Orlando Zombie Ball8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 23Firestone Live, 578 N. Orange Ave.407-377-0400orlandozombieball.com$10-$15When it comes to throwing parties, the fine folks here at Orlando Weekly might be known best for our annual summertime Best of Orlando shindig. But this year OW is going all out for Orlando’s most beloved holiday, as we host the magazine’s first costumed Halloween blowout. As guests arrive at the Orlando Zombie Ball, they’ll make their way through A Petrified Forest’s “Marsh of Mayhem” scare zone – those who make it out alive will be rewarded with free drinks for the first hour. The Phantasmagoria crew will be on hand with macabre amusements, and VH1’s DJ Brian Dawe, as well as DJ BMF and Q-Burns, will pump it up with beats throughout the night. Costumes are mandatory, so don’t be caught dead (or undead!) without one – besides, you could walk away with up to $1,000 in cash prizes if you win the costume contest. Get creative for this one. – Aimee Vitek
The New Sam Rivers Rivbea Orchestra9 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 23Will’s Pub, 1042 N. Mills Ave.willspub.org$10What a difference a day makes! The big-band jazz of Sam Rivers returns this week, performed publicly for the first time since his passing, and, oh, how Orlando has missed it. Rivers’ fiery arrangements have been inherent to our cultural scene for a great many years, especially to those who remember fondly his regular Wednesday performances at Will’s Pub in 2004. It seems there’s potential for the Rivbea Orchestra to carry on that tradition in 2014, if the town demands it (you know we do!). Concerned with the glaring question of who will fill in for Rivers? Don’t fret: The orchestra slightly altered the music (as Rivers requested) by substituting his irreplaceable saxophone on beloved compositions with the fine guitar interpretations of longtime collaborator Bobby Koelble. In this way, Rivers’ music becomes new again, an old love rediscovered by the community and capably revived and led by Doug Mathews. – Ashley Belanger
Suspiria8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 23Eden Bar at the Enzian, 1300 S. Orlando Ave., Maitland407-629-1088enzian.orgfreePart of a less obvious Halloween trilogy, Suspiria rarely gets the big-screen time that other nightmares on certain streets do, but this 1977 Italian horror film starring Jessica Harper is as visually stunning as it is horrifyingly gory. Genuinely frightening, the camera angles employed are as unexpected as the film’s most shocking plot turns. Plus it features a prog-rock soundtrack by Goblin, a band that is basically director Dario Argento’s Ennio Morricone, which is cool if you can hear the music over your own screams. At least you’ll be outdoors if you feel you need to catch your breath; with any luck, there will be an evening draft to make the experience even more chilling. Already made up your mind to head out? We had no idea you were so strong-willed. Our compliments. – Ashley Belanger
Aurum7-10 p.m. Friday, Oct. 25Twelve21 Gallery, 1221-C N. Orange Ave.407-982-4357twelve21gallery.comfreeThis is Twelve21’s third show of 2013 – another group outing, and another step in the clever path they’re carving out for themselves. Their theory? By bringing in artists from outside Orlando to show at their gallery, they strengthen our local scene. How’s that possible? When artists from Seattle or Portland or, say, Greenville, S.C. (where the three artists featured in this show are from) see how tight-knit our creative community is, they spread the good news when they go back home – helping Orlando gain attention and credibility. “Everybody wins,” says the gallery. In this case, art buyers win too; Joseph Bradley’s nature-centric oils on wood, Annie Koelle’s serene mixed-media paintings and Emily Jeffords’ delicate ink-drawing/thread/found-object collages are all (dare we be so crass? The holidays are approaching) accessibly sized and priced and winsomely appealing. – Jessica Bryce Young
Creative City Project 20138 p.m. Friday, Oct. 25various locations in downtown Orlandocreativecityproject.comfreeSpontaneous acts of pure aesthetic delight will blossom on the sidewalks of downtown Orlando Friday evening after the busy workday is over. Live painting, performance art, dance, interactive digital art, street music and gallery openings will blossom in the moonlight, and briefcases will be replaced by paintbrushes, guitars and puppets for the second year in a row when a frenzy of creative expression takes over the city’s core Friday, Oct. 25, to celebrate National Arts and Humanities Month. Continue reading
Headdress Ball ’135:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26Hilton Orlando, 6001 Destination Parkway407-645-2577, ext. 111headdressball.org$300-$15,000With gala season in full booster-hangover swing (there are busted sequins covered in spray tan trickling down just about every downtown gutter imaginable), it’s important to remember the grand dame of Central Florida’s philanthropy set and the hat she rode in on. Since 1988, the Headdress Ball has been HIV/AIDS charity Hope & Help’s signature fundraiser, bringing in more than $3 million and countless moments of red-faced amusement from those who don’t usually populate gay bars. Still, if it’s flashy and splashy you’re after, you can’t do much better than watching some 15-foot-tall, 8-foot-wide living-parade-floats-in-dresses shimmy across the stage in a public-appearance balancing act. Sprinkle in some euphemized strippers (“The Harriett Lake Dancers”) and Vegas-style choreography, tie a black tie around a neck or two, and you’ve got the masquerade event that everyone will be talking about until next year’s. Also, a headache. – Billy Manes
