Tracy Morgan, star of “30 Rock” and former “Saturday Night Live” cast member, will perform on Thursday, March 28, at the Dennison Theatre on the University of Montana campus as part of his “Excuse My French” stand-up tour.
Morgan was first introduced to TV audiences in his role as “Hustleman” on the hit comedy series “Martin.” He went on to join SNL in 1996 where he appeared for seven seasons and created such memorable characters as “Astronaut Jones” and “Brian Fellows.” After leaving SNL, Morgan went on to star in his own comedy series “The Tracy Morgan Show” and voiced “Spoonie Luv” on Comedy Central’s “Crank Yankers.”
Currently starring on NBC’s Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning “30 Rock,” Morgan appears opposite Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin as “Tracy Jordan,” the unpredictable star of Lemon’s (Fey) hit variety show, “TGS with Tracy Jordan.” In 2009 Morgan received his first Emmy nomination for this role in the supporting actor category; in the past five years he has also been nominated for the Supporting Actor NAACP Image Award.
Morgan made his animation debut in Jerry Bruckheimer’s “G-Force” with the character “Blaster,” one of the highly trained secret agent guinea pigs dispatched to save the world. The film opened at No. 1 in U.S. box offices and was celebrated by audiences worldwide. In 2010, Morgan starred in “Death at a Funeral,” a remake of the 2007 British movie of the same name, also featuring Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, and Danny Glover. In 2011, Morgan also headlined the New York Comedy Festival, which featured comedians such as Bill Maher, Andy Samberg and Patton Oswalt, among others.

Thursday, March 28 at the Dennison Theatre on the University of Montana campus
The show starts at 7 pm.
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, Dec. 14. The reserved seating tickets cost $49.50, and additional fees may applied. It is for mature audiences only.
Tickets are available at the Adams Center Box Office, all GrizTix outlets, by phone (406) 243-4051, or by visiting griztix.com.

The Execution Tour

The name itself presents a terrifying image - a mangled, forced extraction, quite literally “removal by cutting“. It should come as no surprise that the sounds behind this name are just as filthy, brutal, and unforgiving as the namesake suggests. Excision shows are like no other- a virtual apocalypse of twisting and morphing sounds turn massive crowds into a frenzy, as virtual walls of bass are relentlessly impaled time and time again upon their fragile bodies and ears.
Your ears will ring and your eyes will roll into the back of your head as you are suspended in what can only be called a true sensory overload. Bass will rain down from above for hours as Excision’s skills as a DJ and producer shine like an unholy light from the underworld.
The true champion of bass music, Excision hails from Kelowna, British Columbia. The founder of the ROTTUN label, a bass music conglomerate that has shaped the sound of modern Bass music, Excision has created a vast roster of allies that has only bolstered his spot as a warrior of bass music. Armed with a library of destruction and filth, Excision has time and time again tested the limits of electronic music with vastly different sets that encompass a full range of genres. The things you see and hear during the precious time you are engaged by Excision’s sounds will eclipse your mind for a lifetime, as you are constantly enlightened by the true fervor and energy that only an Excision set can provide.
Produced By Seafarer Entertainment & Knitting Factory Presents – www.KnittingFactory.com
General Admission, All Ages, Beer & Wine w/ ID

Wednesday, January 30 at The Wilma
Doors – 7 p.m.     Show – 8 p.m.
Tickets are available at Rockin’ Rudy’s, by calling 877-4-FLY-TIX,
Online at www.Ticketfly.com or www.KnittingFactory.com.
Tickets: $18 Advance Discount (Limited Quantity), $25 General Admission

BY CORY WALSH

Hirsute, overweight, often shirtless and sometimes bloodied, Damian Abraham is an unlikely candidate for one of the best frontmen in rock.
When he’s not screaming into a microphone or beating it against his head, though, the frontman for hardcore punk outfit F----- Up is surprisingly lighthearted on stage, leading sing-alongs or telling jokes.
That’s just one of the many contradictions that define the Toronto group. It works in a genre known for short songs, but loves to release 15-minute epics with weird instruments and collaborate with decidedly non-punk musicians like Final Fantasy and members of Arcade Fire.
The group also has a keen sense of spectacle that stands out an era of music overload. Its members chose an unprintable name; they once played a 12-hour concert in New York; and have released a series of singles named after the Chinese Zodiac that stretch the verse-chorus-verse template of punk into monolithic tracks that last up to 20 minutes.
Its last full-length album, 2011’s “David Comes to Life,” tackled the disreputable genre of the rock opera, and earned glowing praise from unlikely quarters such as NPR. Like others before it (see The Who’s “Tommy,”) the plot’s sketchy without the help of a lyric sheet – it’s a love story set in Thatcher-era England and involves terrorism.
It works thanks to focused, single-worthy tracks over the course of its 78-minute running time. The group also shirked any excessive interludes or pretentious instrumentation for “David,” stripping everything down in favor of unrelenting, sledgehammer rock. Given the constraints of touring, that’s what listeners should expect when Abraham, working name Pink Eyes, and the group’s three-guitar lineup play Missoula’s Badlander.
KBGA College Radio pulled off an impressive coup in booking them for the End-of-Thon, the nonprofit station’s celebration to mark the end of its annual fundraising drive, and it’s likely to be the most explosive rock show you’ll see this year until TotalFest.

