THE MUST LIST
Father John Misty leads off our critics’ picks for this week.
Rex Bell has been associated with the Old Quarter for so long, it’s easy to forget that he was originally just as much a working musician as club owner decades ago. He’s played bass with Lightnin’ Hopkins and was a running buddy with Townes Van Zandt, and his Galveston club has nurtured multiple generations of songwriters. But this week, “Wrecks” gets back to making music instead of presenting music. He and his wife, Janet Bell, have a new album, “Heroin Cave,” and they’ll play songs from it at Anderson Fair, where Rex’s got punched in the face decades ago, leaving him with a broken nose before he and Hopkins played Carnegie Hall. When: 8:45 p.m. Saturday Where: Anderson Fair, 2007 Grant
Details: $15; 832-767-2785, andersonfair.net
Andrew Dansby
2. Houston Symphony outdoors
There are long-running traditions in this city, and then there’s this one between the Houston Symphony and Miller Outdoor Theatre: For 79 years, the symphony has played a series of free summer shows at the venue. And this year offers another great program. On Friday,
Paolo Bortolameolli, the assistant conductor at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, will be joined by pianist Drew Petersen and the symphony to perform Dvorak’s “New World” Symphony. The next night, guest conductor Roderick Cox will lead the symphony through a program that includes Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Then a few days later, the symphony will play its annual Fourth of July concert with Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture.”
When: 8:30 p.m. Friday, Saturday and July 4
Where: Miller Outdoor Theatre, 6000 Hermann Park Drive Details: free; 832-487-7102, milleroutdoortheatre.com
Andrew Dansby
3. Steven Evans
Pride Weekend may be over, but the Stonewall anniversary celebrations continue. FotoFest executive director Steven Evans, who as an artist himself has explored connections between music, language, memory, identity and collectivity for 30 years, gets a big moment with a solo show in the Museum District. “If I can’t dance, it’s not my revolution!” includes some of the colored neon sculptures of song titles for which he’s best known, plus a new, concrete poem rendered in paint and adhesive vinyl formed from 50 song titles, one for each year since the Stonewall riots. When: Opens 6:30 p.m. Friday, through Oct. 14; artist and curator talk, 2 p.m. Sunday
Where: Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, 5216 Montrose
Details: Free; 713-284-8250, camh.org
Molly Glentzer
4. ‘The Three Musketeers’
This is your final weekend to see this enjoyably swashbuckling take on Alexandre Dumas’ classic. Chronicle critic Wei-Huan Chen called it “a high-energy romp through 1600s France that’s funnier and more buoyant than any European period piece I’ve seen in a long time.” When: Through Sunday Where: Alley Theatre, 615 Texas Details: $28-$101; 713-2205700; alleytheatre.org
Cary Darling
5. “360 Degrees Vanishing”
Selven O'Keefe Jarman’s monumental
installation atop the Art League Houston building isn’t just physically monumental; he’s spent at least six years completing his “360 Degrees Vanishing” project to bring attention to the vanishing art of traditional beading in South Africa. The panels were created during 2014 and 2015, as a collaboration between South African beaders who were in residence for months at a time, working with volunteers from
the Houston community. Then came several years of fundraising and engineering to compile the structure. Everyone involved will be very ready to party for the official unveiling.
When: 6-8:30 p.m. Friday Where: Art League Houston, 1953 Montrose
Details: Free; 713-523-9530; artleaguehouston.org
Molly Glentzer
6. ‘Speeding Motorcycle’
Catastrophic Theatre artistic director Jason Nodler was so enamored with the work and ethos of singer-songwriter and longtime Texas resident Daniel Johnston that, in 2005, Nodler decided to make a musical about the man. The resulting rock opera, “Speeding Motorcycle,” gets a remount this weekend. It’s an original take on one of the underrated figures of the alternative music scene. When: Thursdays-Sundays, through Aug. 4
Where: MATCH, 3400 Main Details: All tickets pay-whatyou-can, $40 suggested price; 713-522-2723, catastrophic theatre.com
Wei-Huan Chen