Hippo Campus Plays Three Rivers Arts Fest; ‘Chicago’ at Split Stage; Brian Edward Show (Sat., 7/3/17)

1) How bold of Hippo Campus to title their debut LP Landmark. Bolder still, naming their tour after that album: The Landmark Tour. It’s deserved, though, just listen to the quartet’s music. Animal-Collective-harmonies meet world-music rhythms by way of Vampire Weekend. What’s even more impressive is how fully formed the group sounds despite the members’ youth—all four of them just clear the drinking age. Of course, they had two previous EPs, 2014’s Bashful Creatures and 2015’s South, to realize their sound. The Animal Collective parallels are sure to persist, for like their noise rock forebears, all the members perform under eccentric stage names: The Turntan, Stitches, Espo, and Beans. They met at the Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, a high school in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Landmark Tour takes them to a landmark summer event, The Three Rivers Arts Festival, for a free concert. 7:30 p.m. Dollar Bank Stage, Point State Park, Downtown. (CM)

2) In 1924 in Chicago, two lurid murder cases made headlines, each involving a glamorous young woman. One admitted shooting her lover and there was strong evidence that the other, a cabaret singer, had killed hers. Both had clever lawyers who played on the jurors’ sympathy, and both were acquitted. A young writer named Maurine Dallas Watkins covered the cases as a reporter, then wrote a play satirizing the media-circus trials and the wild atmosphere of the city itself. Her play, Chicago, did well on Broadway, and nearly 50 years later a musical adapted from it became a global hit. By mixing the crime stories and dark humor with jazzy song-and-dance, the musical Chicago evokes the Roaring Twenties in a way that seems to resonate with modern audiences. Not to mention the fact that a lot of its social commentary still hits home today. 8 p.m. Ends tomorrow. Split Stage Productions, a rising Westmoreland County theater company, is performing Chicago for two shows only. The Palace Theatre, 21 W. Otterman St., Greensburg. (MV)

3) Brian Edward, host of “Burgh Vivant” a cultural talk magazine website, as well as playwright and actor, will perform a one person comedic send up, Brian Edward: In Person & On Film. The show will feature incredible film clips, funny personal anecdotes, and humorous observations regarding movies from Hollywood’s golden era of camp films like Auntie Mame, Sunset Boulevard, Mommie Dearest, and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? This is an encore presentation of the show he debuted last year at Bricolage. And yes you can order a martini! 9 p.m. 655 Penn Ave., The Cabaret at Theater Square. Cultural District.

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