Eugene Weekly : Calendar : 06.09.05

Most likely, if you go to see live music in town, you've seen the Yeltsin guys in more bands and at more venues than you even remember. Maybe you caught one of singer/guitarist Jacob Pavlak's recent shows with 100% Chips, or you've seen drummer Jivan Valpey play with the Pass Out Kings or the unstoppably glam White Hot Odyssey (among countless others; even the band's bio makes a joke about Valpey playing for every band in town). Somewhere in between all those shows, Pavlak, Valpey and bassist Dana Axon still found time to record Yeltsin's first full-length album, We Will Be a Factory. The band keeps getting compared to The Pixies, but their live shows have, on occasion, reminded us of The Replacements. Maybe that's just us. Either way, go down, get a beer, and give 'em a listen as they celebrate the release of Factory. See Saturday Calendar.

Friday night sees the world premiere production of Road's End, a new play by Eugene writer Gregory Foote, at Actors Cabaret of Eugene. Foote's coming-of-age story is set in the summer of 1969, as four friends, just out of college, gather at a beach house for one last time before the rest of life takes over. "Each generation faces the existential questions as it comes of age: What are we do to, be, become? … Road's End is less about being pro- or anti-war, right or wrong, just or unjust, and more about the difficulty — and the drama — involved in making life-defining choices," says the author's statement. See Friday Calendar.

Venues across the globe host events this weekend as part of the 2nd Annual Weekend of Solidarity with Jeff "Free" Luers (see Viewpoint). As the event organizers say in a press release, "People all over the world see Jeff as a political prisoner and acknowledge that his sentence is meant as a deterrent to increased resistance to oppression." Here in Eugene, Sam Bond's Garage hosts a Night of Solidarity during which the Cascadia Media Collective's new documentary, 22.8: The Jeff Luers Story, has its premiere. Peg Millett, Peter Urban and Lauren Regan will speak at the event, which also features music from Los Mex Pistols del Norte and the Happy Bastards, among others. Donations will be taken at the door, but local organizers Break the Chains and Friends of Free say no one will be turned away for lack of funds. See Sunday Calendar.

For the weekend after First Friday, there's sure a lot of arty goodness going on. Head to the Meridian Center Thursday night for a Special Edition Artwalk around the building's shops, where art by Terry McIlrath, Merideth & Don Ferrell, Jim Chapman and Cheryl Meeker is on display. Early Saturday afternoon, Karin Clarke Gallery hosts an opening for "Carl Hall: Figures and Faces," an exhibition featuring the Salem artist, who passed away in 1996 (Figures and Beach, left). A 1948 article in Life magazine brought Hall, who was known for his often surrealistic paintings of the Willamette Valley and Pacific Coast, to national attention. "Figures and Faces" features work in various media and with a wide range of approaches, and runs through July 2. From there, why not head over to the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, especially if you've not been yet? It's Free Day at the Art Museum, in honor of commencement and the end of the school year. See Calendar.