THURSDAY 1/26

‘SLOW SOUTHERN STEEL,’ HAIL!HORNET, ZOROASTER

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8 p.m. Market Street Cinema. $10.

If you have even a passing interest in heavy metal and/or Southern culture and you’ve not yet seen “Slow Southern Steel,” then you won’t soon get a better opportunity than this show. The film — the work of CT (of Rwake and Iron Tongue) and David Lipke — documents the vibrant underground metal scene in the South, and features Eyehategod, Down, Deadbird, Hank Williams III, Music Hates You and many other folks discussing everything from music history to religion to perceptions of the South to the tight-knit community that’s arisen around this crusty, sludgy, louder-than-hell music. CT’s currently on a 17-date tour with Hail!Hornet and Zoroaster, screening the film. As far as vibe goes, Hail!Hornet’s got a real raw, nasty, bruising quality. The band is often described as a supergroup, understandably so considering the musical pedigrees involved (Sourvein, Bongzilla, Buzzov*en, Alabama Thunderpussy, Weedeater). But as good as those bands are, Hail!Hornet stands fully on its own raging, bludgeoning, misanthropic merits. The band’s 2011 album, “Disperse the Curse” is 11 songs suffused with the groove inherent in a lot of Southern metal and always, always bowing at the altar of the bitchin’ riff. Even the faster songs swing in a way that’s unmistakable for fans of sludgy Southern metal. Zoroaster’s spacy doom metal sounds like some sort of hybrid of Pink Floyd and Pentagram, beamed in from an alternate ’70s where everything was way more awesome than it was in the actual ’70s. If you were going to blast off to the furthest reaches of the cosmos in a shag-carpeted space shuttle loaded with a lifetime supply of Plutonian Nyborg, Zoroaster would be the exact right soundtrack. RB

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FRIDAY 1/27

KNUCK FEST

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6 p.m. Downtown Music Hall. $8 adv., $10 d.o.s.

Knuck Fest returns this year for another weekend-long extravaganza of sounds that are 100 percent crushing, heavy, brutal and/or raging. Friday kicks off with Fire to Reason, Crankbait, The Muddlestuds, Kill Crazies, Wraith, Sol Inertia, Story of the Eye and Holy Angell. On Saturday, you can catch Fallen Empire, Legions Await, Mainland Divide, Poisonwood, A Darkend Era, Auricle, Distiller, Veridium, Decay Awaits and Strange as Fiction. Sunday’s lineup includes locals as well as several touring acts, including Stray from the Path, Cruel Hand, Structures, Betrayal, Counterparts, Snakedriver, Motives, Jungle Juice, God City Destroyers and Pose No Threat. The Saturday and Sunday shows start at 2 p.m., and the cover is $10 adv., $12 d.o.s., or you can get a weekend pass for $25. RB

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FRIDAY 1/27

DELTA EXHIBITION

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Jan. 27-March 28, Arkansas Arts Center, free

“9 Zen Nuns,” a sculpture by Oxford, Miss., artist Rod Moorhead, is the Grand Award winner in the 54th annual “Delta Exhibition,” the Arts Center’s highly anticipated juried show of work by regional artists. This year’s Delta includes 54 works by 50 artists in all media; to be eligible, artists must have been born or work in Arkansas and its contiguous states. Juror Tom Butler, executive director of the Columbus Museum in Columbus, Ga., waded through 900 works to make his selections; 31 of the artists whose works will appear in the show are Arkansans. Two Arkansans, David Bailin and Keliy Anderson-Staley, won Delta Awards, and locals scooped up honorable mentions as well. LNP

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FRIDAY 1/27

PAT GREEN

9 p.m. Revolution. $20.

Pat Green is one of the giants of contemporary Texas singer/songwriters. Over the course of the past decade and change, Green graduated from self-released albums and small bars and dancehalls to major labels and much larger venues. He built his considerable fan base on the strength of his roots- and rock-tinged country, though his more recent albums have quite a bit more polish on them than those early DIY recordings. Expect a packed house for this one. Green also plays at Shooter’s Sports Bar in Texarkana Thursday night and at George’s Majestic Lounge in Fayetteville on Saturday night. The opening acts are Brent Cobb and The Lost Trailers. RB

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FRIDAY 1/27

SCOTT H. BIRAM, LYDIA LOVELESS

8 p.m. Maxine’s. $5 adv., $7 door.