Holly Hunt with Hollow Leg, Sorus, En Vietnam, Yogurt Smoothness 9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26Uncle Lou’s Entertainment Hall, 1016 N. Mills Ave.facebook.com/orlandooom$5Artistic chemistry can be fickle. For an artist inspired by another, the collaborative instinct typically kicks in immediately, but when it doesn’t come to an exciting conclusion just as rapidly, the disappointment that follows has the opportunity to wear out the impulse and negate any future collective output. Thankfully, this was not the case for Miami mixed media visual artists Beatriz Monteavaro and Gavin Perry, who found their mutual medium at last by forming heavy experimental band Holly Hunt. Continue reading
Morgan Pagewith Audien and Maor Levi10 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26Firestone Live, 578 N. Orange Ave.407-872-0066firestonelive.net$30-$50ages 18 and overGrammy-nominated progressive and electro house heavyweight, host of SiriusXM radio show In the Air and IDMA-nominated best American DJ Morgan Page hits Society at Firestone this Saturday with a totally immersive audio and visual concert experience never seen in public before this tour. A 90-panel high-resolution 3-D wall – the biggest of its kind, and originally developed for Michael Jackson’s This Is It by a team who also worked on Avatar – has been designed around Page’s set to give it life and pull the crowd where it wants with every build and drop of excitement created behind the decks. Rounding out the lineup and demanding you get there on time are rising electronic stars Audien, who is traveling on his first major tour, and Maor Levi, an artist with releases on massively popular dance labels Anjunabeats, OWSLA and Toolroom Records. – Ed Chapkowski
Jessie Ware7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26House of Blues Orlando, 1490 E. Buena Vista Drive, Lake Buena Vista407-934-2583hob.com/Orlando$20-$23Jessie Ware is not spectacular. Her vocal style is hushed and subdued. The songs on her debut album are slow-burn numbers that percolate rather than boil. The dance tracks performed by the likes of SBTRKT and Disclosure that she appears on are some of those acts’ most refined. She is not spectacular ­– but she is most definitely special. Her debut album, Devotion, is one of the most impressive pop albums to be released in the U.S. this year (although the “pop” it evokes is of a distinctly cosmopolitan and adult style), blending a forward-looking approach to sonics and production with a classic sense of vocal understatement. Ware manages to sneakily – subversively, even – speak to both fans of mellow, sophisticated pop and daring, au courant electronic music; and she does it with a breezy confidence that neatly demolishes lazy comparisons to the likes of Adele (to whom, apparently, all British female singers are now required to be compared). – Jason Ferguson
The Nose12:55 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26various theatersfathomevents.com$22-$24Just how important is a high profile in 19th-century Russian society? When he wakes up without a nose, an ambitious but stuffy bureaucrat finds out in Nikolai Gogol’s absurdist 1836 parable, which Shostakovich used as the libretto for his 1930s opera. This is a Met: Live in HD broadcast, beamed straight from New York’s Metropolitan Opera, meaning you can eat popcorn and lounge in stadium seating at the movie theater of your choice while enjoying Shostakovich’s spiky, propulsive, glorious score. These Fathom presentations are a wonderful resource for Orlandoans starved for the kind of innovative staging that only a major opera house can afford, and the kind of unconventional operas few regional companies would risk presenting; the sets and animated projections of this 2010 production designed by William Kentridge are stunning. – Jessica Bryce Young
Central Florida Veg Fest10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26Festival Park, 2911 E. Robinson St.321-331-1859cfvegfest.orgfreeIf you delight in a well-constructed salad or revel in a ravishing radish recipe, the Central Florida Veg Fest may be the event for you. Now in its eighth year, this year’s Veg Fest (billed as the largest vegetarian festival in the Southeast) features products and services from more than 200 eco-focused vendors – fresh produce from local farmers, edibles and household goods from Artichoke Red Vegan Market, and vegetarian eats from joints such as Dandelion Communitea Café, Infusion Tea, Ethos Vegan Kitchen and dozens more. The daylong outdoor green gala also offers food-prep demos and healthy-living exhibitions; a number of speakers, including Heather Carpenter from the Humane Society, Robert Cheeke from Vegan Bodybuilding and Fitness, and four-time NBA champion and plant-based lifestyle advocate John Salley, round out the day. – James Austin