Arts DEVO

The best Chico band ever is ___________ .

“28th Day [was] inspirational long after they were gone. Somebody would say, ‘This band is the best band out of Chico,’ and everybody would say, ‘No they aren’t; 28th Day is the best band out of Chico.’”

That’s how the Fat Stickys’ Jack Dammit put it in a 2003 story the CN&R published on the occasion of a 20th anniversary reunion performance by the famed former Chico band. And even now, on the eve of the upcoming 28th anniversary reunion show, Saturday, Aug. 28 (9:30 p.m., at Duffy’s Tavern), 28th Day is still regarded as, if not the best, at least as one of the top five. In the 20-plus years that I’ve been paying attention to local music, I’ve heard many band names plugged into that “best ever” blank, but the five I think I’ve heard more than the rest are probably: Spark ’n’ Cinder, Vomit Launch, The Mother Hips, Death Star and 28th Day. I already shared in a recent column what one reviewer had to say: “for a split second … [28th Day] really were the best band in the world.”

The band was, of course, the first project featuring widely critically acclaimed singer/songwriter (and Chico favorite daughter) Barbara Manning, and she will be joined on Duffy’s little stage by her former bandmates Mike Cloward (best surf drummer this side of The Cramps’ Nick Knox) and guitarist/vocalist Cole Marquis (later of The Downsiders and The Snowmen).

Those who know all this will be there. But to everyone else, if you enjoy spirited, jangly rock music of any era, and if you want to hear where your alternative/indie-rock collection got its start, this might be the last chance you’ll ever have to hear 28th Day perform live.

Don’t haze me, bro I know that it’s the beginning of the school year, and that our friendly local Synthesis is distracted with “sneaking out [the] bedroom window to down Pabst Blue Ribbon” and other cool older brother stuff, but the best description Editor Eric Wendt could come up with for the CN&R is an “aging hippie newspaper”? C’mon, dude! We even make fun of hippies. You could have done so much—at least’ve thrown down with a classic like Snooze & Review. I mean, you painted the Syn as (ahem) a “shiny diamond of entertainment news, and opinion”; you could’ve easily contrasted with something like: the “the CN&R is a fading gem in need of a polish.” Woah, bro! And that’s just off the top of my head. (Psst … I know, writing is hard, especially between all the apparent “drinking and swearing,” so Facebook me next time you need help and I’ll hook you up.)

DEVOtions: moving-picture edition

• Local music video: Friend of Chico arts Dean Hernandez directed me to a new music video he produced with director Raul Gonzo featuring local songstress Jody Nixon. It’s truly a stunning portrait of the singer and her moody folk song “Black Smoke.” See it in HD at www.vimeo.com/13944116.

• University Film Series: Chico State’s Humanities Center kicks off its weekly film series with Mike Hodges’ neo-noir casino drama Croupier Tuesday, Aug. 31, 7:30 p.m., in the Little Theatre (Ayres 106) on the Chico State campus. Classic, foreign, rare and experimental films show every Tuesday for the low price of a $3 donation. Upcoming: Los que se quedan (Sept. 7); Chimes at Midnight (Sept. 14); Shall We Dance (Sept. 21); One Last Kiss (Sept. 28).

• One from the Butcher bros: Next week (Sept. 4-5), the Blue Room Theatre and a bunch of Chico theater ex-pats now living in New York will be teaming up once again in a South Chico orchard to reunite the infamous Butcher Shop theater/performance art troupe. And two of those ex-pats—former Blue Room actor Jesse Karch and theater founder Dylan Latimer—will be in town early to screen Tuesday’s Bluff, an impressionist film that “follows around a young woman named Tuesday as she associates with different people while slowly solving the puzzle of an overly oppressive reality.” The film shows Thursday, Sept. 2, 9 p.m., at the Pageant Theatre, and will be preceded by a short film by former Chicoan (now Portlander) Gretchen Hogue.