ONSTAGE
“The Normal Heart” Curtains at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 29 & 30, 2:30 p.m. Jan. 31, at The Vintage Theatre, 1462 Dayton St. Tickets start at $22
Craig Bond knows painfully well the desperate need for art — particularly live theater — to reflect the world’s woes and provide context and catharsis. He portrays Felix Turner in “The Normal Heart,” a 1985 drama by Larry Kramer depicting the early devastation of the HIV/AIDS epidemic that swept the country in the 1980s. At times heartbreaking, and at times angry, the show is an important history lesson oozing with relevance. The show plays through Feb. 21.
MUSIC
School of Rock Legendary Arena Rock Show 2 p.m. Jan. 30, The Walnut Room, 3131 Walnut St., Denver. Tickets are $6 in advance or $8 at the door. Call 720-789-8866 or visit aurora.schoolofrock.com for more information.
Say it with us: I pledge allegiance to the band of Mr. Schnee(e)bly, and will not fight him for creative control. And will defer to him on all issues related to the musical direction of the band. Ok, now that we’ve go that out of the way — and we’ve established that Richard Linklater’s 2003 “School of Rock” was a bona fide magnum opus — we can mention that there’s a local edition of the film’s bumpin’ final scene taking place in Denver this weekend. Students from Aurora’s very own School of Rock, which teaches youngsters how to rock, will be taking over the Walnut Room in LoDo on Saturday for a bijou arena rock experience that will channel the likes of Steven Tyler, Eddie Van Halen, Brian May, Steve Perry and other punks with pinned-up, poorly dyed mops who used to rule the airwaves. Thankfully, this show replaces all of the wrinkles and years of substance abuse attached to the actual personages bearing the previously mentioned names with spritely enthusiasm for loud, power-chord-driven music. The young rock stars will also be playing a tribute to AC/DC and Green Day on Sunday, Jan. 31 at the Toad Tavern in Littleton. Visit the School of Rock website for more information.
AROUND TOWN
The Comedy Cure at Coda Brewing Co. 7 – 9 p.m. Jan. 30, Coda Brewing Co., 2101 Ursula Ct. Visit the Coda Brewing Co. Facebook page for more information.
Chortles and beer, that’s what Coda Brewing Company does. The local brewery is pretty damn good at curating the former and hawking the latter at its sleek spot on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, and this weekend its going to double down on that trend. Coda is inviting several local standup comedians, including Byron F. Graham, Patrick Scott, Vic Alejandro and Alan Bromwell, to take the brewery’s handmade stage to drum up some sudsy laughs. But, frankly that shouldn’t be that hard seeing as life behind alcohol-induced, rose-colored glasses is always, always funnier than those other teetotalin’ times. The brewing community may be bearded and frowny, but that certainly doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy a good laugh. And of course, plenty of quality oat sodas, too.
CPR, AED and First Aid Training 8 a.m. – 4 p.m., Jan. 30. Fire Station 3, 3172 Peoria St. The class is $5, which must be paid in cash only. Registration is required by emailing Ashley Baker at abaker@auroragov.org.
It’s Super Bowl season, folks. And, in case you haven’t heard, some orange-and-blue club from not too far away is going to be playing. It’s really quite something. However, amid all the inevitable cheering, jeering and guacamole guzzling, it’s kinda, sorta likely that someone is going to scarf down a couple of slices of their favorite Papa-made pizza with excessive haste and seal off their esophagus from that sweet, sweet oxygen faster than you can blurt out “Omaha!” Don’t let the color of your neighbor’s face match the hue of their tattered Terrell Davis jersey. Learn how to save the buffoons you surround yourself with this Saturday from all sorts of party-induced injuries — be it from excessive Cheetos or, perhaps more likely, too many variety Shirley Temples — at the city’s CPR, AED and First Aid certification course this weekend. For only $5 bucks, get certified in the aforementioned three disciplines and learn how to, like, seriously, save your friends. You get get a real life completion card from the American Heart Association, which remains valid for two years. Make yourself a more marketable human and better friend by learning some useful skills a couple weeks before becoming a markedly worse human due to your stress-induced guzzling of oat sodas on game day.