Entertainment: Multimedia Belt

October 3, 2011 - 9:29am
Review: Campus Consciousness Tour headliner Janelle Monae electrifies Cornell University on a rainy Sunday night.

Janelle Monae wants everyone to shut up.

September 25, 2011 - 9:12pm
Painters bring West Coast graffiti-style art to The Warehouse Gallery.

As Jet Martinez worked 12-hour days on street art mural at The Warehouse Gallery, he heard talk about crime and graffiti.

“We heard a dialogue about bad and good graffiti artists—not a judgment about artists’ skill, but about criminals,” he said.

September 24, 2011 - 1:04pm
Review: The tour, featuring DJ Paper Diamond, hit Westcott Theater Friday night.

When Paper Diamond last played The Westcott Theater back in April, he blew the roof off the place.

Literally.

His booming bass caused chunks of the 82-year-old theater’s ceiling to rain down on the unsuspecting crowd. The DJ loved every second of it.

“I love playing in Syracuse, especially The Westcott,” said Alex Botwin, the 27-year-old better known as Paper Diamond. “Every time I’ve been here it’s been insane.”

September 23, 2011 - 2:42pm
Review: Aaron Sorkin's play, performed by Not Another Theater Company, lives up to its name.

It's hard to shake first night jitters. The anxiety of having an audience for the first time brings about strange phenomenon. Lines stick to the roof of your mouth like peanut butter. You race through the first scenes, sprinting towards intermission. Jokes that have lost their punch after endless rehearsals illicit comforting laughs, causing the corners of your mouth to curl up in pride.

September 10, 2011 - 2:32pm
Review: The hit Broadway musical stages a four-week run at the Crouse Hinds Theater in Syracuse.

Since its Broadway debut in 1997, “The Lion King” has been entrancing audiences around the world. Now, Syracuse is joining the roar of approval.

Opening night elephants, gazelles, birds, giraffes and lions processed to the impressive Pride Rock on the stage of the Crouse Hinds Theater, as the African chants recognizable as the beginning of “Circle of Life” fill the auditorium.

September 10, 2011 - 2:01pm
Review: Best Coast opens the semester at Westcott Theater with Syracuse acts Animal Pants and Sarah Aument.

There may have been other people besides Syracuse University students at the Westcott Theater Friday night, but, as Giovanni Giardina, drummer for Syracuse band Animal Pants put it, it was "an SU party."

September 5, 2011 - 10:06am
Even without any Situation or Snooki lookalikes, an alcohol-free, "Jersey Shore"-themed party sponsored by Orange After Dark draws a small crowd to the dance floor.

Brightly colored glow sticks, plastic sunglasses and blue bubble chairs were just a small part of the event hosted Sunday at Goldstein Auditorium. Syracuse University students danced the night away at the Orange After Dark sponsored event, “On The Floor” at the "Jersey Shore" Dance Party.

August 26, 2011 - 12:11pm
The Syracuse-based band returns home to play the opening day of the Fair at Chevy Court.

Kayleigh Goldsworthy strolled the thoroughfare around the Chevy Court stage at the New York State Fair Thursday munching on a deep-fried potato on a stick. Her twin sister, Kaleena, had just polished off a corndog and was milling around behind the stage. Considering the two were about to perform on opening day at one of the fair’s largest stages, they were completely at ease.

August 21, 2011 - 4:21pm
Review: The Circa Survive front man teamed up with Good Old War to play for a sell-out crowd Saturday night at Funk 'N Waffles.

Anthony Green surveyed the sold-out Funk ‘N Waffles crowd through his black, thick-framed glasses.

“We knew when we got here it didn’t smell like any other venue,” he said during a lull between songs. “There’s beer, fried waffles and sweat.... This place is amazing.”

It was the venue's intimate setting that brought out the showman in Green, who is the lead singer for the progressive rock band Circa Survive. On Saturday night, he performed as part of a four piece acoustic act with indie-folk trio Good Old War as his backing band.

July 23, 2011 - 4:10pm
Review: Underoath and others light up Westcott Theater with heavy metal, strobing lights and projected video amps of energy.

It's been six years since Underoath graced a Syracuse stage.

In 2005, inside the dusty, baby-blue walls of Club Tundra that night, they celebrated the release of their brand-new record, They're Only Chasing Safety, which many fans consider the band's most successful album.

A lineup change and four albums later, Underoath's aesthetically pulverizing set at the Westcott Theater on Friday sampled the new-look Underoath without sacrificing much of the old.