Back in January of aught-four, I was down in Austin, Texas, for a visit, and a friend of mine told me about a local dude, a singer and guitar player name of Biram. We went to some tiny little club up on North Loop and started in on some drinking. After about a half-hour, this gnarly-looking ragamuffin in a ball cap and a hoodie shuffles over to the corner, sets up an amp, plugs in a hollow body guitar, lays a tambourine down on the floor (for stompin’ on) and proceeds to start hollerin’ out all these twisted, distorto-punk blues. It went well with the drinking. Now all these several years later, Biram still belts out the ragers, but he’ll also write a country weeper that’ll jerk the tears out of your head so hard you might catch whiplash. Exhibit A: “Still Drunk, Still Crazy, Still Blue.” Still got it, has Biram, who’s joined on this tour by his Bloodshot Records label mate Lydia Loveless, a fiery-haired singer/songwriter outta Ohio. She’s just now recently old enough to drink on the legal, but can swing the heartache well above her years, and has earned comparisons to such illustrious performers as Loretta Lynn, Neko Case and Exene Cervenka. RB

FRIDAY 1/27

BLACK OAK ARKANSAS

9 p.m. Juanita’s. $10 adv., $12 d.o.s.

Over the course of four decades, somewhere around 50 souls have passed through the ranks of Black Oak Arkansas. But there has been one constant, and that of course, is front man Jim “Dandy” Mangrum, who is widely considered the prototype for such raunch-tastic Wildman lead singers as David Lee Roth. Nowadays, like many rockers of his vintage, Dandy’s stage presence is a bit more subdued than it was in the heyday of the ’70s. But there’s no denying the group’s legacy in the history of not just Arkansas acts, but Southern rock as a whole. These days, though they might not be playing the same size venues as their contemporaries in Skynyrd or The Allmans, Black Oak is nonetheless one of the originals of the genre, still at it. The opening acts are Blind Opie and Ben Franks & The Bible Belt Boys. RB

FRIDAY 1/27

ARKANSAS BIG BUCK CLASSIC

9 a.m. Arkansas State Fairgrounds. $5-$10.

Apparently, back in the olden days, like before 1990 or so, there was rampant BS-ing among outdoorsmen about deer killing. You’d always hear about so-and-so’s cousin, who, swear-to-God, killed a 48-point buck over in Boone County with a .22 short that was a direct hit to the heart. Nowadays, if you want to find out who bagged the biggest buck in the state, you can head out to this here annual event, with its certified judging and its rules and whatnot. There are awards for several categories and divisions, including muzzleloaders, bows and crossbows, modern weapons, ladies and youth. You can also scope some live deer, shop from hundreds of vendor booths, get your fill at the chili cook-off, check out knife-making demonstrations and plenty more. RB

SATURDAY 1/28

ASO: ‘RUSSIAN WINTER’

8 p.m. Robinson Center Music Hall. $14-$52.

The latest in the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s Masterworks series features world-renowned Russian pianist Dmitri Alexeev, who has performed with orchestras all over the globe. ASO Conductor Philip Mann told KTHV’s Dawn Scott that Alexeev is “a true legend in his own time, a Russian performer that is so well respected all over the world, that not only is he sought after as a soloist by the great orchestras of the world, but he’s on the juries of the Tchaikovsky competition, the Van Cliburn competition. It’s a true coup for the Arkansas Symphony to be presenting him with us from our stage to our audiences.” The program includes performances of Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1 in D Major, Op. 25 “Classical,” Shostakovich’s Concerto for Piano No. 2 in F Major, Op. 102, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 2 in C Minor “Little Russian.” The program will be performed again on Sunday at 3 p.m. On Tuesday, ASO presents “Mozart Meets P.D.Q. Bach” at the Clinton Presidential Center, 7 p.m., $22. RB

SUNDAY 1/29

P.A.T.H. BENEFIT

7 p.m. Juanita’s. $10.

The Partnership Against the Trafficking of Humans is based in Kentucky, and seeks to provide a variety of aid to victims of this modern-day form of slavery. Max Records founder Burt Taggart has organized this benefit show, all of the proceeds of which will help P.A.T.H. to provide housing and other resources for rescued victims of human trafficking. Performers include Chris Maxwell of the Gunbunnies, Lenny Bryan of Ho-Hum and Isaac Alexander of Big Silver. “In my mind, those are — by generation — three of the best pop songwriters LR has produced,” Taggart said by e-mail. RB

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