Community Corner

This Week: Wide Variety of Entertainment at SteelStacks

Live music, independent film, improvisational comedy and a drag-show all in one place.

What does live music, improvisational comedy, a drag-show and independent film all have in common?

The ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks.

All of this will happen this week at the city’s nonprofit-run arts venue.

Find out what's happening in Bethlehemwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In fact, all of the following will be going on in just one big night, Thursday:

  • Spuyten Duyvil, from New York’s Hudson Valley, plays the free Levitt Pavilion stage at 7 p.m. The eclectic jug band featuring pedal steel guitar and Chicago-style blues harmonica has been a favorite among public radio disc jockeys since their 2011 CD “New Amsterdam.” If you caught them at Musikfest 2012 you know they are 100 percent awesome.
  • Coming out of left field, the first-ever SteelStacks drag show comes to the Fowler Blast Furnace Room at 8 p.m. The SteelStacks Stunner Ball will include live music and performances. Tickets are $20, less for students, seniors and ArtsQuest members.
  • The Associated Mess from Allentown does the imrov comedy thing—with members who have trained at some of the world’s best improv comedy theaters—at the Banko Cinema beginning at 8 p.m. Tickets are $8, less for students, seniors and ArtsQuest members.
  • Modern-day country gentleman David Nail visits the Musikfest Café, also at 8 p.m. He is described as Jim Reeves crossed with Elton John; Garth Brooks meets Stevie Wonder; and Glen Campbell blended with Michael Buble. Tickets are $25, $22 and $18.
  • Actress/writer/director Lake Bell’s In A World … a comedy about a woman trying to break into the voiceover business opened Sunday at the Banko. It will be there all week along with the critically acclaimed Lee Daniels’ The Butler.

Here is what else is going on in and near Bethlehem this week:

Find out what's happening in Bethlehemwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

  • The Bethlehem Township Commissioners meet in a regular session at 7 p.m. Monday in the township building. Click here for the agenda.
  • Bethlehem City Council meets in a regular session at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Town Hall. The agenda was not yet available at posting time.
  • The AAA baseball championship game will be held at Coca Cola Park in Allentown at 7 p.m. Tuesday. Some tickets are still available for the game, which will be preceded by “The Ultimate Tailgate Party,” in the ballpark’s parking lot, starting at 2 p.m. Food, beer, games and a last opportunity to meet the world famous Budweiser Clydesdales are all a part of the extravaganza. The game itself will feature the Pacific Coast League champion Omaha Storm Chasers, AAA affiliate of the Kansas City Royals, and the International League champion Durham Bulls, AAA affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays. There is free admission to the ballpark on Monday afternoon, starting at 1:15 p.m., to watch the two teams work out. The game will also be televised nationally on the NBC Sports cable television network.
  • Historic Hotel Bethlehem’s 1741 on the Terrace restaurant welcomes fall with its annual Farm-to-Table Wine Dinner at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, in 1741 on the Terrace. The four-course dinner will be the hotel’s only fall wine dinner. It will marry organic and sustainable wines with local produce from restaurant partner Liberty Gardens of Coopersburg. The hotel’s Executive Chef David Troxell will offer culinary presentations for each course, while wine expert Terry Balent from Southern Wine & Spirits will provide descriptions for each wine along with explanations on why he selected it for pairing. The dinner will be accompanied musically by the sounds of pianist Dan Mies. Cost: $75 Prix Fixe.
  • Godfrey Daniels marks the 40th anniversary of the passing of American music legend Gram Parsons on Thursday by presenting an evening of his music performed by Jack Murray and the Wallace Brothers Band. Though he died when he was only 26, Parsons is credited with being a founder of both country rock and alt country. As it says in the coffee house’s Website: “It would be hard to overstate the importance of Gram Parsons’ influence on American music. His writing and singing is more than enough. Beyond that, he helped introduce and ‘validate’ the expansiveness and deeply rooted soul of traditional country music to much broader and younger rock audiences in the late 1960s and early ‘70s through his work with the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers and his own brief solo career, in which he introduced a young Emmylou Harris to the world.” The show starts at 7:30. Admission is $19.50.


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