Stevie Nicks and The Pretenders to Jam PPG; PICT Staging ‘Oedipus Rex’ at Union Project (Fri., 3/31/17)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSKN0Nby808

Ohio native Chrissie Hynde jamming on her Telecaster in 2013. photo: Harmony Gerber and Wikipedia.

1) For super-fans of Stevie Nicks, 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault was a gift. Almost all of the album’s songs existed as demos that Nicks recorded between 1969 and 1987. Most were leaked on the internet. None, however, were finished. In 2014, Nicks went to Nashville, and in two weeks, she and some session musicians put the final, finishing touches on these songs. The album entered the Billboard 200 chart at no. 7, giving Nicks her sixth top 10 album on that chart. The 24 Karat Gold Tour comes to the PPG Paints Arena with very special guests The Pretenders. If a women-rock-and-roll Mt. Rushmore existed, both Nicks and Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde would be on it. Nicks is a member of Fleetwood Mac, and beginning with 1981’s Bella Donna, she became a successful solo artist. Hynde, who is from Akron, Ohio, formed The Pretenders in 1978 in Hereford, England. Their 1980 self-titled debut came with a small suggestion on the inner sleeve: “This album has a longer running time than most average LP’s therefore to achieve maximum effect PLAY THIS ALBUM LOUD.” This is optimum volume for all Pretenders records, including their most recent, 2016’s Alone. 7 p.m. 1001 5th Ave., Uptown. (CM)

The classic tale of ‘Oedipus Rex’ is onstage at PICT. Justin Wade Wilson as Oedipus, Shammen McCune as Jocasta. photo: Suellen Fitzsimmons.

2) Sigmund Freud, while living and working in Vienna, Austria, attended at least one performance of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex. No doubt his seeing the play affected his formulation of the Oedipus complex theory, a phrase he coined to explain a son’s unconscious sexual desire for his mother. (For girls, he called it an Electra complex.) The term is relatively new, just over 100 years old, while the play dates back 2000 years, proof that this classic Greek tragedy is still ripe for fodder even if we all know the story: Oedipus unknowingly kills his father and marries his mother. Oedipus fails to escape fate and gouges out his eyes in horror of his own hubris. Seeing a production of Oedipus Rex should be mandatory for anyone interested in theater, psychology, tragedy, or irony. Luckily, PICT Classic Theatre is staging it at the Union Project, 801 N. Negley Ave., Highland Park. 8 p.m. Performances through April 8. (CM)

3) Good Fridays at the Warhol is a weekly party at the museum, featuring art exhibits, music, and cocktails in the high temple to Andy Warhol’s numerous talents. Half-price museum admission. 5 – 10 p.m. 117 Sandusky St., North Shore.

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