The Beat faves (by decade)
The coming week finds three bands we've always dug on local stages, including Queensryche from the '80s (mostly), Wednesday, Oct. 28, at the Newport Music Hall, with Lita Ford opening and backed by 'Ryche members tickets $21/$23; Our Lady Peace (the Canadian version of Live) from the '90s, Thursday, Oct. 29, at the Newport, $20/$23; and Anberlin from the '00s, Friday, Oct. 23, at Lifestyle Communities Pavilion, opening for Taking Back Sunday and also with Fun and Gavin Castleton, $19.99/$22.

A pattern? Lots of passion and intensity there.

Call 1-800-745-3000.



Opposites
You've got the Zac Brown Band, overearnest in its regular-guy-ness, playing the Schottenstein Center Friday, Oct. 23. Tickets are $27.50.
Then you've got one of the grand masters of literate, cathartic tunesmithing in Leonard Cohen, coming to the Palace Theatre Tuesday, Oct. 27. Tickets are $250-$27.

Call 1-800-745-3000.



Questions -- we've got questions
Quick hitters for a handful of upcoming shows:

•  "How exactly do the modifiers work when you're a melodic death metal band? Is it melodic-death metal or melodic death-metal?" The Black Dahlia Murder, Sunday, Oct. 25, at The Basement with Skeletonwitch and Toxic Holocaust, $15/$17.
•  "Why is Borat singing lead for that offbeat punk band?" Gogol Bordello, Tuesday, Oct. 27, at the Newport Music Hall, $18/$20.
•  "Who just broke Elvis Presley's record for most Number One albums?" Jay-Z, Wednesday, Oct. 28, at the Schottenstein Center, with N.E.R.D., $75-$35.
  

Call 1-800-745-3000.


It's all about the charts
Not the Billboard charts, but the arrangements.
In discussing with a Critic Crony the upcoming Ben Folds concert with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra Wednesday, Oct. 28, at Veterans Memorial Auditorium, we opined that the evening will be made or broken by how much Folds is willing to "give" the orchestra. In other words, how good are the arrangements, or "charts?" Tickets are $75-$25. Call (614) 228-8600.

Rest assured the charts will be top-notch, as they always are for the Columbus Jazz Orchestra, as Lew Tabackin joins the CJO in paying tribute to Duke Ellington Oct. 28-Nov. 1 at the Southern Theatre. Tickets are $49-$41. Call (614) 469-0939.


William Boggs figured if Pagliacci was in-your-face, it might as well be in your face.

So the Opera Columbus artistic director is having the orchestra pit covered, the orchestra moved to the back of the stage and the cast moved out into the laps of the front few rows.

Well, not quite.

"I thought that getting the singers closer to the audience would make for an intense experience," Boggs told The Beat. "They'll be face-to-face with the audience, maybe 4-5 feet from the front row, giving the audience a real hi-def experience."

"It works with this piece dramatically, being an Italian opera blood-and-guts reality-TV kind of thing," he added.

And given the opera's play-within-a-play setting, stage director William Florescu is "unapologetic" about the minimalist staging that will be used.

"You'll see the exposed walls of the theater, you'll see the orchestra in the back," he said. "But Pagliacci is an enduring favorite because of its visceral, vivid portrayals of adultery, revenge and jealousy. It's the characters and the composition that pull people in."

"I love it," Robin Follman (Nedda) said of the proximity to the audience. "I take pride in being an actor who sings, on taking people on a journey. The audience is going to really feel part of the show."

"In a show that's so driven by emotion, access to the audience is critical," Michael Hayes (Canio) explained. "I think it's great."

(For more on Pagliacci, read the BeatBlog . We'll have entries on the background and plot of the opera, its impact on popular culture and more quotes from the cast and directors.)