Monday, June 12, 2017

The Bleeding Edge: 6/12/2017

The season may, by the calendar, be winding down; but there are enough additions to this week’s schedule to suggest that things are going strong for those seeking adventurous programming. We have a bit of a “fencepost effect,” since the announcement of tonight’s Action and Music gig by Stanford student composer at the Center for New Music (C4NM) actually appeared at the end of last week’s schedule. Similarly, the final concert in the Del Sol String Quartet’s Sounding series for this year was announced at the end of last month. Nevertheless, things will start to get active on Wednesday; so here are the specifics:

Wednesday, June 14, 8 p.m., Peacock Lounge: It would appear that the Monthly Experimental Music Showcase, which was one of the particularly interesting events at Second Act in the Haight, has found a new venue. At the very least the poster design bears a strong “family resemblance” to the announcements of the Second Act gigs:


The same can be said of the four-set format and the ingeniously provocative names of the performing groups. For those who cannot make these out on the above image, the groups performing at this particular program will be Man vs Nature, Foot SOS, Syrnx, and Microwave Windows. If the format follows the Second Act presentation style, these groups will perform in the reverse of the order just listed, meaning that the evening will conclude with Man vs Nature.

The Peacock Lounge is located in the Lower Haight at 552 Haight Street. Doors will open at 7:45 p.m. Admission will be $5 and will be restricted to those age 21 or older.

Thursday, June 15, 8:15 p.m., Luggage Store Gallery: This week’s installment of the Luggage Store Creative Series will depart from the usual format in some interesting ways. The evening will be structured as three half-hour sets, rather than the usual two. The first will be taken by Alexa Burrell performing as Lexagon. She works in both sound and video using primarily with audio samples and found media. Her performances tend to involve voice, clarinet, and a handmade theremin. She will be followed by the Earthbound duo of Angel Castellion and Jade Ariana Fair, both of whom are vocalists working with synthesizer gear. Castellion is also a keyboardist, and Fair plays drums. Their latest album, The Flood, was released on bandcamp this past September. The final set will be taken by Oakland-based experimental musician and media artist Spellling, whose improvisations are based on sampled loops working with both voice and synthesizers. Her performance will be followed by the premiere screening of “‘Blue (American Dream),” a music video directed by Jasdeep Kang. The Luggage Store Gallery is at 1007 Market Street, directly across from the Golden Gate Theatre at the corner of Golden Gate Avenue and Taylor Street. Admission for this performance will be on a sliding scale between $6 and $10.

Friday, June 16, 7:30 p.m., Adobe Books: The next installment in the monthly music series curated by Ben Tinker will be a generous offering of four adventurous sets. These will be taken by Eric Glick Rieman, the duo of Jane Rigler and Matt Ingalls, Nurse Betty, and John McCowen. Adobe Books is located at 3130 24th Street in the Mission. The gig is free. However, donations will go directly to the performing artists and are strongly encouraged.

Friday, June 16, 8 p.m., Old First Presbyterian Church: For those who missed out on the delightfully eclectic program that the Village Road Trio brought to the December Salon concert offered by San Francisco Performances at the Hotel Rex, lightning will strike again with a performance in the Old First Concerts series. The members of this trio are violinist and composer Alisa Rose, composer Rob Reich, alternating between piano and accordion, and bassist Daniel Fabricant. They offer up arrangements of music by composers not usually associated with their instrumentation, such as Frédéric Chopin. They also play Béla Bartók in ways likely to suggest the source material he had collected as an ethnomusicologist; and the same can be said of the “gypsy core” of Pablo de Sarasate’s Opus 20 “Zigeunerwiesen” (gypsy airs). Other composers that will get the”Village Road” treatment will be Antonín Dvořák, Scott Joplin, Erik Satie, and jazz pianist (and mathematician) Guerino Mazzola.

The Old First Presbyterian Church is located at 1751 Sacramento Street on the southeast corner of Van Ness Avenue. If purchased in advance online from an Old First Concerts event page, general admission will be $23 with a discounted rate of $18 for seniors aged 65 or older. Tickets for full-time students showing valid identification will be $5; and children aged twelve and under will still be admitted for free. There is also still a discount available for those parking at the Old First Parking Garage at 1725 Sacramento Street, just up the street for the church.

Saturday, June 17, 7:30 p.m., Bird and Beckett Books and Records: The Jazz Philanthropists Union will present a quartet consisting of (in alphabetical order) Eric Garland on drums, Kasey Knudsen on saxophone, Ian McCardle on keyboards, and Giulio Xavier on bass. Gigs at Bird and Beckett usually consist of two sets. The shop is located at 653 Chenery Street, a short walk from the Glen Park station for both Muni and BART. Admission is free, but donations are always appreciated. The collections of both books and records are pretty impressive, so making a purchase will also be looked upon with great favor!

Sunday, June 18, 2 p.m., C4NM: Carl’s Big Recital!  will be a two-part program presented by Carl Oser. In the first half of the program, he will play Claude Debussy’s “Children’s Corner” suite for solo piano by Claude Debussy. For the second half he will be joined by pianist and composer Scott DeTurk, and he will sing a series of original compositions.

C4NM is located at 55 Taylor Street, half a block north of where Golden Gate Avenue meets Market Street. Admission will be $10 with a $5 rate for C4NM members. In addition to being sold at the door, tickets will be available in advance online from a Vendini event page.

Sunday, June 18, 7:30 p.m., The Musicians Union Hall: This will be another two-set program in the SIMM (Static Illusion Methodical Madness) Series hosted by Outsound Presents. The first set will be taken by the trio of Lisa Mezzacappa on bass, Zachary L. Morris on percussion, and Rent Romus playing saxophones, flutes and small percussion instruments. They will be followed by the Lion Creek quartet, named for Leona Creek in Oakland, on whose banks they often perform. The group is an imaginative combination of violin (Golnaz Shariatzadeh), cello (Nina Thiebert), woodwinds (Kevin Robinson), and guitar (Joel Nelson). The Musicians Union Hall is located at 116 9th Street, near the corner of Mission Street. Admission is on a sliding scale between $10 and $15.

No comments: