June 20
Choice Rocks. The Lens doesn’t usually recommend a night headlined by an ’80s cover band with an Eddie Money-inspired name, but this show is for charity and Faux Jean is also on the bill, so what the hell. Rocking their second benefit show in two weeks, these guys finally seem to have come out of their winter hibernation. Judging by the recently posted “The Race-Baiting Jail-Bait Race” on their mp3.com site, Faux Jean hasn’t lost the bouncy, sing-songy fun that dominated last-year’s Kiss on the Lips. (Paul Sand) Choice Rocks includes 2 Tickets 2 Paradise, Faux Jean, Arson Wells, Elanda, Bijou, and the Filthy Divine. Doors open at 7 p.m. Cover is $12 in advance, $15 at the door, or $12 with any used CD. 21+. Fine Line Music Cafe, 318 First Ave. N., Mpls.; (612) 338-8100.
Opening Friday
Film
Minority Report. Returning to the action/adventure genre he nearly perfected 21 years ago with Raiders of the Lost Ark, director Steven Spielberg directs megastar Tom Cruise in Minority Report, loosely based on Philip K. Dick’s short story of the same name. The Logan’s Run-like plot has detective John Anderton (Cruise, sporting a militaristic crew-cut) heading a new-age police department in 2054 Washington, D.C., where murders are predicted in advance by a trio of clairvoyant mutants, lead by the comatose Agatha (Sweet and Lowdown‘s Samantha Morton). When Anderton himself is fingered for murder, he must prove his innocence, aided by Agatha and pursued by a government agent (Colin Farrell). Adapted by Scott Frank and Jon Cohen, the film has the imaginative action sequences and quirky set pieces one would expect in a story like this, but Spielberg’s futuristic whodunit can’t sustain its energy or excitement long enough to overcome a drawn-out and simplified conclusion. (Charlie Hobart.) Opens Friday in theaters everywhere.
Weekend
Music
Mark Mallman. Mark Mallman’s new CD The Red Bedroom sounds simply lonely. From the morose “City of Sound” to the stark “Life Between Heartbeats,” Mallman’s emotive lyrics and soulful piano draw the listener closer with each play. Even when lines such as “Traveling high / Surviving on coffee and pie” seem to lighten the mood in Mallman’s song “Traveling High,” the song’s plaintive chorus of “Try to romance her / but I don’t get an answer” move things back to melancholy. But who said summer albums had to be happy? (Paul Sand) Mark Mallman appears on Radio K’s Off the Record at 4 p.m. Friday and KFAI’s The Local Sound Department at 7:30 p.m. the same night. Mallman celebrates the release of The Red Bedroom Saturday at First Avenue with the Heiruspecs and End Transmission. Doors at 6 p.m. Cover is $8 in advance, $10 at the door. 21+. First Avenue is located at 701 First Ave. N., Mpls.; (612) 332-1775.
