Whoa, that Church of the Friendly Ghost is getting crazy ambitious for April. They've booked four shows already, and have two more in the works. Sure, that’s nothing for your average nu-metal dive, but the Church is different, you know, with each show they put on infused with some odd, unique flavor. And speaking of flavor, their performances are now extra-delicious. Yes - these performances at the Salvage Vanguard Theater will all be catered by Ararat, who serve up some pretty damn delectable Mediterranean food. Call it added incentive to hear some new music. To top it all off, Miss Lori 16MM will compliment the food, drinks, and sound with visuals including slides and film projections. ...

Austin’s newest improv training center, the Merlin Works Institute for Improvisation, launched its first series of classes at the recently-opened Salvage Vanguard Theater this past Saturday. ...

Our barely-frigid winter is turning tail and running, with nary an “ice storm” or onslaught of freezing rain thrown at us all season. Though spring in Austin doesn’t mean the slow rebirth of nature like it does up north, March still brings good tidings like SXSW, the promise of sunny and beautiful days - not to mention a new season of concerts, shows, and all that jazz. Always on the ball, The Church of the Friendly Ghost is here to welcome March with a show on the 1st featuring a three-part show from notable local and far-off acts....

Since appointing new AD Ann Ciccolella last fall, Austin Shakespeare has been kickin' ass and takin' names. // The director-less, self-dubbed "brats of theater," Bedlam Faction, have returned. // SVT has a trouserload of programming this month, including Twelfth Night, produced by Kadigan and Mountweazel....

Salvage Vanguard Theater has announced its new season! // Rubber Repertory has started airing their dirty laundry in a new, recurring series called From the Dumpster, in which they confess to madcap ideas they seriously considered staging. // There's more than music to SXSW. ...

Arson may have damaged the studio that housed 91.7’s KOOP Radio, but they, and the Austin community at large, will be damned if they let the station go without a fight. Another benefit is happening this Saturday, presented by Church of the Friendly Ghost and Commercial Suicide, and taking the shape of Rick Reed’s 6th installment of the Toneburst series. Begun about two years ago, Toneburst is billed as “new and unusual experimental music from Austin and beyond...” and this will be its first show in The Salvage Vanguard Theater. ...

Unlike San Antonio, Austin has so many more opportunities for musicians to play in actual venues attended by actual attendees, so at first glance the need for more private, unique places for bands to play seemed to be less of a necessity. But the deeper a person burrowed, the more they could uncover – with The Church of the Friendly Ghost, out on Pedernales street, standing in as the most odd and accommodating venue for which a music geek could wish. A former site of a real, honest-to-god church whose landlord was glad to rent it out to musicians and curators of The Church of the Friendly Ghost – a step above the wacky fundamentalists who had the space before – the Church had a distinction of being a welcoming place that also catered to fringe music for those in the know. ...

The Church of the Friendly Ghost is only scheduling two events this month, to make room for the No Idea Fest which starts on the 14th and goes through the 16th. But quality always makes up for quantity. The first of February’s Salvage Vanguard shows plans to be a doozy, with four acts starting at 9 p.m. ...

Transformations is a multi-media work that blends film, dance, and theatre. Inspired by the work of Anne Sexton, we expect it will be an intense, powerful show....

The Church of the Friendly Ghost’s forte is bringing its audience a range of new sounds, and this Friday night is no exception as four Texas experimental musicians will take the stage at the Salvage Vanguard Theater paired with artist LORI 16MM, who will be projecting a film and visual installation....

The Church of the Friendly Ghost is invading the Salvage Vanguard theater on a Tuesday this week, featuring performances from the E.C.F.A. trio and Attic Ted....

While every performance the Church of the Friendly Ghost puts on is assuredly special, this Wednesday evening they will host three diverse acts at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre sure to satisfy your every experimental, avant-garde whim. ...