FEB. 15, 2013 | @ THE BADLANDER

BY CORY WALSH

“Nancy Erickson: Kindred Spirits” is on display in the Meloy Gallery at the University of Montana PAR-TV Center on Jan. 24-April 20. In conjunction, “Follow that Thread: Fashion and Textiles from the MMAC Permanent Collection,” will go up in the Paxson Gallery for the same dates. A joint opening reception will be held on Thursday, Jan. 31, from 5-7 p.m.

Other events in conjunction:
• Wednesday, Feb. 6: An evening with the Pattee Canyon Ladies Salon, including Erickson and artists Stephanie Frostad, Kristi Hager, Becki Johnson, Beth Lo, Leslie Van Stavern Millar, Shari Montana, Linda Tawney and Janet Whaley, 7 p.m., PAR-TV Center, Montana Theatre.
• Tuesday, Feb. 12: “Kindred Spirits” Celebrity Artist Tour, UM School of Art professor Mary Ann Bonjorni, 5:10-6 p.m., PAR-TV Center, Meloy Gallery, early arrival is recommended as space is limited.
• Saturday, Feb. 16: Docent Tour, 12:10-12:50 p.m., PAR-TV Center, Meloy and Paxson galleries.
• Wednesday, Feb. 20: Erickson will discuss her influences, inspiration and techniques during an artist’s talk at 7 p.m. in the PAR-TV Center, Montana Theatre.
• Tuesday, Feb. 26: “Kindred Spirits” Celebrity Artist Tour, UM School of Art assistant professor Jennifer Combe, 5:10-6 p.m., PAR-TV Center, Meloy Gallery, early arrival is recommended as space is limited.
• Saturday, March 9: docent tour, 12:10-12:50 p.m., PAR-TV Center, Meloy and Paxson galleries.
• Wednesday, March 13: docent tour, 12:10-12:50 p.m., PAR-TV Center, Meloy and Paxson galleries.
• Thursday, March 14: “Follow That Thread” celebrity artist tour, UM School of Theater and Dance associate professor Laura Alvarez, 5:10-6 p.m., PAR-TV Center, Paxson Gallery, early arrival is recommended as space is limited.
• Saturday, March 16: “Fabric of Life: Odyssey of the Stars,” a scholarship fundraiser featuring Erickson, 7:30 p.m., Dennison Theatre.
• Wednesday, March 27: “The History of the MMAC Textile Collection” panel discussion, featuring Alvarez and UM professor emeritus Christine Milodragovich, 7 p.m., Masquer Theatre.
• Wednesday, April 10: docent tour, 12:10-12:50 p.m., Meloy and Paxson galleries.

The ideal kinship and real-life conflict between humans and animals drives artist Nancy Erickson’s new exhibition on the University of Montana campus.
“Kindred Spirits,” contains many of the Pattee Canyon resident’s hallmarks: Large, free-form animal and human figures cut from quilted fabric and decorated with stirring colors and references to ancient cave art from France.
While Erickson’s work has been included in more than 500 exhibitions over the years, the Montana Museum of Art and Culture found about a dozen selections from 2005 to the present that haven’t been displayed or are seldom seen, said curator Brandon Reintjes.
“Nancy’s such a well-respected, internationally known artist who we happened to have in our community, and we thought it would be great to celebrate her, and then it was in conjunction with the ‘Odyssey’ event this year.”
Erickson is being honored at the 2013 Odyssey of the Stars, an annual UM event that shines a light on distinguished visual and performing arts alumni.
Fabric art was not held in high regard when Erickson began her work, but attitudes have changed over the decades – not her approach. The listing of materials on the gallery entrance includes velvet, satin and cotton; fabric paints, oilstick and charcoal; machine stitched, applied and quilted. While she’s working on fabric, her work reads as painterly – the curving, stitched lines are reinforced with blunt brush strokes and pools of colored dye.
“She spends hours and hours and hours adding the layers to these,” said Reintjes, who noted that many of the richly saturated works begin as plain white fabric.

Dominating one of the 16-foot walls of the Meloy Gallery is a group united for the first time, the five-member Toklat wolf pack.
In primitive, stitched handwriting, one 68-inch-tall wolf is branded in red with the dates of the pack’s existence. “Toklat pack: 1930s-2005.” The much-studied wolves from the area around Alaska’s Denali National Park were exterminated.
“We thought it was a timely point to venture into that argument,” said Reintjes. “Not necessarily to spark anything off, but to acknowledge it,” as Erickson is a committed environmentalist.
The shapes, scale and colors of Erickson’s work, meanwhile, posed a curatorial challenge. The white interior of the Meloy Gallery has been subbed out for black walls and adjusted lighting that helps some of the bright yellows and reds pop.
“The idea was to create sort of a cave space because she is so influenced by the Southern France caves ... the earliest artists known to us came to us from the south of France,” said Barbara Koostra, MMAC director. Those caves are the Chauvet Pont d’Arc, which is 32,000 years old, and the “younger” Lascaux, dating back 17,000 years.
The shapes, meanwhile, were a pleasant change for the curator, who said fabric art normally conforms to standard forms.
“It’s really unusual to have them free-form, these kind of organic forms that are floating, and we took advantage of that,” said Reinjtes. “It was a lot of fun to install because of that tension between the different elements, and then the height you can place them that.”
In addition to a slew of celebrity and docent tours of the works (see information box) there will be an accompanying audio tour element, available via headphones or cellphone. Visitors can dial a number and enter an extension for a specific piece, and it will cue up sounds of the animals, letting the wolves and panthers speak for themselves.