Select events happening in metro Detroit this week. Submit your events to metrotimes.com/calendar.

Blade Runner

Friday, 11/12: Remember when Ridley Scott's 1982 neo-noir sci-fi masterpiece Blade Runner felt like it was very far removed from any sort of reality we would experience in our lifetime? Ha ha ... ha. Fuck. Though it was largely misunderstood when it was released (the Los Angeles Times called it "Blade Crawler" in reference to its pacing and Variety called it out for its "unrelenting grimness"), the film, which cost $30 million to make, managed to exist and succeed in a world outside of its dim theatrical release, and managed to recoup its funding despite being lost on mainstream audiences. "It's a film about whether you can have a meaningful relationship with your toaster," is how Blade Runner star Harrison Ford summarized it. The "toaster," of course, is genetically engineered humanoid "replicants," which are to be "retired" by "blade runner" cops like Ford's character, Rick Deckard. Oh, did we mention that this bleak dystopia is set in 2019? The film spawned a sequel of sorts, Blade Runner 2049, which also fucking bombed, even though it was celebrated on many a critics' year-end list and starred Ryan Gosling, Jared Leto, and, spoiler alert, Ford. Some say it was due to poor marketing, while some argue the 2017 continuation simply mirrored the same dismal future as the original. Well, we say to hell with the haters, because the future is now and Jesus Christ is it bleak. —Jerilyn Jordan

Monroe Street Drive-in Powered by Emagine opening weekend with Space Jam, Sing, and F9

Friday, 11/12-Sunday, 11/14: What does LeBron James in space, an anthropomorphic animal sing-a-long, and Vin Diesel doing whatever Vin Diesel does, which is a mix of punching concrete and mumbling the word "family," have in common? They will all be a part of Detroit's Monroe Street Drive-in Powered by Emagine's opening weekend. After taking over the city's delayed Monroe Blocks project in 2020, the Monroe Street Drive-in is back with a healthy roster of family-friendly films to add some charm, whimsy, and intimacy to the movie-going experience. Starting Friday, Nov. 12, the drive-in's 60-by-32-foot digital screen will once again host screenings on Thursday-Sunday through spring of 2022, starting with Space Jam: A New Legacy (Nov. 12), followed by 2016's animated feature Sing (Nov. 13), and the latest installment in the chaotic NOS-fueled Fast & Furious franchise, F9 (Nov.14.) Films will be announced a week in advance of the screening with ticket sales opening each Tuesday.

In addition to offering "all of the amenities guests have come to love about an Emagine showing," including concessions, interactive lighting, state of the art audio and visual technology, the theater will also have warming areas, restroom trailers, and pedestrian walkways, and open-air seating pods for guests who wish to view the film from outside of their vehicle. There are nine pods that can accommodate 2-4 guests each and are available on a first-come, first-served basis, and are also free of charge.The drive-in is an extension of the "Decked Out Detroit" initiative, a partnership between Bedrock, the Rocket Community Fund, and the City of Detroit which aims to attract visitors during the pandemic by offering heated outdoor dining options and complimentary parking. —Jerilyn Jordan

Beatles on Tap

Sunday, 11/14 The pandemic interrupted but did not scuttle Denise-Caston Clark's unique idea: tap-dancing to Beatles music. In a matinee performance at the Magic Bag, her troupe of dancers and a live band of top Detroit musicians will resuscitate her vision. The band includes James Wailin (vocals), Chantel Altman (vocals), Tom Loncaric (keyboard), Steve Caldwell (guitar), Chris Spooner (bass), John Hill (drums), with dancers Lydia Bonney, Chelarrie Goldsby, Maegan Hickerson, Cooper Little, Kelcey Matheny, and Nia Silao. The Detroit-born Caston-Clark, a former Radio City Rockette, who conceived the idea and staged one high-energy performance before the Covid shutdown, choreographs and directs. She says the show will include the entire medley from Abbey Road and may be the kickoff to a new regional tour of "The Beatles on Tap." (Her Tap Dance Detroit studio offers daily drop-in tap classes to adults from beginner to pro as well as youth programs.) —Michael Betzold

The Rolling Stones

Monday, 11/15: When "The World's Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band'' rolls through town, we know it's going to be a party. However, many things have undoubtedly changed for the Stones since the band's first Detroit performance in 1964, where they played Olympia Stadium for $3 a ticket. (A Detroit Free Press review of the show said "There were 500 jumping, jittering, squirming, squealing girls dancing in their seats. There were boys, too, about one in seven. Adults looked lonely.") For one, they are, well, older (with a median age of 76.5) and, in August, just as they were set to continue their record-smashing No Filter tour, the Stones' longtime drummer and founding member Charlie Watts died at the age of 80, forcing the band to perform without the beloved "gentleman of the world's most dangerous band" for the first time in their 60-year-long career.

