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Nathan Weinbender

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All Stories

A&E >  Entertainment

Band of Horses’ latest pushes own boundaries

On Band of Horses’ fifth studio album “Why Are You OK,” the neo-folk rockers, who perform at the Fox on Tuesday, push themselves further away from the deliberately ragged sounds of their earlier recordings. According to frontman and primary songwriter Ben Bridwell, “Why Are You OK” is a record about artistic trepidation, a document of an indie rock star’s fears of growing up and becoming complacent.
A&E >  Entertainment

L.A. inspiration fuels Zella Day’s sound

Born and raised in the small resort town of Pinetop-Lakeside, Arizona, singer-songwriter Zella Day, who opens for Michael Franti at the Knitting Factory on Tuesday, always fantasized about making music in Los Angeles. Day’s latest album, “Kicker,” is defined by the wide-eyed optimism of a small town kid newly arrived in a big, sparkly city, a collection of stories about runaways, modern-day outlaws, hippies and heartbreakers. In that sense, it’s a distinctly Los Angeles record.
A&E >  Entertainment

Musical ‘Bring It On’ explores friendship, acceptance

“Bring It On” is a tale of two high schools, one affluent and the other low-income, and the star cheerleader torn between them. The high-energy musical, which features songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda (“Hamilton”) and Tom Kitt (“Next to Normal”), hits the stage on Thursday as the final production in Spokane Valley Summer Theatre’s debut season.
A&E >  Entertainment

Movie review: ‘Gleason’ an unflinching portrait of life with ALS

The first thing Steve Gleason did after learning he was succumbing to Lou Gehrig’s disease was turn on his camera. The former NFL safety was diagnosed with ALS in 2011, around the same time that he and his wife, Michel, discovered they were having a baby, and he began producing a series of video diaries expressing his fears and doubts and dispensing nuggets of fatherly wisdom to a son he would likely never speak to in person.
A&E >  Entertainment

Beach House rides musical chemistry

Over the course of six albums, Beach House has developed a haunting and melodic sound that’s unmistakably its own. The Baltimore-based dream pop duo of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally perform at the Knitting Factory on Tuesday, on tour with their most recent albums “Depression Cherry” and “Thank Your Lucky Stars,” which were released just two months apart.
A&E >  Entertainment

Review: Modern’s ‘Dogfight’ examines Vietnam era with potent mix of men behaving badly, romance

“Dogfight” is the story of characters in the moments before their lives are upended, and one of its tragedies is that they’re so oblivious to the turbulence that lies ahead. The whole show, which is currently running at the Modern Theater Coeur d’Alene, is imbued with a sense of impending doom, and there’s a certain dramatic irony in that we know about the turmoil they don’t see coming. It’s been a strong year for character-driven stories at the Modern, and “Dogfight,” which closes out the season, is one of the best.
News >  Features

Theater Review: Spokane Valley’s ‘Oliver!’ a solid rendition of splashy musical

Like so many great Charles Dickens stories, “Oliver Twist” is primarily a portrait of the backstreets and barrooms of 19th-century London, a catalog of colorful, lovably rough and tumble characters with outlandish names and broad personalities. Little orphan Oliver is the wide-eyed naïf who’s gradually assimilated into a world of poverty and petty thievery, and there are moments when he nearly becomes a supporting character in his own story. “Twist” has been adapted countless times since its 1838 publication, but the musical “Oliver!” currently being staged by Spokane Valley Summer Theatre is perhaps the most beloved. Conceived by Lionel Bart, the musical was a Broadway sensation in the ’60s and was later turned into a 1968 film that took home the Oscar for best picture. It’s reflective of a particular era of theater, in that spectacle tends to take precedence over substance, but the emotional core of Dickens’ timeless tale remains.
A&E >  Entertainment

The Mavericks keep doing music their way

Since forming in the late ’80s, the Mavericks have been defined by a fiercely independent spirit. The Grammy Award-winning, Nashville-based band, which hits the Fox Theater’s stage on Sunday, has always strayed from the status quo, blending rockabilly, Americana and Tejano styles and weathering the storm of multiple break-ups, lineup changes and reformations.
A&E >  Entertainment

Whitney channels ’70s fuzzy and sweet vibe

If you’re paying attention to the current indie rock scene, you’ll know the spirit of the ’70s is alive and well. The music of Whitney, a Chicago-based pop duo performing at the Bartlett on Saturday, sounds like it was beamed straight out of 1977, fuzzy and sweet and a bit blown out.
A&E >  Entertainment

Spokane Valley Summer Theatre takes stage with ‘Oliver!’