Tonight at the Salvage Vanguard Theater, music and film will be united in odd, unexpected ways. Italian musician Giuseppe Ielasi and Austrian filmmaker Michaela Grill are the guests of honor at this event sponsored by the Church of the Friendly Ghost. Ielasi has a long history with improvised music and uses “guitars as primary sound sources by integrating microphones and multichannel speaker systems in order to create complex networks for sound diffusion in relation to space” according to this event's press release. Sounds confusing, but obviously far from typical. ...

Thirteen years after founding Salvage Vanguard Theater, Artistic Director Jason Neulander is stepping down. Neulander has grown SVT from a crazy little fringe collective to a powerhouse producer of cutting-edge works. No doubt it'll be very exciting to see what he gets into next....

The Ultimate Christmas Musical: The Musical!Through 12/22, Th/Fr/Sa at 8pmSalvage Vanguard Theater (map)[info] | [tickets]Christmas will be here sooner than you think! What nicer gift than an evening out at the theater? Here're just a few shows we think worthy of being early stocking-stuffers. You've probably already seen the XL cover or read the AusChron piece (damn, Jonathon Morgan gets around!)—Yellow Tape Construction Company's Ultimate Christmas Musical: The Musical! opened last weekend. We loved......

Photo by Wylie Maercklein, courtesy YTCC The Ultimate Christmas Musical: The Musical!Through 12/22, Th/Fr/Sa at 8pmSalvage Vanguard Theater (map)[info] | [tickets]The North Pole is a pretty raunchy place. That’s what the Yellow Tape Construction Company would lead you to believe, anyway. And while we don’t remember Frosty the Snowman dealing smack in any of the Christmas fables we used to read in kindergarten, it’s not implausible. He may be a sentient amalgamation of button, coal,......

Image from www.loadedguntheory.comThe holidays are a busy time for theatre in Austin, with too many seasonal shows to choose from. As the glut looms, several fine shows are closing. Get to these while the gettin's good! Much-lauded director Karen Jambon helms Loaded Gun Theory's Little Murders. You can't judge a show by its artwork, but we think theirs is the best we've seen all year. This dark comedy about an overbearing daughter—played by the always-delightful......

New works by Austin-based artists Ian Cion and Carter Cox are on display at Salvage Vanguard Theater Gallery's current multimedia exhibition, 10.07 Works. The show, featuring paintings by Cion and sculptures by Cox, is the second exhibition in the SVT’s new gallery space, which opened its doors this summer as part of the revamped and revitalized permanent location for the theater company on Manor Road. In 10.07 Works, each artist’s work plays off the other's......

Well kids, it's time for another installment of the COTFG series over at the Salvage Vanguard theater. This Sunday, as visual displays grace the entire evening, the crowd will be given a special treat: a film presentation by Miss 16mm, Yellow Crystal Star from Tallahasee, and Steve Marsh's RadarCave (among other things). Do something different: go support our truly experimental local artists and musicians. Yellow Crystal Star Radar Cave Loren Dent Necessity Quebron Lori 16mm......

There comes a day when one must ask oneself: WWTDD? What Would Tyler Durden Do? If not that, then WWDD? What Would Dolly Do? In the former case, the answer is available via one pretty damn entertaining celeb blog—if that's not an oxymoron. The latter? The Getalong Gang Performance Group explores all things Parton with Dolly Would: a cast of characters who stumble, fight, and dance their way through a series of obstacles, searching......

For the sixth year in a row, though this time in a spankin' new space, Salvage Vanguard Theater is hosting their big ol' Labor Party, this Saturday at 7:07pm. They'll have tunes spun up by DJ Manateemann, a "Presentation Fantasmical" at 7:27pm, and a Silent Auction with all sorts of goodies to bid on. The purpose of the Labor Party is to raise funds for SVT's Resident Company Member program, which pays an annual stipend......