"...We felt — and Charlie felt — that we should do this tour," Jagger told the Los Angeles Times. "We'd already postponed it by a year, and Charlie said to me, 'You need to go out there. All the crew that have been out of work — you're not gonna put them out of work again. So I think it was the right decision to keep going."

So, for the band's 22nd metro Detroit performance, Steve Jordan will set the beat. Meanwhile, another change as the setlist will have a notable omission: 1971's hit "Brown Sugar." The band announced that they would be removing the song, which they have played since it was released due to the song referencing slavery and sexualization of Black women and girls. Luckily, the Stones have a million other songs and, not to be morbid, but this might be a good time to cross the Stones off your concert bucket list because, well, the bucket will be kicked someday. "I love to play the drums and I love to play with Mick and Keith and Ronnie, the rest: I don't know," Watts said in 2018. "I wouldn't mind if the Rolling Stones say that's it — enough." —Jerilyn Jordan

Lucki

Tuesday, 11/16: It could be argued that Chicago is a breeding ground for gifted emcees (even if one of them is, well, Kanye). Moving up in the ranks is 25-year-old Lucki — who first stunned with his 2013 debut, Alternative Trap, and has since worked with Chance the Rapper, Earl Sweatshirt, FKA Twigs, and Detroit's own Danny Brown. Having openly struggled with addiction, which put much of his life on pause, Lucki reemerged in 2019 with critically acclaimed mixtapes Freewave 3 and Days B4 III. The mixtapes paved the way for last year's well-rounded and self-explorative Almost There, which has been described by critics as "landing, like, a three-pointer in the final seconds of a blowout second quarter in game seven of the NBA finals." Through hazy trap beats and his muffled stream-of-consciousness-style of rap, Lucki tackles drugs, heartbreak, the allure of fast cars and a fast life, all while staying grounded in his point of view. "Find a way to leave me by myself, pick a flaw," he raps on "Pick a Flaw." "It ain't a phase, I'm a demon by myself, leave it to God/ Show me you love me, I can leave here tomorrow." Pasto Flocco and Sid Shyne are also on the bill. —Jerilyn Jordan

Mayer Hawthorne

Tuesday, 11/16: Last year brought on some major ch-ch-ch-changes for Grammy-nominated Ann Arbor native Mayer Hawthorne who has had a quietly productive couple of years. On 2020's Rare Changes LP, the 42-year-old robe-wearing (and robe-selling) retro-soul crooner compiled a slew of singles he had released during the pandemic into a proper nine-track record, all while keeping the boogie-funk alive with his side project, Tuxedo, with producer Jake One. Did we mention he released a limited edition coffee? Anyway, Rare Changes is sultry, seductive, and, though it does not represent a sonic change or departure from what Hawthorne has been doing since he first made waves with his debut single "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out" in 2008, the record does center around life and how feelings can, and do, change. "It's been a long time/ Nothing happening, same as before," he sings on the record's title track. "Am I awake or am I sleeping/ Over and over/ 'Til I think I can't take any more/ Love you forever/ Wouldn't change a thing." Aw, we love you, too. —Jerilyn Jordan

Whitney Cummings

Wednesday, 11/17-Thursday, 11/18: Whitney Cummings is doing god's work. Though she's got what she refers to as "hillbilly DNA," the 49-year-old comedian, actress, and podcaster is the master of exploring modern womanhood through a lens that is both gut-busting and pretty fucking grim. She warns single women about dating nerds because they could end up being either Elon Musk or someone who has shelves of figurines who can't afford to pay for dinner because their money is all "tied up in Bitcoin,'' and she describes the fear of being a woman walking alone to her car with keys between her fingers like a "shitty Wolverine." Then there's the bit about the struggle to be taken seriously amid the #MeToo movement: "Um, they give a shit about us all of a sudden, and we have absolutely no practice being listened to," she says in her fourth Netflix special, Can I Touch It? "So we need to level the fuck up right now. Some things need to change around here." Those things include: Tossing out those "rosé all day" shirts, same with the whole "Namastay in bed" schtick, as "it's not a sophisticated argument." No more saying "totes" instead of totally and for the love of god "we have to stop calling each other hookers and whores for a while." If any of this resonates with you, then Cummings' brand of comedy is for you. Her latest tour, appropriately titled "Touch Me," aims to "destigmatize and celebrate the importance of being together again" after many months of isolation. She's been drinking, workshopping material via social media and her podcast Good For You, and she's ready for her and her fans to contract "every other disease besides COVID." Bring on the mono! —Jerilyn Jordan