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Spotlight: From hard-to-define rock to the definitive classical Bach

In Out & About

7:02 am on Tue, 03.27.12

Saturday, the innovative Luminary Center for the Arts will host Sharon Van Etten and War on Drugs, two musical acts “at the peak of their creative energies” - or so the press material says.

Sharon Van Etten
From Luminary
Sharon Van Etten

Trying to nail down Sharon Van Etten’s "genre" can be difficult. The Kentucky-born, Brooklyn-based 31-year-old occupies a space somewhere between rock and soft. On some tracks, she floats her personal and stoic lyrics over folksy guitars and minimal percussion, evoking small rooms and home recording. But other songs will wash away in crunching guitars and a medley of percussion, her voice almost straining, but never disappearing, over the building background of twangy goodness.

Van Etten will be appearing with War on Drugs, a Philadelphia based group that shares Van Etten’s embrace of Americana sound and subject (for bonus irony points, the band is signed to the recording label “Secretly Canadian”). Where Van Etten can seem dark and beautifully sparse, War on Drugs draw out a comparative bounciness that, at times, seems drawn from the '80s.

Where: Luminary Center for the Arts, 4900 Reber Pl. 63139

When: Doors at 7 p.m., show at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 31

How much: $12 in advance, $14 at door

Information: Event Page

Tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/211421

Tim Cunningham

Cummingham
Cummingham

Where: Jazz on Broadway, 554 E. Broadway, Alton 62002

When: 8 p.m. Friday, March 30

How much: $10

Beacon calendar: www.stlbeacon.org/#!/event/23067/tcunningham_033012

The venue: www.facebook.com/pages/Jazz-on-Broadway/246673992032079

Nicholas Payton

Where: Jazz at the Bistro, 3536 Washington Ave., St. Louis, MO 63103

When: 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 30 and 31

How much: $35

Beacon calendar: www.stlbeacon.org/#!/event/23243

YouTube: Bags' Groove

Farshid Etniko

Farshid Etniko
Farshid Etniko

Where: Rue Lafayette, 2026 Lafayette Ave. 63104

When: 10 a.m. Saturday, March 31

How much: Free

Beacon calendar: www.stlbeacon.org/#!/event/22989/fetniko_33112

The venue: ruelafayette.us/

Bach: B-minor mass

Where: Powell Hall, 718 N. Grand Blvd.

When: 8 p.m. March 31, 3 p.m. April 1

How much: $20 up

Tickets: www.slso.org

Beacon preview article: www.stlbeacon.org/#!/content/23281

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