A & E

Being subtle and low-key isn't usually a recipe for success in the music industry. But somehow, the Cowboy Junkies have managed to sell 4 million records since their inception in 1985, without a hit or even a serious attempt at one.

They have made some fantastic records, though, and have a surprisingly consistent, durable sound. The Junkies' dark, slow-burning countrified rock inhabits a dreamy midpoint between Patsy Cline and the Velvet Underground, built around the cool, crystalline vocals of singer Margo Timmins.

The show is at 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Byham Theater, Downtown, as part of the CD Live! concert series. Lee Harvey Osmond also is on the bill. Tickets are $37.50.

Details: 412-456-6666.

— Michael Machosky

Soul trombonist Fred Wesley will add a funky sound to the Katz Plaza, Downtown, during the Gallery Crawl on Friday.

The Georgia native is a veteran of the bands of Ike and Tina Turner, James Brown and the Parliament Funkadelic. He helped create funk hits such as "Pass the Peas," "P-Funk" and "Stretching Out" by Bootsy's Rubber Band.

The Gallery Crawl, sponsored by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, is a display of work at more than 20 venues, featuring visual art, music and dance.

The sites are all in the Cultural District, Downtown, and they will be open for visits from 5:30 to 9 p.m. All the while, Wesley and his funk-masters will be providing the soundtrack for the evening at the outside plaza at Seventh Street and Penn Avenue. All Gallery Crawl events are free.

Details: 412-456-6666.

— Bob Karlovits

Dance Alloy Theater will host a smorgasbord of artful movement on Friday night when it will be joined by seven regional dance companies at its studio in Friendship. The event is part the "First Friday on Penn" program run by the Penn Avenue Arts Initiative.

The "In Good Company" program includes Dance Alloy performing one of its repertoire pieces, "Table of Content" by Marina Harris. The other companies performing Friday will be Belafon, Bodiography, Evolve, Hill Dance Academy Theater, Naka Entertainment, Pillow Project and Pittsburgh Black Theater Dance Ensemble.

The show starts at 7 p.m. Friday at Dance Alloy Studio, Friendship. Complimentary wine and cheese will be served during intermission. Admission is $7.

Details: 412-363-4321.

— Mark Kanny

Hofbrauhaus Pittsburgh will be taking its Oktoberfest celebration to the streets this weekend and next.

The beer hall in the South Side will mark its first year with an outdoor observance of the crown prince of German holidays. Festivities will take place on the Sidney Street parking lot next to the McCormick & Schmicks restaurant.

Besides beer -- well, OK, bier -- the celebration also will feature the Hofbrauhaus regular, "Mr. Oktoberfest" Joe Maloy, and performers such as Tubas on Tap, the Alpen Schuplatters Bavarian Dancers, Heimut Klang, Chris Decker and Drei Alte Herron.

There also will be a Miss Oktoberfest pageant, beginning at 6 p.m. Saturday and finishing the same time Oct. 10.

Oktoberfest will waltz into the parking lot from 5 p.m. to midnight Friday, noon to midnight Saturday and noon to 10 p.m. Sunday. The celebration will be at the same time Oct. 9, 10 and 11.

There is no admission charge, and tickets for food and beverage will be sold at the event.

Details: 412-224-2328.

— Bob Karlovits

David Copperfield, hailed by many as the world's greatest magician, will perform "An Intimate Evening of Grand Illusion" on Wednesday and Oct. 8 at the Benedum Center, Downtown.

Copperfield turns fantasy into reality with elaborate illusions that incorporate audience members at every turn. Some of his tricks include accurately predicting lottery numbers, a close-up illusion involving a lethal African scorpion, and making 13 audience members disappear and reappear.

"An Intimate Evening of Grand Illusion" is part of the Cohen & Grigsby Trust Presents series. Showtimes are 5:30 and 8:30 p.m. Wednesday and Oct. 8. Tickets are $30.25-$50.25.

