Wynton Marsalis
Zellerbach Theatre
Annenberg Center
3680 Walnut Street
Wednesday, October 24
8 p.m., $49 / $45 / $37
(215) 898-6701
Hey, you know that guy who Jay frequently targets mercilessly on The Tonight Show? Well, he used to be Branford Marsalis but is now Kevin Eubanks. Either way, he's not Wynton Marsalis. That's right, bitch, don't make that mistake ever again. Wynton Marsalis is the man--with numerous Grammys and even a Pulitzer under his belt. Mostly known for his jazz talent, he is also a respected classical performer. No sissy saxophone for Wynton, baby. Trumpeter and composer, his performances are smooth and intricately melodious to the ear. Nonetheless, thankfully, an ensemble is there to back him up, as two hours of trumpeting alone is a lot to swallow. And who said that Speed Dial No. 2 kids are always overshadowed by the oldest sibs? At 50, the man is still a musical maniac. And unlike the Rolling Stones, he manages to do it well. Sorry amigos, no student rush tix are available for this event.
Hatchet Rising Tour: Insane Clown Posse w/Dark Lotus, Twiztid and Blaze
Electric Factory
Seventh and Willow streets
8 p.m., $25, $28
(215) 627-1332
Whether they throw the hatchets at you or vice versa, this show is guaranteed to be a punk-show-mosh-pit-yeah-I'm-a-suburban-rebel romp. If you route through your memory of drunken hazes, you may remember ICP opening 1999's Spring Fling. Your girlfriend, who has that horrid clown phobia, will surely be ready and raring to go to the Factory with you.
Puddle of Mudd
TLA
334 South Street
8:00 p.m., $9.99
(215) 922-1011
Now that Limp Bizkit has broken into the mainstream bigtime, Fred Durst figured he'd go out and sign some bands that were struggling to get heard. Luckily for us, Puddle of Mudd doesn't even attempt to duplicate Bizkit's rap-rock schtick and instead chooses a more Nirvana/Alice in Chains-ish direction and pulls through with a good tune here and there, despite its utterly ridiculous alt-metal moniker. In the end it's not really true that the Puddle serves up anything all that wonderful, it's just that we've just about completely lost the ability to discern good from bad and we could really use something that will buy us more time before having to hear anything from the Chocolate Starfish himself for a long, long time.
Terror Behind the Walls
Eastern State Penitentiary
2124 Fairmount Avenue
Through November 4
10 a.m.-5 p.m., $3-$7
(215) 236-3300
Jail is scary. Jail on Halloween is scarier. The Eastern State Penitentiary is opening its doors to the public for their annual Terror Behind the Walls tour. These tours take you behind the doors of this abandoned prison, where Al Capone used to call home. The crumbling gothic towers are enough to give you shivers and make you rethink your coke-snorting, tax-evading ways.
