Uncle Lar, aka Larry Reeb, will be headlining the next edition of

Operation Comedy.  The show is January 20th.  Doors open at 7 and the show starts at 8.

Brought to you in part by Shelby County Tourism and Visitors Bureau.     

Habitat for Humanity brought two holiday classics to the Strand Theatre on Sunday December 18, 2011.    It’s A Wonderful Life was followed by White Christmas.   The Strand was filled with the images from these two iconic films.

Seeing these classics on the big screen while sitting in the balcony takes our patrons back to a time gone by.   It was brought to back to our theatre by the hard work and dedication of the Board of our local Habitat for Humanity.

The mission of Habitat for Humanity is to:

• Seeking to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action.
• Inviting people of all backgrounds, races and religions to build houses together in partnership with families in need.

     

Rockphoria Rocks America performed at the Strand Theatre in Shelbyville, Indiana on December 16 &  17, 2011.   The Rockphoria shows, conceived and directed by Joey Gaudin of Smashed Productions, have been a December favorite since the Strand re-opened as a performing arts center in 2008.

This year’s show co-directed by Andy Erickson, featured music from America.   The concert started with Larry Brandt’s rendition of Johnny B. Goode.   This1958 classic set the tone for the night.

ACT 1

Glenn Yarwood followed with  Bill Joel’s  Only The Good Die Young from his 1977 album The Stranger.   Alanna Toon performed Lights by Journey.   This was one of the first songs that Steve Perry recorded after he joined the band.

Bobby Toon (Alanna’s Dad) performed the next song.   He sang Wanted Dead or Alive.   This is from Bon Jovi’s 1986 album Slippery When Wet.   It was third single released from that album.

Rain On The Scarecrow from the 1985 album Scarecrow as next on the program.   Nick Fischer sang this great rendition of this famous John Mellencamp song.   Rockphoria Rocks Indiana too.

The ever popular Scott Shrader brought Jimi Hendrix into the Strand with his rendition of Fire.   This 1967 song frequently opened live concerts by the Jimi Hendrix.

Aimee Yarwood (Glenn’s wife) the pretenders song Brass In Pocket.   She sang what became the first big success for that group.

Tuesday’s Gone from Lynyrd Skynyrd’s first album was sung by Bobby Toon.   The audience was yelling “Free Bird”  which maybe will make it into a future Rockphoria show.

The final piece of the first act was by Kiss from there album Getaway.   Sung by the show’s directors Joe Gaudin and Andy Erickson, Rock and Roll All Nite was a great closer for the first act.   Originally released in 1975, this song still gets an audience on their feet

ACT 2

The second act opened with Larry Brandt dress as Alice Cooper.   He sang the iconic School’s Out.   He was joined on stage by the 9 member Rockphoria Childrens Choir.   Balloons were flying as Larry performed this 1972 classic.

Aimee Yarwood returned to the stage for Tom Petty’s American Girl.   This song from the Heartbreaker’s self titled debut album is based on a guitar riff on a Bo Diddley Beat.

Heartbreaker, the powerful song by Bat Benatar was sung by Alanna Toon.   This was from her album Heat of the Night released in 1979.

The grunge scene was represented by Scott Shrader’s rendition of Come As You Are.   This Nirvana song written by frontman Kurt Cobain was released in 1992.

The 2011 Shelby Idol open division winner received a prize of singing with the Rockphoria band.   This year’s winner, Rob Springer, moved he audience with his powerful rendition of Desperado by the Eagles.

Copperhead Road was sung by Bobby Toon.   This song was originally released in 1988 by Steve Earl.

The first single released on Aerosmith’s debut album was the smash his Dream On.   Scott Shrader sand this blues influence power ballad.

No review of American Rock and Roll would be complete without something by Creedence Clearwater Revival.   Nick Fischer performed Down On The Corner from the 1969 CCR album Willy and the Poor Boys.

Glen Yarwood brought his vocal stylings to the Bob Seger hits Traveling Man and Beautiful Loser.   These were both featured on Seger’s 1976 live album.

The finale was easy to guess.  Grand Funk Railroad’s Were An American Band was performed by the entire cast.   It was the perfect ending to the perfect evening.

Rockphoria 2012 is in the works, so get ready again next year to rock and roll at the Strand!

The owners of the former Tippecanoe Building gave the Strand Volunteers permission to fix the facade lights on their building.  This past weekend a group of volunteers spent several hours on this project.   The result is a nice well lit sidewalk in front of the building.

The work will continue as we put new lamps that illuminates the upper part of the building.   This project will help keep the area around the Strand safe and enhance the look of the 200 block of South Harrison Street.

The Strand thanks the Owners for allowing us to complete this work.   Here is how it looks!

After the Shelby County Players struck their set the past Sunday, we noticed a curtain in the dressing area under the stage was wet.   We thought that someone had opened the facet located in the dressing area starting it to leak.   We were wrong!  The facet started to leak because there was a major hole in the MAIN WATER LINE.    Had the facet not leaked, we wouldn’t have seen it until it was too late.   There was a piece of rust keeping the hole plugged.   As soon as we move it the rust fell out, fortunately by that time we had the water to the building completely off.

As you can see by the picture, we averted a major disaster!    The fates are smiling upon the Strand.

The 65^th Street Klezmorim will perform on Sunday January 29, 2012 at the Strand Theatre in Shelbyville,Indiana.   This group from the Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation will present a concert of traditional klezmer music.   Under the direction of Cantor Janice Roger, the group will be joined by artist and composer Steven Greenman and Pete Rushefsky.

Steven Greenman is recognized internationally as one of the finest practitioners, composers and teachers of traditional East European Jewish klezmer violin music in the world today. He has performed internationally with notable klezmer ensembles Stempenyu’s Dream, Khevrisa, the Klezmatics, Budowitz, the Flying BulgarKlezmer Band, Kapelye.  As a concert performer Steven has been a guest soloist with the Cleveland Pops Orchestra, the Canton Symphony and the Akron Symphony performing his own arrangements of traditional East European Gypsy violin music and klezmer music.

Pete Rushefsky is a klezmer musician and Executive Director of the Center for Traditional Music and Dance, which has its home in New York City. He plays the tsimbl (cimbalon) as well as the 5-string banjo.  Rushefsky has a book published called Essentials of Klezmer 5-String Banjo, Volume I.   He and Steven make up the duo “Di Tzvei” (the two).

Both Greenman and Rushefsky will also join the 65^th Street Klezmorim for Shabbat service on Friday, January 27 at the Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation at 6501 North Meridian Street, Indianapolis.

Steven Greenman: