Mother's Night Out

I have become a creature of habit.

Every Friday, after work, I cut a beeline for the Brew Works, where I wash a week's accrued sorrows in the brewed-on-site IPA — which packs a deceptive punch — and bar food and bad darts while I wait on the weekend crowd, whom I usually follow to Pancho's, sobriety permitting. Such diversions are already amply documented.

On Saturdays, I lick Friday's wounds and revel in lethargy. (On the seventh day, the columnist rested.) Sundays are Sundays: devoted to televised sports, HBO original series and the odd copy-desk shift. And I'm getting too old to go out Thursday nights.

All of which is to say: Until something seasonal comes along to smash my routine (see below?), the current format of non-editor's not-necessarily-picks will continue to serve well all who read and heed it. Short and sweet this week.

La Cocina has Rev Tor at 8 tonight — it seems LaCo's, too, has become a creature of habit; the "inspired raucous guitar jams and harmonies" of the Kind Buds — Bud and Budd, a regionally renowned Dead-covering duo

— at 8 p.m. tomorrow; and BMW at 8 p.m. Saturday.

Tonight, Club Helsinki will welcome the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival preview tour, which is making one of its 23 stops in Great Barrington. Talented new singer-songwriters Lindsay Mac of Cambridge, Joe Crookston of Ithaca, N.Y., and Randall Williams of Missouri are hoping to establish themselves in advance of the festival proper.

Tomorrow, Helsinki hosts Alaskan Americana quintet Bearfoot, the former Telluride Bluegrass Band Champions who take turns at lead vocals. Saturday, it's Steve Forbert, the pop- folk singer-songwriter whose "Romeo's Tune," off the 1980 album "Jackrabbit Slim," was a chart sensation.

Also: The Colonial Theatre will screen "Starting Out in the Evening," starring accomplished film and stage actor Frank Langella ("Dracula," "Frost/ Nixon") and sometime local Lauren Ambrose ("Six Feet Under"), at 7:30 p.m. tonight. The film, which earned Independent Spirit Award nominations last year for best screenplay and male lead, tells the story of a once-great writer (Langella), whose student/muse (Ambrose) helps resurrect his stalled career. Despite critical acclaim, this one slipped into and out of theaters too fast for me to catch it.

Of some note: Sunday is Mother's Day — that's "pay day" to you Hallmark shareholders — so don't forget to shower love and appreciation on the woman who lugged you around for at least nine months — and, with any kind of luck, probably a lot longer. (Hi, Mom.)

It also brings the monthly Red Lion Inn gig of Dick Solberg, the Sun Mountain Fiddler, whose virtuosic renditions of Celtic, Cajun, bluegrass and old-timey tunes draw a good evening crowd. Don't let Mom miss it.

To reach Michael Scott Leonard: mleonard@berkshireeagle.com.