Details: 412-456-6666 or www.pgharts.org.

— Kellie B. Gormly

This weekend, Christine Frechard, a native of Champagne, France, will open Pittsburgh's newest art gallery, aptly named the Christine Frechard Gallery.

From 5 to 9 p.m. Saturday, the gallery will have a grand-opening celebration featuring works by Angelo Ciotti, Adrienne Heinrich, William Rock, Allyson Holtz, Jerome D'Angelo and Aimee Manion.

Frechard was the owner of Europ'ART Gallery in Lawrenceville for eight years and is the founder of the Institute of International Art and Languages. Her new gallery will serve the Pittsburgh community as a hub of cultural connectedness. Immersion classes in foreign languages and cultural events, such as an artist lecture series, poetry performances and live music, will be offered at the gallery.

The Christine Frechard Gallery is at 5871 Forbes Ave. in Squirrel Hill. Regular gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and noon to 4 p.m. Sundays.

Details: 724-766-0104 or www.christinefrechardgallery.com.

— Kurt Shaw

Josh Blue would be funny even he didn't have cerebral palsy -- er, wait, that didn't come out quite right.

Blue, whose hair and goatee must have been all the rage among prisoners in the Bastille in 18th-century France, delivers sharply observed jokes about his disability. He speaks in a deceptively gentle slur that dares you to laugh. He won the fourth season of NBC's "Last Comic Standing" with a routine about competing as a member of the U.S. Paralympic Soccer Team. "I got injured, and the coach had the nerve to put me on the disabled list!" he griped.

Blue plays the Pittsburgh Improv at 8 p.m. Thursday, 8 and 10 p.m. Friday, and 7 and 9 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $20.

Details: 412-462-5233.

— William Loeffler

Count Basie and Lionel Hampton will provide a different kind of oom-pah for the Oktoberfest concerts of the River City Brass Band.

Patrick Sheridan, the tuba soloist, educator and conductor who teaches at the University of California at Los Angeles, will return as conductor for four of this series of concerts. He says the German people got enchanted with American big-band jazz after World War II and "now it is heard at every Oktoberfest."

So, besides jazz classics such as "Jumpin' at the Woodside" and "Hamp's Boogie," the band will examine excerpts from Johann Strauss' "Die Fledermaus," the "Thunder and Lightning Polka," the "Pennsylvania Polka," the "Blue Danube" and "Wilkommen" from "Cabaret."

The concert also will feature work by the River Bottom Quartet, made up of Matthew Murchison and Brian Meixner on euphoniums and Koichiro Suzuki and Ross Cohen on baritone horns.

Sheridan will conduct at 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Upper St. Clair Theater; 8 p.m. Oct. 8 at Carnegie Music Hall, Oakland; and 3 p.m. Oct. 11 at Baldwin High School. Robert Page, conductor emeritus of the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, will conduct at 8 p.m. Thursday at Gateway High School in Monroeville; 8 p.m. Friday at Carson Middle School in McCandless; and 8 p.m. Saturday at the Palace Theatre, Greensburg. Bruce Lauffer, from the McKeesport Symphony, will conduct at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Pasquerilla Performing Arts Center in Johnstown. Prices vary.

Details: 412-434-7222.

— Bob Karlovits

The 19th annual Pittsburgh New Works Festival closes this weekend with its fourth and final program of three original one-act plays.

The Pittsburgh New Works Festival showcases a dozen original one-act plays each produced by a different area theater company. A different trio of plays is performed during each of the festival's four weekends.

This week's offerings:

• "Vows" by Chris Gavaler of Lexington, Va., produced by the Rage of the Stage Players.

• "Tics" by Kyle Zielinsky of Bethel Park, produced by Cup-a-Jo Productions.

• "Regrets" by Barbara Miller of Mt. Pleasant, produced by Greensburg Civic Theatre.

