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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Spotlight: Spokane band wins EMP competition

The Experience Music Project’s Sound Off competition for young bands has a new champion, and that champion is from Spokane.

Nude, a four-piece, was crowned March 7 after performing against The Deep Wake of Bainbridge Island, Wash., Feet of Seattle and Special Explosion from Bellevue, Wash. Those four bands survived preliminary rounds to advance to the March 7 finals.

Nude plays a style of music that a writer for The Stranger called “mathy indie rock” that is “is both sharp and dreamy, intricate and noisy.” Among their winnings: the opportunity to perform at Bumbershoot in September. Want to check them out? There are songs posted online at the EMP site, empmuseum.org, or on the band’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/ pages/Nude/154812664610667.

Catch Callaway at the Fox

If you can think of no reason to see Ann Hampton Callaway perform with the Spokane Symphony this coming week, there’s this:

As a composer, she’s collaborated with Cole Porter and Carol King and had songs recorded by Barbra Streisand. As an actor, she has a Tony nomination for her performance in “Swing!” and worked with Robert De Niro on “The Good Shepherd” As a singer, she has performed with some of the top orchestras in the world, and for world leaders across the globe.

That’s quite an impressive résumé to be bringing to Spokane.

Callaway and the symphony – under the direction of resident conductor Morihiko Nakahara – dive into the Great American Songbook for a program that includes works by Porter, Stephen Sondheim, and George and Ira Gershwin. She will be accompanied on piano by Ted Rosenthal, who will perform George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.”

The Saturday performance will take place at the Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox. Details are available at www.spokanesymphony.org.

Piedmont teams with Ferrell

So, local comedy fans have even more reason to anticipate the new Will Ferrell film, set to open Friday. First, it’s in Spanish. Second, it co-stars Gael García Bernal (“Babel”) and Diego Luna (“The Terminal”).

OK, so neither of those things sounds particularly amusing, until it dawns on you – Will Ferrell made a film in Spanish? And not just any film in Spanish, but a film by director Matt Piedmont.

You know, the Matt Piedmont who used to write for “Saturday Night Live” – and won an Emmy for it. The same Matt Piedmont who went to Lewis and Clark High School and whose dad, Joe Piedmont, is a former vice president at Avista.

Sadly for Spokane fans, it might take awhile for “Casa de mi Padre” to hit town. The Spanish-language riff on telenovelas, about a man (Ferrell) who fights to save the family ranch from a drug lord, is only getting a limited release to fewer than 400 theaters when it opens on Friday.

Do you have entertainment news for Spotlight? Send it to carolynl@spokesman.com. Follow Carolyn Lamberson on Twitter @clamberson.