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RED BANK: STINSON LIVE & LEFT OF THE DIAL

Rocker Tommy Stinson, below, is the special guest performer for Sunday events at Brookdale Radio (above) and Jack’s Music.

Veteran listeners of 1980s-’90s college and alternative playlists know him as the spiky-haired, plaid-suited, juvenile delinquent bassist and sometime vocalist of Twin Cities punk pioneers the Replacements. His road since then has seen him play a stint with elusive superstar act Guns ‘N Roses (including the recording of unreleased sessions with both of his former bands), establish an on-again/off-again with ’90s alterna-rockers Soul Asylum, and emerge every now and then with a solo project under the name Bash & Pop.

This Sunday afternoon, Tommy Stinson is a man about town on the Greater Red Bank Green, when the upstate New York resident plays a pair of free intimate sets during two special events — the first at Brookdale Community College radio station 90.5 The Night, and the other at downtown Red Bank landmark Jack’s Music Shoppe.

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LINCROFT: BCC HOSTS FOOD TRUCK FEST

brookdale-mainsignPress release from Brookdale Community College

Community members of all ages are invited to a day of music, food, prizes and family-friendly games and activities during the first ever 90.5 The Night Food Truck Festival, held Saturday, Oct. 15 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Lincroft campus of Brookdale Community College.

The free event, hosted by Brookdale Public Radio, will feature more than 12 area food trucks, including Empanada Guy, Mary Queen of Pork, Surf and Turf Truck, House of Cupcakes and the Tasty Trolley.

Live music acts include Sharif, Waiting for Henry and Anthony D’Amato.

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LINCROFT: BIG DAY ON CAMPUS AT BCC

Davy KnowlesManx bluesmaster Davy Knowles is the main-man musical guest at the 18th annual Brookdale Guitar Show – merely the biggest of several special events on campus this Sunday.

By all traditional expectations a quiet day on campus, this Sunday promises to keep the Route 520 roundabout out front of Brookdale Community College humming with visitors to the sprawling Lincroft complex.

All members of the general public are being welcomed as BCC hosts its annual Spring Open House between 12 and 2 pm, inside the Robert J. Collins Arena. Current high schoolers and the career-changing curious are invited to learn about the more than 50 degree and certificate programs offered at the county college, with guided tours available and faculty advisors from all departments on hand to answer questions about course curricula, scholarships, grants, financial aid, job training and four-year programs.

Also on-site will be representatives from partner universities such as Georgian Court and Rutgers, available for questions on streamlined transfer agreements and discounted tuition. Complimentary refreshments will be furnished by Brookdale’s Culinary Education Center, and parking for the event is available in lots 6 or 7. Take it here for more info — and take it around the corner for more happenings on campus this April 12.

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RED BANK: BEFORE THE ALBUM DROP

JESSE_MALINSinger-songwriter Jesse Malin makes an in-store performance and signing appearance at Jack’s Music Shoppe this Sunday — an event at which fans can pick up a pre-release copy of his new album, NEW YORK BEFORE THE WAR.

As one of the last area outposts of that bulwark-against-boredom that is the neighborhood indie record store, Jack’s Music Shoppe continues to hold down the fort on the tradition of the live, in-store appearance — and this Sunday, March 29, the downtown landmark will be hosting a special acoustic performance by NYC-based singer-songwriter (and onetime D Generation frontman), Jesse Malin.

It’s a rare up-close-and-personal opportunity to catch the rock troubador before he departs these shores for a spring/summer European tour — and it’s also a chance for fans to get their hands on Malin’s new album New York Before The War, two whole days prior to its official release date.

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WEEKEND: ALL YOUR EGGS, MANY BASKETS

TROUBLE_press_1It’s opening weekend for the Two River Theater Company production of TROUBLE IN MIND, above. Below, the kids from Rockit! polish Janis Joplin’s PEARL as part of the annual Brookdale Guitar Festival. (TRTC photo by T. Charles Erickson) 

Friday, April 11 – Sunday, April 13: 

view_image.aspRED BANK: Although the late Alice Childress is known these days primarily as author of the young adult novel A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ But a Sandwich, among her many firsts and foremosts was becoming the first African-American woman to have one of her plays produced in New York. She also became the first female playwright to win an Obie Award, for a 1955 play entitled Trouble in Mind.

On Friday night at 8 pm, Two River Theater Company opens a new production of the comedy-drama directed by the acclaimed Jade King Carroll, associate director for the recent Broadway Streetcar Named Desire. It’s a “backstage” portrait of a multi-racial theatrical troupe, a play-within-a-play about a Southern lynching, and the fireworks that fly when the show’s black leading lady (Brenda Pressley of TRTC’s In This House) questions the inaccuracies and stereotypes being perpetuated by her white director (fellow Two River returnee Steven Skybell).

Surprisingly resonant today, the oft-overlooked play costars Tony winner Roger Robinson (Joe Turner’s Come and Gone), with McKinley Belcher III, Jonathan David Martin, Brian Russell, Hayley Treider, Amirah Vann — and Robert Hogan, the octogenarian character ace of stage and screen interviewed here on redbankgreen, when he starred in Two River’s recent On Borrowed Time. The show continues with performances at 3 pm and 8 pm Saturday, as well as 3 pm Sunday; take it here for schedule details and tickets ($20-$65). Then stick around after Sunday’s matinee show (or drop in free of charge at 5:30 pm), when director Carroll is joined by Pressley, TRTC Artistic Director John Dias, and her longtime associate, Tony winning actor-director Ruben Santiago-Hudson, for a panel discussion on “Modern African American Theater (1950s to Today),” presented as part of Two River’s “Exploration of Justice” slate of special events.

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A CHANGE OF SEASON, A HAPPENING WEEKEND

Red Bank musical movers and shakers Chuck Lambert, Joe Muccioli and the Al Wright Unit’s Ruth Wright pay tribute to the late Ralph “Johnny Jazz” Gatta, in a special outdoor concert Friday.

While there’s still technically plenty of summer sand left in the hourglass, the coming of the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair to the greater Red Bank Green adds an ever so slightly melancholy touch to the senior-diet Dog Days of August. We detect a nagging hint of Back to School seriousness; a wrapping up of outdoor entertainments; a change of gears and seasons that’s keynoted by a tuneful tribute, a look ahead to Halloween and a merrily Menopausal musical.

redbankgreen has assembled an even dozen diversions in this pre-Labor Day interlude, starting with a handful of things going on beneath the setting sun and stars.

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BROOKDALE TO DISPLAY AXES, ACTS

guitarFans of six-strings will find nirvana at Sunday’s guitar show at Brookdale Community College. (Click to enlarge)

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

It might be getting hard to tell anymore whether you’re at a daylong music festival with a ton of guitars on display, or a guitar festival with a ton of live music on display.

It’s the latter, but having a mix of live tunes alongside hundreds of axes is what makes the Brookdale Guitar Show one of those increasingly-popular exclusive events without making people feel excluded, the college’s public radio director Tom Brennan said.

“It’s not just about buying strings, buying guitars and buying amps,” he said. “It’s all about performances, too.”

Now in year 14, the radio station’s largest fundraiser to keep its audience’s ears pleased and its DJ’s fed, plugs in this Sunday

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