How does the saying go? Oh, yeah: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
So take the promos for the annual Fools Ball with a grain of salt. Maybe a ladle-ful: While The Pilgrims, playing for the third year in honor of April Fools’ Day, will in fact be hosting their Upper Valley peer-musicians Faux in Love, Chodus and Teece Luvv at the Main Street Museum on Saturday night, the hip-hop supergroup Migos is not coming from Georgia.
The Pilgrims also are purporting on social media to offer “one-of-a-kind culinary experiences and VIP tickets,” each of which Fyre Media CEO Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule dangled, along with rentals of luxury villas, as bait to well-heeled attendees of their #fyrefestival in the spring of 2017. Those guests arrived in the Bahamas to find FEMA tents, packaged sandwiches, not enough porta-potties and virtually no star attractions.
“We are probably going to bring some white bread and Kraft singles cheese for food,” Pilgrims guitarist Kiel Alarcon said.
Faux in Love, with The Pilgrims a part of the Windsor-based What Doth Life cooperative and record label, is playing the Fools Ball for the third year in a row. New to the gathering this year are Chodus, the Claremont-based band that describes itself as playing “transgenre alternative squeedle punk,” and Teece Luvv, aka Maiden Voyage co-founder and Windsor resident John Carter.
“It’s the first time we’ve had a rapper,” Alarcon said. “It wasn’t really a conscious decision to bring one in; he’s just a friend of ours and he’s a good draw.”
Teece Luvv, who in his Maiden Voyage incarnation goes by JCOE (John Carter on Earth), is looking forward to his performing debut at the museum, where as a civilian he’s enjoyed The Pilgrims and others for years.
“It’s a really cool, compact spot,” Carter said. “People go there to listen to music, less than to interact with friends and drink like a lot of the places I’ve played.”
The Pilgrims host their third annual Fools Ball at the Main Street Museum in White River Junction on Saturday night from 7 to 11. For more information, email info@mainstreetmuseum.org or visit the Fools Ball 2019 page on Facebook.com.
Shaker Bridge Theatre opens its production of The Taming on Thursday night at Whitney Hall in Enfield. Lauren Gunderson’s comedic adaptation of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew features a Miss America contestant who allies herself with a liberal blogger and an aide to an ultra-conservative U.S. senator to change the system of government. The show runs on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights and on Sunday afternoons through April 14. Tickets cost $16 to $35.
Abbott Memorial Library in South Pomfret tries again on Friday night at 7, to host a session of storytelling on the theme of — wait for it — “All in the Timing.” The library postponed the session last Friday after a storm dropped several inches of heavy, wet snow in and around Woodstock. The session is free to performers and audiences of all ages. To propose a story, call 802-763-8393.
■Singer-songwriters Loudon Wainwright III, Suzzy Roche and Lucy Wainwright Roche bring their “All in the Family” tour to the Chandler Music Hall in Randolph on Friday night at 7:30. Admission $34 to $48.
■Roots guitarist Jim Musty leads Concrete Garden into Bradford’s Colatina Exit on Saturday night at 6, to play a “Raise Some Dough” concert benefiting the restoration of the Bradford Conservation Commission’s Ernie’s Cabin on Wrights Mountain. Admission by donation.
■Fiddlers Skip Gorman, Randy Miller, Roger Kahle, Jane Orzechowski and Sarah Bauhan, and pianist Gordon Peery, perform a concert of Celtic music at the Seven Stars Arts Center in Sharon on Saturday night at 7:30. To reserve tickets ($10 to $20) and learn more, call 802-763-2334.
■Choreographer Camille A. Brown and her dance troupe stage two performances of ink next week in the Hopkins Center’s Moore Theater. Next Thursday night at 7 and next Friday night at at 8, the dancers employ a range of styles to tell stories about identity and self-empowerment in African and African-American culture. Tickets cost $19 to $50. To learn about events preceding and following the performances, visit hop.dartmouth.edu.
Who Am I This Time?, one-act play, at Thetford Academy’s Martha Jane Rich Theater on Friday night at 7. Academy theater class stages adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut Jr. short story, in preparation for performing it during the Vermont state one-act play competition in April. Admission by donation to the class’s travel expenses.
■Mud Season Talent Show, Saturday night from 7 to 8:30 at Trumbull Hall in Etna. Admission by donation.
■Variety show, Saturday night from 7 to 11 at Royalton Academy, on Route 14 in Royalton. Admission by donation to First Congregational Church of Royalton.
