11/12/10: Today’s Tips: Friday

MUSIC: Elvis Perkins and Tracy Bonham @ Club Helsinki Hudson, Hudson. Acclaimed Hudson Valley singer-songwriters team up for a top-notch double-bill in a benefit concert for the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary. 9pm. $20 in advance; $25 at the door.

DISCUSSION/MUSIC: Mountain Man @ the Sanctuary for Independent Media, Troy. Author Sara Marcus engages in a conversation with Will Hermes about her new book, “Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution.” The fab Bennington folk trio Mountain Man also performs. 7pm. $10 suggested donation.

MUSIC: Raga Bop Trio @ the Van Dyck, Schenectady. The all-star instrumental threesome features saxman George Brooks, Indian guitarist Prasanna and powerhouse drummer Steve Smith (formerly of Journey) as they fuse together jazz, rock, funk, Afro-Caribbean and Indian classical music. 7 & 9:30pm. $21.

FILM/MUSIC/DANCE: “A Highland Evening” @ Proctors, Schenectady. It’s a night of Scottish entertainment with a screening of the 60th Anniversary 2009 Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, followed by live performances from the Schenectady Pipe Band and the Braemar Highland Dancers. 7:30pm. $22.

MUSIC: George Friedrich Haas: In Vain @ EMPAC. Performed by a 24-member chamber orchestra, much of this 75-minute composition takes place in total darkness with the musicians performing from memory, communicating with each other and the audience only through sound. 8pm. Tickets: $5 | $10 | $15

MUSIC: The Sky Blue Boys @ Caffe Lena, Saratoga Springs. Dan and Willy Linder (of Vermont’s celebrated Banjo Dan & the Mid-nite Plowboys) help to revive the classic brother duet sound of the early days of country music. 8pm. $15 in advance; $17 at the door.

MUSIC: Finest Kind @ Old Songs, Voorheesville. The acclaimed Canadian folk trio will dazzle you with their intricate vocal harmonies. 8pm. $20; children $5.

THEATER: “It Goes Without Saying” @ The Wood Theater, Glens Falls. Bill Bowers in an award-winning autobiographical one-man show, takes audiences on a scenic tour of his life thus far; from his childhood in the wilds of Montana, to outrageous jobs as a performer across the country, to the whirlwind of Broadway and studying with the legendary Marcel Marceau. 8pm. $25 (Also Saturday)

FILM: “Araya” @ Page Hall, UAlbany downtown campus. A day in the life of peasants who eke out a desperate existence by harvesting salt on a remote Venezuelan peninsula. Recently rediscovered and restored, the film shared the 1959 Critics’ Prize at Cannes with “Hiroshima Mon Amour.” Presented by The New York State Writers Institute. (Venezuela, 1959, 90 minutes, b/w, in Spanish with English subtitles) 7:30pm. FREE.

MUSIC: An Evening With John Zorn @ Bard College’s Fisher Center, Annandale-on-Hudson. A concert focusing on Zorn’s classical music, inspired by such American innovators as Ives, Cage and Partch, as well as the European tradition of Berg, Stravinsky, Boulez and Kagel. 8pm. $20, $30, $40.

MUSIC: The Lee Shaw Trio @ The Stockade Inn, Schenectady. Sublime music from jazz piano queen Lee Shaw, bassist Rich Syracuse and drummer Jeff Seigel. 7pm. FREE.

MUSIC: The Brian Patneaude Quartet @ Jack’s Place at College of St. Rose, Albany. Saxman Patneaude brings along pianist David Caldwell-Mason, bassist Mike Parker and drummer Danny Whelchel for a night of hot jazz. 8pm.