3/3/14: Today’s Tips: Monday (Lundi Gras)

It’s Lundi Gras! Let’s get this party started…

MUSIC: J.D. McPherson @ the Ale House, Troy. He was forced to cancel his Sunday show due to travel issues, but the rollickin’ rocker and his band are still planning on rattling the Ale House rafters tonight. 8pm. $15. GO HERE for more info…

MUSIC: Continental @ Pauly’s Hotel, Albany. Led by frontman Rick Barton, original member of Drop Kick Murphys. With Smittix and Boxer Brown. 9pm.

MUSIC: Jim Gaudet & the Railroad Boys @ McGeary’s Pub, Albany. Wry tunes and fancy pickin’. Now new and improved – with banjo added. 7:15pm. FREE.

MUSIC: Simi Stone @ the Falcon, Marlboro. The soul-pop singer-songwriter kicks off her month-long Monday night residency. 7pm. Donations encouraged.

TALK/THEATER: “Exposed & Fearless” @ Saratoga Arts, Saratoga Springs. Magician-author Vinnie Grosso pulls back the curtain and reveals secrets of how ordinary people accomplish seemingly impossible things and how anyone can do the same – escapes, fire eating, card cheating, thought manipulation, memory demonstrations, torture stunts, endurance challenges and more. 7pm. $29 & $39.

MUSIC: Fifth Harmony @ Upstate Concert Hall, Clifton Park. The girl group was formed during “The X Factor,” and now they’re landing in Nippertown in support of their debut EP, Better Together. With Talia Denis. 7pm. $22.

MUSIC: Albin Zak & the New Folk Chamber Players @ UAlbany Performing Arts Center’s Recital Hall, Albany. The singer-songwriter appears with violinist Hilary Cumming, cellist Petia Kassarova and pianist Victoria von Arx. 7pm. $8; $4 students & seniors.

READING: Amy Hempel @ Bard College’s Olin Auditorium, Annandale-On-Hudson. The highly acclaimed fiction writer reads from 2007’s “The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel,” which was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, an Ambassador Book Award winner, and named one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by The New York Times. 4pm. FREE. UPDATE: This reading has been postponed. New date TBA…

READING: “The Times, They Were A’ Changing: Memories from the Sixties Generation” @ the Arts Center of the Capital Region, Troy. Curated by Carol Derfner, baby-boomers share their personal experiences of this passionate, tumultuous time through a short memoir, personal essay, a poem or even the lyrics of a song. 7pm. FREE.

THEATER: “Middletown” @ the Black Box Studio at Skidmore College’s Janet Kinghorn Bernhard Theater, Saratoga Springs. Playwright Will Eno has created seemingly everyday characters with an extraordinary ability to articulate the deepest truths about being human: the clawing anxieties we cover up, the hopes and fears we cultivate, and the desperate need for connection with others. Directed by Daniel Shure. 8pm. $12 general admission; $8 students & seniors. Through Wednesday, March 5.