Andy Friedman & The Other Failures, Bowery Poetry Club, 8 p.m., $10
When he first takes the stage, strumming an acoustic guitar and singing songs
about lonely highways and bar fights, Andy Friedman seems every bit the country
musician. But then the screen behind him lights up with one of his paintings,
drawings or photographs, and the song sinks in deeper while the story he's telling
turns funny. A sometime cartoonist for The New Yorker, Friedman has been called
a "slideshow poet" and a "singer-conceptualist," but there
is no easy shorthand for his mix of monologue, projection, music, and the occasional
arm-wrestling contest with a heckler. Here, Friedman will wrap up a residency
at the Bowery Poetry Club with his band, The Other Failures.