Ambrosia still slaps (softly). 8p, Santa Fe Station

🏡 Sunday Jan 19

  • What a distinctly and decidedly Vegas charitable proposition: Keep a local retro exotica chanteuse in her swank Mid-Mod pad by raging it up with bands, DJs, striptease, comedy, and prizes at Kitty Chow's Funraising Variety Show. 3p, Cornish Pasty
  • Produced by local horror maven Jana Wimer, Thoughtspeak features six storytellers spinning 10-minute tales – poignant, personal, hilarious, absurd, you name it. 5p and 730p, Vegas Theatre Company
  • Long before Lady Gaga and even Madonna, Connie Francis forged the template for the modern pop songstress – versatile, restlessly dynamic, ferociously talented, and, most of all, a global sensation. Vocal artist Monique (just Monique) channels the '50s pop singer in Golden Voice: A Tribute to Connie Francis. 5p, The Composers Room
  • It's entirely possible that this Sunday you'll find me at Go Gettahz Chess Club trying out some wacky gambit that in all likelihood will explode in my face in a pyroclastic autoerotic humiliation blast. 7p, Ninja Karaoke
  • Man, the jazz happenings this week are jumpin' like Mario, which is an apt simile when talking about video game jazz group Arcade Bops. 7p, Maxan Jazz

🙏 Hope you have the raddest weekend. Thanks for your support! – Andrew Kiraly 🤍


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