Mardi Gras is coming and it won’t be long! Now’s the time to get your stamina primed by practicing for the big week ahead. Besides all of the parades on St. Charles Avenue, a favorite venue is reopening, a favorite guitarist is jamming and the dogs are on parade. Here’s where you’ll be.
The Bingo! Show is taking over the cabaret formerly known as Le Chat Noir all three nights this weekend. Led by maestro/maniac Clint Maedgen, the troupe put on some truly memorable shows at the St. Charles Avenue performance space before it was shuttered last year.
Friday and Sunday night will be the full Bingo! experience. On Saturday night, Maedgen and the cellist Helen Gillet will duet. Gillet will open Friday and Sunday night. They reportedly brought down the house when they performed recently at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Show time all three nights is 8 PM.
Saturday night, Leo Nocentelli, the funky guitarist from the original Meters, returns to New Orleans to funk up Tipitina’s. His latest project is called the Meters Experience and features Bill “The Buddha” Dickens on bass, CR Gruver on keys and Jamal Batiste on drums. Dickens is a monster musician who has played with a huge range of musicians including Pat Metheny, Joe Zawinul, Janet Jackson, Grover Washington, Jr., Chaka Khan, Mary J. Blige and Freddie Hubbard. He should be able to hang with Leo as they stretch out the jams. The IKO Allstars open.
Don’t stay out too late on Saturday night unless you want to wind up in the doghouse. Not literally of course, no one plays that way during Carnival. But bright and early Sunday morning, the canine contingent of the Krewe of Barkus will gather in Armstrong Park for the first time since the park fell into disrepair. If you have never seen this parade, it’s hard to describe the spectacle of thousands (literally) of pooches in costume winding through the French Quarter. The park opens at 10:30 AM and the parade leaves at 2 PM. See you there!
