Change is coming to Asheville’s historic Goombay! festival this year. The YMI Cultural Center has partnered with Powerhaus Productions (the team behind the Lexington Avenue Arts and Fun Festival and French Broad River Fest) to make the 31st year one to remember — and one to build upon for the future. In addition to the […]

The tale of The Asheville Disclaimer is one of japery and monkeyshines, otherwise known as love and laughs and beer. It is the saga of how a notion became a comedy institution. The Disclaimer has evolved from a standalone publication to “The Most Beloved Page in All the Land” within the Mountain Xpress. Beyond print, […]

What Sonmi’s percussionist Dave Mathes wants you to know about the local band’s new album, Almost Human, is that it’s designed to be played loud, “because you can crank it up and it still sounds really smooth and warm.” It has to do with compression and headroom and things that probably don’t matter much to […]

“The Investors” is the type of nondescript title that befits the current airs about Wedge Studios. “It’s commentary, but not documentary,” Ben Betsalel, the artist behind the work, tells Xpress. And though Betsalel, a soon-to-be former Wedge studio resident, is caught in the middle of the building’s uncertain status, the show doesn’t offer a conclusion. […]

Local playwright John Crutchfield continues to astonish with works like The Songs of Robert and Ruth. There, character sketches are paired with poetry to create performances that are as emotional as they are (in some cases) humorous. His newest production, Landscape With Missing Person, is an "existential rom-com" (according to the playwright), "in which a […]

Asheville magician Max Vega practices mentalism. That is, he possesses “the ability to know intimate, personal information that I shouldn’t know,” he tells Xpress. Vega has started a weekly magic show at the Lower Level of Restaurant Solace in downtown Asheville. “The idea is to take people away and transport them to a bohemian-type setting,” […]