Two guitarists having a blast
One stereotype about guitarists that often seems to hold true is that they are a convivial lot who need little excuse to flock together.
Take San Jose-based guitarist Hristo Vitchev. With his warm, gracious demeanor and creative curiosity, he has done more than his part to uphold the eager-tohang typecasting. Over the past decade, he’s released a series of gorgeous albums focusing on his Pat Metheny inspired original compositions, while collaborating regularly with fellow fret explorers.
Tonight, he’s joining forces with veteran San Jose guitarist Mason Razavi, a bright-toned player and melodically inventive composer who recently released an impressive follow-up to a 2014session, “Quartet Plus, Volume 2” (OA2Records). More a conversation than a cutting contest, the gig offers a chance to hear two very different players in a friendly exchange of audacious musical ideas.
Details: 7:30p.m.; Cafe Pink House, Saratoga; $15$18; 408-647-2273, cafepinkhouse.com.
Berlin & Beyond screens films
What better way to get pumped up for the upcoming Berlin & Beyond Film Festival (Feb. 9-11) than take in a few films in the festival’s shorter autumn-themed series?
Tonight’s opening selection — “The Verdict” — certainly sounds intriguing. Billed as an interactive event, the 2016feature poses the wrenching moral quandary over whether to sacrifice the lives of some to potentially save the lives of many others. Lars Kraume frames that question in a drama dealing with a planned terrorist act involving a plane.
Another highlight is Fritz Lang Night on Friday, which includes a screening of Gordian Maugg’s “Fritz Lang,” his interpretative biopic on the filmmaker. It’s followed by “M,” one of Lang’s greatest, most unsettling films starring Peter Lorre as a child killer.
Too disturbing for you? Then take in the spirited feel-good feature “The Divine Order,” a winning drama revolving around the 1971women’s suffrage movement in
Switzerland. It screens Saturday.
Details: 6:30and 9:15p.m. today at the Roxie, San Francisco; Friday and Saturday at the Goethe-Institut, San Francisco; $10$15; BerlinBeyond.com.