Five Worthy Weekend Activities for the Home Stretch Before New Year’s
Hairy hopefuls channel this guy on Saturday at Tobacco Road. (Public domain photo via Wikimedia Commons)
We’re coming up on the last half of that long, indeterminate holiday stretch between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. You might be saving your energy and bucks for Monday night’s shebang, but there are still a few interesting things to check out around town this weekend. Here are five.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28
Cristy Road’s Spit and Passion Reading @ Sweat Records
Artist/writer/activist Cristy C. Road is beloved in underground circles for artwork, books, and music that explores identity and the rad life. She’s now based in New York, but her career truly began here in Miami, where, as a teenager, she started self-publishing her first zine, Green Zine. Since then, she’s gone on to illustrate multiple band posters, record sleeves, and commercial projects, as well as play her own music and publish a number of books.
Previous illustrated novels Distance Makes the Heart Grow Sick and Bad Habits both touched on her autobiography, but it’s the latest, Spit and Passion, and really delves into her Miami punk rock youth. She describes it as a “coming out memoir (about Green Day)” and “being a pre-teen closet queer in an early ’90s Miami, Florida.” Road reads from the book tonight at a free, all-ages event at Sweat Records.
8 p.m. at Sweat Records, 5505 NE 2nd Ave., Miami. Call 786-693-9309, or visit sweatrecordsmiami.com
Leftover Crack @ Churchill’s
Make your night a punk rock double feature: Check out Cristy Road’s reading at Sweat, then head next door for a headlining show by infamous act Leftover Crack. These radical residents of New York City’s C-Squat are still going strong since their late ’90s debut, and a third proper full-length album is even in the works. A number of other local favorites perform, including Baker Acted, Devauled, Askultura, and Guerrileros de Nadie.
Doors open at 7:30 p.m. at Churchill’s Pub, 5501 NE 2nd Ave., Miami. Admission is $15; age 18 and up. Call 305-757-1807, or visit churchillspub.com
Laser Fest Weekend @ Miami Science Museum
Retro laser light shows still live, thanks to the Miami Science Museum’s planetarium. And guess what? The soundtrack hasn’t really changed since the phenomenon was born. This weekend kicks off a special laser show extravaganza at the museum, where, on both Friday and Saturday night, you can catch hours of effects set to music. Running from 8 p.m. to midnight, each hour brings a new themed program, from a family-centric one first thing, to Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd later on. The only nod to music made past the ’70s is an hour of Radiohead — and this kind of unabashed psychedelic nostalgia is great in our books.
8 p.m. to 1 a.m. (last show starts at midnight), Friday and Saturday at the Miami Science Museum, 3280 S. Miami Ave., Miami. Admission to Laser Fest is $4 for children, $8 for adults. Call 305-646-4234, or visit miamisci.org
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 29
Gun Hoes and Whorish Boorish cassette release @ Kill Your Idol
These two acts are currently burning up the psych/garage/party-band scene in South Florida, and in a willfully retro move, they’ve teamed up to put out a joint cassette tape. The release party for it goes down a bit off the band’s usual path — on South Beach! — but it’s at Kill Your Idol, after all. Selling points for those to whom heading over the causeway might be a turn-off: There’s no cover, and before 10 p.m., all drinks are two for one. The show itself starts at 11 p.m., but there’s an argument for not showing up on Miami time.
Doors open at 7 p.m. at Kill Your Idol, 222 Espanola Way, Miami Beach. Admission is free; age 21 and up. Call 305-672-1852, or visit facebook.com/pages/Kill-Your-Idol/213315082061801
Second Annual Beard and Mustache Competition @ Tobacco Road
If you love grizzly men, get to Tobacco Road ASAP on Saturday and take your pick! The Brotherhood of Mustaches and Beards’ Miami chapter returns to the bar for its second annual beard and mustache competition. There, the hopefully hairy compete to get their facial ‘dos ranked in 14 different partial beard, full beard, mustache, and even fake beard categories. All the money raised to both watch and compete goes to the charity AMI Kids, and music comes courtesy of Los Bastardos Magnificos and DJ Haitian Hillbilly.
Doors open at 7 p.m. at Tobacco Road, 626 S. Miami Ave., Miami. Admission is $10 to watch, $20 to compete; age 21 and up. Call 305-374-1198, or visit tobacco-road.com
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