I missed getting this in the paper, but tonight at the Someday Lounge: the return of WordFish. I'd never heard of this "WordFish" until yesterday but a quick dip in the archives reveals that in 2004, former Mercury Arts Editor Justin Sanders said it's:

an intense improvisational showcase of spoken word, music, film projection, dance, and live painting. It's a bona fide multimedia explosion... to the extreme.

I'll post the press release after the jump. Tonight, Someday Lounge, 9 pm, $5

In similar news, last night at the Someday Lounge, Action/Adventure Theater presented "Inspired By," an evening of performance art, theater, and musical pieces performed alongside the short pieces of fiction that inspired them. It was a predictably scattershot collection of work--some pieces were quite funny and clever, like a piece about a man and his television that made excellent use of an overhead projector, while some tested my resolve re: not heckling performance artists. (When there's a beer in my hand, I like my art accessible. What can I say.)

Action/Adventure Theater is best known for their very popular and very funny Fall of the House, an episodic, semi-improvised show about a house full of twentysomethings. (It sounds so crappy when you describe it like that... but it's good, I swear.) Last night they announced that next season they will be running 12 new episodes of FotH, which is great news. (It will run in four-show blocks, late night at Theater! Theatre! after Theater Vertigo's shows.)

"Inspired By" then closed with a piece that promised to give an idea of what FotH is like.

Now, I'm a fan of the show, but last night's largely improvised piece, about a black metal band, was just a terrible advertisement. Lots of yelling and anal sex jokes. Not good... Not good until, that is, actor Todd Van Voris (top-notch local talent who recently became a member of Artist Rep's newly developed resident acting company) strolled onto stage in the role of Satan, politely requesting--in his incredibly distinctive, rumbling voice--that the kids not worship him any more.

"I am all for eating dead kittens and fucking things, really. Just... don't use my name. Learn to worship someone else."

It was nice to see a fancy established actor reaching out to the kids. And in case you didn't get your experimental performance art fix last night, details on WordFish after the jump.

WordFish combines spoken word, live digital painting, music, modern dance, and film into a mind-altering live experience. The Someday performance will feature spoken word artist, Johnathon Allen; graphic artist, Gabe Shaughnessy; movement by Laurie Bouche, and music by Andy Combs, Skyler Norwood, and Victor Paul Nash of the band Point Juncture Washington. The night will also feature media-enhanced performances by Ioa, and Andy Combs and The Moth.

WordFish, which was originally started in Boulder, Colorado by Johnathon Allen and nationally renown painter Randy Pijoan, has been producing performance shows, "Art-Attacks," spontaneous happenings, and multi-media installations around the country for more than ten years. Past events have included building-sized animations, glass doors, massive diptychs, disembodied talking heads, and passing freight trains. The group's live shows are metaphysical explorations into uncharted realms of collaborative artistic experience. For more information go to: http://www.myspace.com/wordfishproductions
What: WordFish (with Andy Combs and The Moth, and Ioa)
Where: Someday Lounge
When: Wednesday, July 23
Why: Because you've never seen anything like it and it kicks ass.

Cost is $5. Show starts at 9:00pm