Free Movie Night at West Wind Drive-In
If you haven’t been to Vegas’ only drive-in movie theater, now’s the time to indulge in nostalgia, with a night of free movies (including Coco, Thor: Ragnarok and more), plus music, games and other family-friendly activities. April 19, 5 p.m., free. –Josh Bell
Dream Syndicate at Beauty Bar
The other Steve Wynn is headed to Las Vegas—the one who captained the ’80s college rock band behind alterna-rock classic The Days of Wine and Roses and resurrected the group in 2012. With Bebopalula, The Laissez Fairs. April 19, 8 p.m., $20. –Spencer Patterson
Vance Joy at The Pearl
Pop singer-songwriter Vance Joy might play a ukulele, but he’s primed for the big rooms. Rootsy, stomping, anthemic strummers like 2014’s “Riptide” and this year’s “Lay It On Me” beg for your sing-along participation. With Lovelytheband. April 20, 7:30 p.m.; $36-$82. –Mike Prevatt
Ghostface Killah at Brooklyn Bowl
What better way to celebrate 4/20 than by witnessing the Wu-Tang Clan’s most vivid wordsmith and most acrobatic vocalist bring his urban street tales to life? With Slump Lords, Hassan. April 20, 8 p.m., $24-$30. –Spencer Patterson
Drai's Beachclub at Walshy Fire & Ape Drums
If you need further evidence of new sounds taking over Strip clubs, check out Drai’s in the daytime, when Jamaican DJ and Major Lazer curator Leighton Walsh (Walshy Fire) co-headlines with rising star dancehall and trap producer Eric Alberto-Lopez (Ape Drums). Drai’s rooftop vibes already are all-the-way escapism; on Friday they’ll be transportive. April 20, 11 a.m., $20-$30. –Brock Radke
The Underground Exhibit Opening at The Mob Museum
The new, permanent Prohibition history exhibition (sponsored by Zappos) opens to the public this weekend and will prove that education gets more fun when there’s drinking involved—the centerpiece is a working still, producing moonshine-y versions of vodka, gin and rum. This is how we museum in Vegas. April 20 –Brock Radke
Alt-J at The Chelsea
The 2012 debut album by this inventive, English folktronica trio is called An Awesome Wave, and that’s exactly what its musicians are riding into the Cosmopolitan—a wave of industry acclaim (they’ve been Grammy-nominated and won the Mercury Prize), and of popular love (we’re catching them between Coachella weekends). April 20, With Aurora. 8 p.m., $31-$51. –Geoff Carter
The Color Purple at The Smith Center
Six years ago this month, the Smith Center launched its Broadway Las Vegas Series with a production of The Color Purple. The hit musical—based on Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation—was a triumph for our then-new performing arts center. But it also suffered from sound problems and, according to our own reviewer, played like “a corporate musical” and not the “bloody, heartbreaking and transcendent story at its core.”
The Smith Center’s sound has long been fixed and finessed. Now, the musical is back and better than ever in a revamped revival tour. The Tony-winning show still features favorite musical numbers full of jazz, gospel, blues, honky tonk and more: “What About Love?,” “Too Beautiful for Words,” “Push Da Button.” With excess cleared away, the timeless story of Celie, a poor African-American woman in the South who comes of age and finds herself, is central now. The New York Times describes the new version as “a slim, fleet-footed beauty, simply attired and beguilingly modest. … There’s a deep wealth of power within its restraint.”
7:30 p.m. (additional 2 p.m. show Saturday & Sunday), $36-$127. –C. Moon Reed