■Auditions, on Sunday morning and afternoon at Chandler Music Hall, for Vermont Pride Theater program’s ninth annual Summer Pride Festival of plays on LGBTQ themes. To reserve audition slot between 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., email Sharon Rives at kenrives@gmail.com. Festival runs July 28 to Aug. 4.
Cellist Seth Parker Woods, classical works of Bach, Chinary Ung, Monty Adkins and George Lewis, Thursday night at 9 at Hopkins Center’s Top of the Hop space.
■Revels North Spring Singers, choral performances of music by Vermont composers, Friday night at 7 at First Congregational Church of Lebanon and Sunday afternoon at 3 at Damon Hall in Hartland. Admission by donation.
■Singer-songwriter Cosy Sheridan, roots-Americana, Friday night at 7 at Sunapee Community CoffeeHouse, Methodist Church in Sunapee Harbor. Admission by donation.
■ Jenni & The Junketeers, jazz, at ArtisTree Community Arts Center, Friday night at 7. Celebration of Women’s History Month features works of Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, Roberta Flack, Bonnie Raitt, Ruth Brown, Patsy Cline and Norah Jones. Admission $20.
■ Camerata New England Piano Trio, chamber works of Haydn, Mendelssohn and Joaquin Turina, Saturday night at 7 at First Congregational Church of Norwich. Tickets ($28) available at cameratanewengland.org or 802-785-4833.
■Singer Erma Mellinger and pianist Greg Hayes, “A Day Full of Song” recital on Sunday afternoon at 1 at Dartmouth College’s Rollins Chapel. Works of Brahms, Debussy, Schubert, Schumann, Vaughan Williams, Berlioz, Wolf, Barber and Rodgers. Admission free.
■Grammy-nominated jazz singer Jazzmeia Horn, Tuesday night at 7 at Hopkins Center’s Spaulding Auditorium. Admission $17 to $30.
Old Sam Peabody Band, BarnArts community contra dance with caller Delia Clark, Friday night at Barnard Town Hall. Potluck at 6, followed by dancing between 6:30 and 9. Admission free.
Saxophonist Michael Parker and guitarist Norm Wolfe, jazz, Thursday night at 6 at Peyton Place in Orford, and Saturday night at 7:30 at American Legion Post 22 in Lebanon.
■Still Hill, roots-Americana, Thursday night at 7 at Windsor Station; About Gladys, rock, Saturday night at 9:30; singer-songwriter-bassist Mowgli Giannitti, Tuesday night at 6.
■ Moxley Union, rock, Skunk Hollow Tavern in Hartland on Friday night at 8.
■Sensible Shoes, rock and pop, Friday night at 8 at Crossroads Bar & Grill.
■Bob & Shane, acoustic rock, Friday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in Newport; Jester Jigs, rock, Saturday night at 9.
■Singer-songwriter Jim Hollis, Friday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in West Lebanon; Ken Macy, country music, Saturday afternoon at 4.
■The Frogz, Celtic folk-rock, Friday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in Hanover; Alec Currier, rock, Saturday night at 9.
■Singer-songwriter Jake Clark, Friday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in Lebanon; Chad Gibbs, rock, Saturday night at 9.
■Adam McMahon, blues and rock, Friday night at 9 at Margaritas restaurant in Lebanon.
■Jim Yeager, rock/funk, Monday night at 7 at Woodstock Inn’s Richardson Tavern.
■Saxophonist Michael Parker, bassist Peter Concilio and guitarist Billy Rosen, jazz, Tuesday night at 7 at Carpenter & Main in Norwich.
■Jazz pianist Sonny Saul, Wednesday night at 6:30 at On the River Inn in Woodstock.
Jim Yeager hosts open mics on Thursday night at 7 at The Hayloft in South Pomfret; at The Public House in Quechee on Tuesday night at 6; and at Skunk Hollow Tavern on Wednesday night at 8.
■Alec Currier’s weekly open-mic at Salt hill Pub in Lebanon, Thursday night at 8.
■Joe Stallsmith’s weekly hootenanny of Americana, folk and bluegrass, Monday night at 6 at Salt hill Pub in Hanover.
■Fiddler Jakob Breitbach’s weekly acoustic jam session of bluegrass, Americana and old-timey music, Tuesday night at 7 at Filling Station Bar and Grill in White River Junction.
■Tom Masterson’s weekly open mic, Tuesday night at 7 at Colatina Exit in Bradford, Vt.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com and at 603-727-3304. Send entertainment news to highlights@vnews.com.