10/5/13: Today’s Tips: Saturday

COMEDY: Paula Poundstone @ Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, Troy. One of the foremost comics working today, Poundstone has the rare ability to create humor on the spot with her casual attitude, impeccable timing and razor-sharp wit. A star panelist on NPR’s weekly news quiz show, “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!,” Poundstone heads into the Collar City in support of her new comedy album, I Heart Jokes: Paula Tells Them in Boston. 8pm. $26, $29 & $34.

MUSIC: Syd Straw @ WAMC-FM’s The Linda, Albany. A unique musical talent and utterly charming performer, singer-songwriter Syd Straw hasn’t been heard from much since the glory days of QE2, so her return to the Nippertown spotlight is long overdue and eagerly anticipated. With Michael Eck & Ryan Dunham. 8pm. $18.

MUSIC: Ben Perowsky’s Moodswing Orchestra @ MASS MoCA’s Club B-10, North Adams. Drummer Ben Perowsky cut his teeth collaborating with the likes of John Cale and Bill Frisell, then broke ground driving back beats for cutting-edge collectives Joan as Policewoman and the Lounge Lizards. His Moodswing Orchestra is a carefully curated cauldron of NYC’s hottest musicians, including the fresh and fearless TK Wonder and Jennifer Charles. 8pm. $16; $10 students.

MUSIC: Pete LaBonne @ the River Street Beat Shop, Troy. The reclusive singer-songwriter who lives totally off the grid deep within the Adirondack Mountains has played in the Nippertown area with the Chandler Travis Philharmonic on several occasions recently during the past few years at The Linda, Caffe Lena and Valentine’s Music Hall. 1pm. FREE; donations of money and non-perishable food items for the benefit of Saint Augustine’s Parish Food Bank.

MUSIC/FUNDRAISER: Benefit for Bonnie Concert @ the Shell Inn, Westerlo. It’s a benefit pig roast and music fest for Bonnie Jean Schmidt, who is awaiting a liver transplant. Featured bands include the High Peaks Band, Peckham Hollow Project, Sir Eeel, Boink! and the Johnny Crammond Band. 1-9pm. $10 donation.

MUSIC: Holly & Evan @ American Glory BBQ, Hudson. 8:30pm.

MUSIC: The Outta Sites @ the Ale House, Troy. The Los Angeles-based ’60s retro-rockers opened for Los Straitjackets last weekend, and now they’re back for a headlining show in support of their debut album, Shake All Night. With the Knyghts of Fuzz. 9pm.

THEATER: “Venus in Fur” @ Capital Repertory Theatre, Albany. It’s the regional premiere of David Ives’ sexy, funny, Tony Award-winning dramedy, directed by Maggie Mancinelli-Cahill. 3 & 8pm. Tickets range from $20 to $60. Through October 20. GO HERE for more info…

MUSIC: “See the Future!” Saturday Night Sampler @ Caffe Lena, Saratoga Springs. It’s the final installment of the season for the Caffe’s Saturday night sampler series, this time around featuring the double-bill of the Mosstins (the husband and wife duo of Ency Austin and Marc Moss) and the Canal Street String Band. 8pm. $17.

MUSIC: The North & South Dakotas @ McGeary’s Pub, Albany. 9pm.

MUSIC: Archie Fisher @ Old Songs, Voorheesville. The legendary Scottish troubadour serves up a special concert, showcasing the many talents of the master guitarist, singer and songwriter. 8pm. $20; $5 for children 12 & under.

SPOKEN WORD/MUSIC: Douglass Truth @ the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts, Pittsfield. In conjunction with his current art exhibition, the artist reads from his books, accompanied by musician-composer Evan Lurie on piano. 8pm. FREE.

COMEDY: Gilbert Gottfried @ The Comedy Works, Albany. Gottfried just might be the anti-Seinfeld. As Penn Jillette declared about Gottfried’s “Rubber Balls and Liquor,” “He is the comic genius of our generation. This book proves he is the Picasso of the Cubist dick joke.” 7:30 & 9:30pm. $35.

MUSIC: Bayside @ the Upstate Concert Hall, Clifton Park. With Motion City Soundtrack, What’s Eating Gilbert and State Champs. 7:30pm. $20.