The Church of the Friendly Ghost continues to showcase the finest Austin has to offer in the experimental scene this Saturday at the Salvage Vanguard Theater on Manor Road. The lineup this Saturday is fantastic for fans of minimalist ambient music as well as fuzzy, pedal-induced brainwave avante noise. Rick Reed, who mentioned before, uses old battered electronic devices like sine wave generators, short wave radios and a vintage EMS analogue synthesizers to achieve his......

While you may be dreaming of the breeziness that would occur on your man/lady bits with a pair of shorts made of screen doors, that notion actually has nothing to do with the next round of shorts presented by Screen Door Film. However, you are more than welcome to show up on Wednesday night at the Salvage Vanguard Theater wearing all mesh; who are we to tell you what to do? Personally, we’re gonna stick......

Try something new tonight at the Church of the Friendly Ghost: Aurora Plastics, Xathax and Clear Spot will perform a variety of noise, experimental and ambient music and Paul Baker (Astral Projections) will provide a multimedia audio & visual experience for a mere $5. Church of the Friendly Ghost Night w/ Aurora Plastics, Xathax, Clear Spot & Paul Baker Tuesday, August 14 Salvage Vanguard Theater (2803 Manor Rd.) 8 PM $5 Aurora Plastics [MySpace]......

The Idiots are at it again. St Idiot Collective, that is. They've got another quirky, brainy, unique production in the works. One never knows what the Idiots will get up to next, and this project is no exception. Rainbow Family of the Serendipitous Now or The Orpheous Project (that's a mouthful) is an original work written by SIC member Adrienne Dawes and developed collaboratively with the company. The piece is an adaptation of the Orpheus......

Finding hot button issues in Austin is not unlike finding a needle in a needlestack and no issue is as passionately debated as real estate. When Liz Lambert left her law practice with the Attorney General’s office and purchased the run down San Jose Motel, she had designs to create an oasis of hip on South Congress Avenue before the condo-boom had even begun, and little did she know that what she was building would......

Dionysus is the god of wine; Dionysium is the wine of debate. Or something like that. In keeping with this weekend's Live Earth concert, which used only 357873 billion* kilowatts of electricity to promote green energy practices, Austin's infamous Alamo Drafthouse-housed (Drafthoused?) Dionysium debate/music/film/ drunken-intellectualism panel goes green tomorrow night. This latest installment of Dionysium will feature a presentation about Austin's Kill-A-Watt Challenge, a highly important debate about a still-nebulous topic between as-yet-undetermined individuals,......

Thursday, June 28 artOpening Reception for Whitney Lee: Power Craft at Women and Their Work, 1710 Lavaca Street (6-8pm) artOpen House Work Viewing at Atelier 3-D, 2209 Pasadena Drive (4-10pm) artArtistic License: Josefina Guilisasti at The Blanton Museum of Art, MLK at Congress Ave (Free, 6-8pm) booksAmanda Eyre Ward presents Forgive Me at BookPeople (7:00pm) comedyPat Dixon with Brendon Walsh at Cap City Comedy Club comedyParallelogramophonograph with special guests Look Cookie at ColdTowne Theater (8pm)......

Few forms of entertainment elicit such fanatical, diverse opinions on what warrants the label of being "good" as comedy does. To this day, the mere mention of Andy Kaufman's name can set off a heated debate on whether "genius" or "talentless asshat" is more applicable, and the perceived injustice that the Freaks and Geeks fan club was dealt when network suits and critics downed one of Judd Apatow's earliest efforts still has teeth. All this......

Thursday, June 21 comedy Christian Finnegan at Cap City Comedy Club music Emo’s 15th Anniversary Week with De La Soul, Word Association, Just Born, DJ Notion at Emo’s music Buddy Guy, The Greyhounds at Stubb’s music US Air Guitar Championships at The Parish Room music The Score at Beerland music Discovery School Fundraiser w/Gary Clark Jr., Johnny Moeller, Mike Barfield, Ephraim Owens & more at Continental Club music Doc Watson, Jack Lawrence, Richard Watson......