1. Billed as Canada’s largest alternative literary festival, the sixth annual Verses Festival of Words casts its wordy charms across the East Side with 35 events, including competitions, performances, workshops and readings April 21 to May 1. For a full list of events, including Hullaballoo: B.C.’s Youth Spoken Word Festival and the Canadian Individual Poetry Slam championship, go to versesfestival.ca.
2. Don’t let the sunny weather dampen your appetite for blood, gore and cannibalism. The second annual Northwest Horror Show features the best and sometimes most cringe-worthy classics of horror, cult, exploitation and art house splatter films, including such family-unfriendly titles as Night Of The Creeps, I Drink Your Blood and Cannibal Ferox. Things get extreme April 22 to 24 at Vancity Theatre. Details at viff.org.
3. One of the more respectable U.K. bands from the 1990s, Lush does the reunion thing April 21 at the Rio Theatre (moved from the Commodore). Tickets at Red Cat, Zulu and ticketmaster.ca.
4. Enjoyably verbose, howl-prone indie rockers Frog Eyes headline the annual fundraiser for CiTR’s Discorder Magazine, April 23 at the ANZA Club. Weird Candle, the Backhomes, Malcolm Jack and Experience This round out the bill. Details at discorder.ca.
5. Mexico’s Son De Madera headlines the Vancouver World Music Festival, April 22 and 23 at the Rio Theatre. Performers include En Canto (Brazil), Roberto Lopez Project (Colombia), Lapis (India), Ostwelve (First Nations) and Locarno (Mexico/B.C.), among others. Tickets at Highlife, Zulu, Red Cat and eventbrite.com.