THEATER: “Kill Me Now” @ Stageworks/Hudson, Hudson. It’s the U.S. premiere of Kaliyuga Arts production of Brad Fraser’s intimate, funny and heartbreaking drama about caring and ultimately saying goodbye to those we love. 8pm. $25; $20 students & seniors. Through October 13.

MUSIC: The Arch Stanton Quartet @ 9 Maple Avenue, Saratoga Springs. 9pm.

MUSIC: Formula 5 @ the Hollow Bar + Kitchen, Albany. With School Bus Yellow. 9:30pm.

COMEDY: The Festival of Laughs @ the Palace Theatre, Albany. The fest features five headlining comedians – Ruperto Vanderpool, Peaches Rodriguez, Mark Viera, Sara Contreras and Smokey Suarez – as seen on Comedy Central, HBO and ShowTime. 8pm. $25.

MUSIC: Zachary Cale @ the Half Moon, Hudson. A songwriter’s songwriter, Cale has just released his fourth album, Blue Rider, showcasing his unique voice and guitar mastery with a collection of folk ballads, instrumentals and country-tinged rock. With Last Good Tooth and Alexander Turnquist. 8pm. $5.

MUSIC: Jessica Campbell @ the Marketplace Cafe, Pittsfield. Nashville singer-songwriter in support of her new album, The Anchor and the Sail. With Sara Beth Go. 6:30pm. FREE.

THEATER: “White Rabbit, Red Rabbit” @ UAlbany’s Performing Arts Center, Albany. 29 years old and forbidden to leave his country, playwright Nassim Soleimanpour distilled the experience of an entire generation in a wild, utterly original play about contemporary Iran and those born amidst the hardship of the Iran-Iraq war. He turns his isolation to his advantage with a play that requires no director, no set, no rehearsal and a different actor for each performance – tonight it’s Ward Dales. 7:30pm. $20; $15 students & seniors.

THEATER: “No Child…” @ Bard College’s Fisher Center, Annandale-on-Hudson. Written and performed by Nilaja Sun and directed by Hal Brooks, the award-winning hit play is based on Sun’s experiences as a teaching artist in New York City. 7:30pm. $25; $5 students. Through Sunday.

MUSIC: “Time Zones 0.4: Private Mututations” @ the Spotty Dog, Hudson. The fourth piece in a series of works exploring time perception in music and sound art, performed by Al Margolis (live electronics, percussion), Peter Zummo (trombone) and composer Guy De Bievre (lap steel). 8pm. $5.

READING: Bill Bryson @ NYS Museum’s Clark Auditorium, Albany. The best-selling nonfiction writer’s books on travel, history, science and the English language are laugh-out-loud funny and astonishingly scholarly at the same time. His new book is “One Summer: America, 1927,” about a pivotal time in America’s national coming of age. 7:30pm. FREE.

THEATER: “Mary and Edith: Musings by Women a Century Apart” @ the Unicorn Theatre, Stockbridge. Celebrate Berkshire women writers with an evening of stories old and new. Mary Mott will share stories of her life (“From Where I Sit”) and Kate Maguire and Kim Taylor will perform a stage adaptation of “Roman Fever,” a short story by one of the Berkshires’ most well known authors, Edith Wharton. 2pm. $30. Through October 20.

MUSIC: Larry Gravett & Out of the Box @ 74 State Bistro, Albany. 8pm.

MUSIC: Colleen Pratt @ Provence Restaurant, Albany. 7pm.

OPERA ON FILM: “Eugene Onegin” @ Time + Space, Limited, Hudson. Live from the Metropolitan Opera, Anna Netrebko and Mariusz Kwiecien star as the lovestruck Tatiana and the imperious Onegin in Tchaikovsky’s fateful romance. 12:55pm. $25; $15 for children 13 & under. Also at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown ($25; $18 students).

FILM: “Surviving Evidence” @ Proctors, Schenectady. It’s the world premiere of Mara Katria’s paranormal thriller which seeks to raise as many questions in the viewers’ minds as it may answer. 7pm. $20 (includes after-party).