Compared to last week, this week will be relatively quiet. As will be seen below, there will be another three performances by Hidden Currents. These will be complemented by three new events on the first two of the three Hidden Currents dates. Specifics are as follows:
Thursday, August 27, 6 p.m., Exploratorium: It has been over a year since I wrote about an After Dark event at this venue. Dr. Desiré Whitmore will introduce the audience to the LASER Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory. Lest readers wonder what this has to do with music, her lecture will be embellished with clarinet performances by Ben Goldberg. There will be no charge beyond the fee for entering the Exploratorium, which is located at Pier 15 on the Embarcadero, across from the intersection with Green Street.
Thursday, August 27, Friday, August 28, and Saturday, August 29, 7:30 p.m., Audium: This will be the next installment of performances by Hidden Currents. As some readers may recall by now, the audience will sit in the center of the space in total darkness surrounded by 176 loudspeakers. For those that do not yet know, the venue is located at 1616 Bush Street. Pay-what-you-can tickets are available at the door for each show, on a first come, first served basis; but the preferred cost is between $20 and $30.
Friday, August 28, 7 p.m., Medicine for Nightmares: The next Other Dimensions in Sound offering, curated and hosted by Boohaabian reed player David Boyce, will be another two-set evening. The first set will be performed the Ark of Bones, the name given to the duo of cellist Chris Evans and Boyce playing a variety of saxophones. In the second set dummer Jordan Glenn will provide rhythm for two front-line players, Darren Johnston on trumpet and clarinetist Ben Goldberg. The venue is located in the Mission at 3036 24th Street, between Treat Avenue and Harrison Street. As always, there is no charge for admission, presumably to encourage visitors to consider buying a book.
A 29-stringed concert kanklės (photograph by Rimantas Lazdynas, from a Wikimedia Commons Web page, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license)
Friday, August 28, 8:30 p.m., The Lab: Merope is the duo of Bert Cools alternating between guitar and electronics and vocalist Indrė Jurgelevičiūtė, accompanying herself with the kanklės, a Lithuanian plucked string instrument. They will perform with multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily, whose primary instrument is bass guitar. In the second set pianist David Wesley Golightly will celebrate the release of his debut solo album, Seven Songs for Solo Piano. For those that do not yet know, the venue is located in the Mission at 2948 16th Street, a short walk from the transit stop at 16th Street and Mission Street.
