ON the Beat | The Art of Beating and Bowing, On Parade

Peter Lackner and Alex McClintock | Credit: Courtesy

ON the MAW Beat

The Music Academy of the West (MAW) festival is preparing to kick into full swing over the next several weeks, giving local music lovers plenty of options for getting away from the home entertainment center (live music is always livelier than the screen option, anyway). Two of the proven commodities on the recommended MAW fare list show up on this week’s radar — the always provocative and also entertaining Percussionfest, Wednesday night at Hahn Hall, and this Friday’s kickoff to the centerpiece Academic Fellows Orchestra blowouts at The Granada Theatre (all subsequent orchestra concerts take place on Saturdays, except for the opener). (See story here.)

Percussionfest is one of those Music Academy traditions whose appeal reaches across demographics, beyond the classical nerd community. Blame it on the broad powers of propulsive rhythmic material and creative change-ups in terms of what constitutes percussion instruments. Percussion faculty head Michael Werner, principal percussionist with the Seattle Symphony and longtime Academy faculty favorite, has a habit of introducing his study curriculum by sending fellows to Home Depot, a repository of household objects ripe for repurposing as contemporary-music percussion tools. This year, the schedule also includes a special added performance for families on Wednesday afternoon at 4 p.m. in Hahn Hall.

Americana of the jazz/classical sort will be the highlight of Friday’s pre-holiday orchestra concert, courtesy of the oft-heard but always welcome American in Paris by Gershwin. Brahms’s Symphony No. 2 occupies the program’s other half. Still, the focus is on our brave and embattled national fabric, in musical terms, in keeping with this festival’s general theme, “An American Mosaic.”

In the margins of the MAW schedule, always worth looking at, tonight at the Lobero, a concert in the Teaching Artist Showcase series features, among other things, a fleeting encounter with the great Takács String Quartet. The Takács put on a spectacular all-Beethoven concert at the Lobero last Saturday, a party to celebrate the retirement of cellist András Fejér, a founding member with 51 (count ‘em) years of service now behind him.

Buckets of Notes, Fretboard Afire

Buckethead at Ventura Theatre 2026 | Credit: Josef Woodward

I haven’t made it to Circus Vargas in years, but last week I partook in a very different brand of circus act: the electric guitar wizard known as Buckethead. Born Brian Patrick Carroll in Orange County 57 years ago, Buckethead made a rare area appearance at the Ventura Majestic Theatre last week. With his signature KFC bucket as a surrogate fez and a Michael (Halloween) Myers–like white mask, he unleashed his virtuosic rock style in a show that incorporated aspects of a circus-y high-wire act and absurdist theater. Plus, he rocked the house in a nerdy, quirky, and down-and-dirty fashion.

Buckethead concertgoers wearing KFC buckets | Credit: Josef Woodward

I first checked in with Buckethead in the 1990s, when he found his way into the circle of N.Y.C.’s “downtown” music/Knitting Factory scene and worked with John Zorn and Bill Laswell, especially in the thinking person’s headbanger outfit, the PRAXIS trio. Three decades and a dizzying number of recordings later, he is something of a cult hero with his own weird signature niche.

It was disappointing, though, to find him relying on prerecorded/programmed drums and no other humans onstage (except the dude who fingered a laptop to switch between songs, on the ‘head’s cues). That robbed the show of a visceral power — such as we get from what he does, all artfully flailing fingers on a real guitar made of wood and steel, with a bucket on top. A handful of fans came bearing KFC buckets, as well. Not sure if this exactly promotes hunger or logical branding action for the Colonel.

His 90-minute set was mostly balls-to-the-walls/wall-of-sound style, with speed metal as a close genre kin. As breathers, we get small-plate portions of his side personality as a melodic/ambient artist, and suddenly, last in the show, surprise tidbits of “When You Wish Upon a Star,” the “It’s a Small World” theme, and a sprinkling of Star Wars. It would appear that he’s a softy underneath the virtuosic and circus-y tumult.

Theater for a Worthy Cause

From left to right: Alex McClintock, Tony Miratti, Nancy Nufer, Kathy Marden, Polly Pelly, and Bruce Goldish Credit: Courtesy

Music is the central purview and drivetrain of this column, but other cultural stimuli do enter the larger picture. For example, last Sunday afternoon, a unique theater experience took place in the welcoming, wood-lined space of Trinity Episcopal Church’s Fellowship Hall. Veteran theater director and project-maker Peter Lackner has created the fascinating and poignant Sarah House Stories, staging a reading as a fundraiser for Santa Barbara’s noble and respected hospice house for patients of limited means (info here).

Three vignettes have been crafted from the sensitive and personally invested mind of writer Paloma Espino, who has worked at the house for 22 years. The house, at the corner of Modoc and Los Positas, was founded 35 years ago as an AIDS-related sanctuary. Lackner called on veteran actors to play patients and other characters, including Paloma herself — Polly Pelly, Nancy Nufer, Kathy Marden, and Tony Miratti — along with the new blood, recent high school graduate Alex McClintock.

Paloma Espino, Polly Pelly, Bruce Goldfish, Kathy Marden and Tony Miratti | Credit: Courtesy
Nancy Nufer | Credit: Courtesy
Bruce Goldfish | Credit: Courtesy
Alex McClintock and Polly Pelly | Credit: Courtesy
Show director Peter Lackner | Credit: Courtesy

Even in a staged reading context, the cast realizes the moving stories of real-life end-of-care patients — the feisty Dorothy and Denise and the heartbroken Maria — with their struggles and peaceful resolutions. It gives the experience an expressive, dramatic life tied to an inspiring Santa Barbara space.

And yes, circling back to this column space, there is a musical component, in the form of Santa Barbara’s beloved acoustic guitar man, Bruce Goldish. His rippling and finger-picking sound has famously been heard in his busking mode, in the reverberant State Street parking garage, and on the Arlington esplanade. Here, his prelude, interlude, and post-play presence nicely rounded out the theatrical experience.

The production returns for a final performance this Friday at 6 p.m. at the Unitarian Society Parish Hall. (See Independent story here).

TO-DOINGS:

SoHo’s calendar this week includes an alternative Independence Day option, with the timely (a little too timely?) arrival of the dance band Latina Invasion.