Although it’s still in its first month, Spokane Valley Summer Theatre is already proving its versatility. Following a successful run of the rock ’n’ roll revue “Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story,” the theater’s maiden season continues next week with the beloved Dickensian musical “Oliver!”
A&E >  Entertainment

Robert Ellis broadens his horizons - again - with latest record

The work of Texas singer-songwriter Robert Ellis, who performs at the Bartlett on Thursday, is defined by a lyrical specificity that sometimes recalls Randy Newman, Harry Nilsson or Paul Simon. Many of Ellis’ songs take the form of one-act dramas, and he says that he often thinks of himself as much a storyteller as a songwriter.
A&E >  Entertainment

Millsap’s songs informed by Pentacostal upbringing

Parker Millsap, who performs with his three-piece backing band at the Bartlett on Monday, admits he was in an “apocalyptic head space” when he started work on his latest album. Appropriately titled “The Very Last Day,” its songs are set in a violent but colorful world of revival preachers, hustlers and two-bit criminals, recalling images you might recognize from the Southern Gothic of Flannery O’Connor.
A&E >  Entertainment

Bing series offers a front-row view to world’s stage

Most people can’t hop over to London to catch Benedict Cumberbatch performing in “Hamlet,” but the Bing Crosby Theater’s Stage to Screen series gets you closer to A-list actors than an evening out at the theater ever could. Stage to Screen has been bringing the best of the West End to Spokane, projecting filmed versions of star-studded theatrical productions onto the theater’s big screen. It continues on Sunday with a screening of London’s National Theatre’s take on Shakespeare’s “As You Like It.”
A&E >  Entertainment

CST brings a minimalist ‘Lombardi’ to the stage

Vince Lombardi remains one of the most studied and mythologized figures in the history of professional football, a man of tremendous talent and fascinating contradictions. “Lombardi,” written by Eric Simonson, is both a warts-and-all portrait of the legendary coach and a glimpse into his occasionally volatile personal life, and the show will be presented as a staged reading by Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre next week.
A&E >  Entertainment

Kiss still ready to rock and roll

Known for outrageous stage antics and its makeup-and-leather aesthetic, Kiss is as much a brand as a band, with likenesses of its members adorning everything from comic books to pinball machines. There’s even a Kiss-themed arena football team. The band last came through Spokane in 2011, and founding member Paul Stanley says the group patterned this current tour after its 2014 Las Vegas residency. Dubbed “Freedom to Rock,” the show promises all the pyrotechnics and power chords you’ve come to expect from a Kiss concert.
A&E >  Entertainment

Fantastic Negrito finds inspiration in black roots music, streets of Oakland

Xavier Dphrepaulezz has lived enough life to supply material for multiple biographies. A self-taught musician who struggled in the business for years, Dphrepaulezz recently rechristened himself Fantastic Negrito and has released an album inspired by black roots music. The Oakland-based singer and guitarist opens for Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell at the Fox Theater on Wednesday.
A&E >  Entertainment

Modern merges fantasy, reality with ‘Man of La Mancha’

“Don Quixote” is a story that toys with perception and identity, the tale of a man who is so disenchanted with the world that he’d prefer to live in delusion. The revered musical “Man of La Mancha” merges the plot of that influential 17th century novel with a chapter in the life of its author, Miguel de Cervantes, and it hits the Modern Spokane’s stage this weekend under the direction of Troy Nickerson and Heather McHenry-Kroetch.
A&E >  Entertainment

Salgado returns to Wallace for annual blues festival

Since playing the first Wallace Blues Festival in 2012, Curtis Salgado has been through a lot. He’s battled lung cancer, he was signed to Chicago-based blues label Alligator Records and he released a new album titled “The Beautiful Lowdown.” The festival is now in its fifth year, and the vocalist will hit the festival stage with his band on Saturday night.
A&E >  Entertainment

Wye Oak revisits the past to create new album, ‘Tween’

If albums are snapshots of a specific time and place in a band’s career, then Wye Oak’s “Tween” is a document of growth spurts and awkward phases that have been glossed over by experience. Jenn Wasner, the Baltimore duo’s singer and guitarist, describes the album as being “constructed in one era and finished in another,” because seven of its eight tracks were initially written between the recording of the band’s 2011 album “Civilian” and 2014’s “Shriek.” Wye Oak performs at the Bartlett on Monday.
A&E >  Entertainment

Blitzen Trapper keeps it classic

There’s always been a twang to Blitzen Trapper’s music, though it’s become more prominent over the years. The band, which performs at Sandpoint’s the Hive on Friday, started out producing eccentric, psychedelia-tinged pop, transitioning later into music that recalled early Wilco and Ryan Adams. But with its latest LP, titled “All Across This Land,” Blitzen Trapper has shifted to a sound that’s more reminiscent of ’70s album rock than country.
A&E >  Entertainment

‘Buddy,’ and Brian Dalen Gunn, return to the Spokane area

Brian Dalen Gunn has made a career out of playing bespectacled rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Buddy Holly in the stage musical “Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story,” touring the country with various productions since first playing the role on Spokane Civic Theatre’s stage in 2010. That original production was directed by Yvonne A.K. Johnson, who’s also at the helm of this one, the debut show of the new Spokane Valley Summer Theatre.