Elbow rocks Center Stage
On Sept. 20, British rock quartet Elbow filled Center Stage with a grand, intimate sound in an unparalleled show of skill and competency.
Entertainment
Straw Dogs lacks classic’s ambiguity
Straw Dogs, a remake of a film of the same name waters down the original for modern audiences but maintains a modicum of verisimilitude that is perhaps more salient, or at least more focused. Starring James Marsden, the Mississippi-set film does not pack as many punches or have as many complex themes as the original, but the ones it does explore are interesting. This remake is based on the 1971 original, which is based on the novel, The Siege of Trencher’s Farm.
Diaries drips with blood, hormones
Rarely has a soap opera had so much blood. The third season of The Vampire Diaries kicked off on Thursday, Sept. 15 on The CW. A fairly standard teen drama with the occasional dabble in grotesque violence, the show is more or less what’s on the label. However, the season opening, at least, comes packaged with an amusing B-movie gimmick: vampire-wolf hybrids.
Neon Indian is intimate and energetic
The dimming streets of Midtown Atlanta on Monday, Sept. 19 seemed to foreshadow little more than an evening of post-summer, pre-autumn purgatory and metropolitan blues—that is, until Denton, Texas’ Neon Indian rose from the primordial sludge of this deceptively barren evening to perform at the Masquerade.
Sunny stymied by commercials
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, a sitcom specializing in twisted and usually uproarious humor, returned to FX for the premiere of its seventh season on Thursday, Sept. 15. Possessing arguably some of the funniest moments on TV over the past six years, Sunny seems to have found a formula that works. It’s an understatement to say that the bar has been set high for season seven. The premiere registered only a blip on the radar of laughs.
Drive offers brutal thrills marred by bad dialog
Danish filmmaker Nicholas Winding Refn’s latest film Drive stars Ryan Gosling as the brooding hero and Carey Mulligan as his token damsel in distress. Visually stunning, this noir-style thriller gets bogged down with weak dialogue, but once the action picks up it is a thrilling ride that fans of gory action movies are sure to love.
Wicked Casts a Spell at the Fox
Wicked, the famous Broadway musical will grace the city of Atlanta once again. Back after three long years, Wicked will be at the fabulous Fox Theatre until Oct. 9.
Cobra Starship lacks cohesion, dance tracks
Pop-punk band Cobra Starship released their highly anticipated follow-up to 2009’s hit album Hot Mess this past week, Night Shades.
Warrior wins crowd with intense performances
That feeling of soul-squeezing intensity is hard to come by in movies these days, but that cannot be said of Gavin O'Connor's Warrior.
Bionic powerful but imperfect
It’s been nine long months since the world has gotten the first glimpse at what Motorola and Verizon have called the future of mobile computing. Now, the long-awaited Droid Bionic has finally been released and it’s time to find out if the phone lives up to the hype it’s created over the past few months.
Lady A woos country fans
Lady Antebellum’s third studio album Own the Night, released Sept. 13, follows in the footsteps of the band’s other powerful albums and provides the striking emotion now expected of the country trio.
Contagion thrills, lacks cast development
Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion is a science fiction thriller that dramatizes the worst nightmare of every germaphobe. The sudden outbreak of a deadly viral disease that is virtually unstoppable.
Smooth jazz to soothe Atlanta
This Saturday, Sept. 17, is the 2011 Jazz Grooves Atlanta Smooth Music Festival, an opportunity for students hear a cadre of smooth jazz musicians across the country.
Hallyu Wave breaks in Japan
This past year marked a huge turning point for South Korean entertainment as its musicians turn their sights on the lucrative Japanese market and overseas expansion. The influx of Korean media first began in Japan a few years ago with the introduction of TV dramas and has been dubbed the Hallyu Wave.
Gordon Biersch satisfies with new, lighter cuisine
Gordon Biersch explores the lighter side with their new menu featuring many dishes under 575 calories. Using their signature made-from-scratch method, the health-conscious menu is flavorful, fresh and healthy.
Child delivers angelic vibes
On Labor Day, while storms escalated in the Atlanta area and brought a dismal, overcast gloom to the city, Active Child lifted the mood of the fans at Atlanta’s music venue The Earl by masterfully presenting their angelic, orchestral music.
The Debt shows strong performances
The years of the Jewish Holocaust are known all around the world as a time of horror and supreme inhumanity. There is no denying this. The amount of lives brutally ripped apart by the Nazi cult numbered in the millions. The entire world witnessed the suffering of a nation, and John Madden’s new espionage film The Debt, which opened last Wednesday, reveals that in no way did the pain end with the winning of the war.
Legendary has strong chemistry
Those present for the Almost Legendary show Friday, Sept. 3, at The Masquerade jumped, danced and sweated their way through roughly 35 minutes of energetic pop music. While the crowd would have fit twice over into a Howie physics lecture hall, they made up for their lack of numbers by matching the band’s enthusiasm for every note. Legendary was celebrating the release of its first EP, titled Bright Lights.