Performances: 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 5 and 8 p.m. Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Father Ryan Center, 420 Chartiers Ave., McKees Rocks.

Admission: $10; $8 for students.

Details: 412-394-3353 or www.proartstickets.org.

— Alice T. Carter

On Thursday, Little Lake Theatre in Canonsburg begins performances of the thriller "Wait Until Dark."

Written by Frederick Knott, the action pits a young blind woman against a team of criminals who invade her Greenwich Village apartment. Although unable to see, the young newlywed proves herself a resourceful and formidable foe in her struggle against her attackers.

"Wait Until Dark" continues through Oct. 17 at Little Lake Theatre, 500 Lakeside Drive South, Canonsburg, Washington County. Performances: 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays. Admission: $15-$17; $12 for age 15 and younger.

Details: 724-745-6300 or www.littlelaketheatre.org.

— Alice T. Carter

Punk never seemed like it would age well. Too contrary, too simple, too discordant.

But a little more than three decades since Johnny Rotten gobsmacked a generation, punk still reinvents itself with new kids in thrall to the music's raw power.

Enter Social Distortion, performing at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Ches-Arena in Cheswick. While some of the vintage punk bands went corporate (Sex Pistols, anyone?), Mike Ness of Social D. never sold out, never compromised his contrary vision. Case in point: Earlier this year, Social Distortion finally released its first retrospective. Simply titled "Greatest Hits," it features all the band's touchstone songs from "Another State of Mind" through "Story of My Life," and "Ball and Chain" to "Reach for the Sky."

Admission is $30.

Details: 724-275-7625 or www.chesarenapgh.com.

— Rege Behe

The Frick Art & Historical Center will have a family celebration on Saturday to mark the opening of its new exhibit, "Icons of American Photography: A Century of Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art."

Visitors to the event can take an interactive tour of the exhibit, explore the site through a photo scavenger hunt, design a close-up collage and take home a free souvenir from the photo booth.

This exhibit contains 59 photographs chronicling the evolution of photography. Works by Matthew Brady, William Henry Jackson, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Paul Strand, Margaret Bourke-White, Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans and more are included in the exhibit.

Saturday's celebration, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Point Breeze museum, is free. Regular hours for the museum are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays to Sundays.

Details: 412-371-0600 or www.frickart.org.

— Susan Jones

Got milk? Your kids can get some, flavored with yummy chocolate, on Sunday at the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, where the "got milk?" tour will make a stop to promote chocolate milk, which organizers are calling the official drink of Halloween.

Promoters says kids drinking chocolate milk can get the taste of chocolate they would find in candy, along with the skeleton-building benefits of the calcium in milk.

Chocolate milk-themed activities will be offered from noon to 2 p.m. at the North Side museum. Kids can sample chocolate milk from local dairies, win Halloween-themed prizes such as "got milk?" logo shirts, snap photos of a celebrity-inspired chocolate milk mustache, and more.

The event, along with general admission to the museum, is free on Sunday, because of the RAD Days program.

Details: 412-322-5058 or www.pittsburghkids.org.

— Kellie B. Gormly

Writers seem to love Tom Russell. Ken Bruen, author of "The Dramatist" and "Sanctuary," calls him the last great American voice. Annie Proulx ("The Shipping News," "Brokeback Mountain") praises his "restless curiosity and almost violent imagination." And poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti calls him a combination of Johnny Cash, Jim Harrison and Charles Bukowski.

What has Russell, who performs Tuesday at Diesel in the South Side, done to deserve such literate praise? Simply, his songs are short stories with music. On Russell's new release, "Blood and Candle Smoke," his incisive writing on songs such as "Nina Simone" and "Mississippi River Runnin' Backwards" work well with his earthy vocals and music that's provided by Calexico.

Tickets for the 8 p.m. show are $20 in advance, $25 at the door.

Details: 412-431-4800 or www.dieselpgh.com.

— Rege Behe

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