this week in music

THE GREAT BIG BACON PICNIC

great-big-bacon

The Old Pfizer Factory
630 Flushing Ave., Williamsburg
September 24-25, $79-$249 (twenty-one and older only)
greatbigbacon.com

Mmm, bacon. . . . The second annual Great Big Bacon Picnic is set for September 24-25 at the Old Pfizer Factory in Williamsburg, where more than one hundred purveyors of food and drink will join together for an extravaganza of all things bacon. Chefs from all over New York City will show just how diverse the sizzling meat can be with a bevy of bite-sized delights that can be washed down with specially selected beer, wine, and spirits. Among the many participants are BaconFB4, Traif, Williamsburg Pizza, Antony “Tony Bacon” Nassif of Mile End Deli, Tres Carnes, Roni-Sue’s Chocolates, BarBacon, Veselka, Walter Momente and Jon Streep of Alidoro, Big Papa Smokem Gourmet Smoked Meats, Brooklyn Baked and Fried, Chef’s Cut Real Jerky, Feast, Off the Hook Raw Bar & Grill, Potatopia, Dirty Burger, and 2015 GBBP champ Arthur Saks. Potent potables will be available from Shiner Beer, New Belgium Brewing Co., Van Brunt Stillhouse, Two Roads Brewing Co., Iron Smoke Whiskey, Doc Herson’s Natural Spirits, Domaine des Haute Glace “Les Moisson” French Single Malt, Domaine d’Esperance Armagnac, Derrumbes Mezcal, and many more. There are three ticket packages for the three sessions, which take place on Saturday from 12 noon to 2:30 for brunch, Saturday from 5:30 to 8:00 for happy hour, and Sunday from 1:00 to 3:30 for brunch. Brunch and happy hour are currently being discounted to $79, with half-hour early entry $114 and VIP $189 (including one-hour early entry and access to private lounges and gift bag). Ten percent of the proceeds go to such local charities as City Harvest and No Kid Hungry. The High & Mighty Brass Band will provide live music, and first-time Lyft users can get a $50 credit here. Everyone gets unlimited bacon — and no turkey bacon, soy bacon, or other substitutes. And don’t forget to belly up to the Bacon Bar.

CROSSING THE LINE 2016

Jérôme Bel’s THE SHOW MUST GO ON will go on at the Joyce as part of FIAF’s tenth annual Crossing the Line festival

French Institute Alliance Française and other locations
Florence Gould Hall, 55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
FIAF Gallery, 22 East 60th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
September 22 – November 3, free – $55
212-355-6160
crossingthelinefestival.org
www.fiaf.org

We can’t help but get excited for FIAF’s annual multidisciplinary fall festival, Crossing the Line, now celebrating its tenth anniversary. Every summer, we eagerly await the advance announcement of what they’ll be presenting, then scour the lineup for the most unusual events to make sure we see them. This year is another stellar collection of cutting-edge international dance and theater, beginning September 22 and 24 with screenings of concluding episodes seven, eight, and nine of Nature Theater of Oklahoma’s epic Life and Times at Anthology Film Archives ($11), along with a Thursday night party in FIAF’s Florence Gould Hall ($10) that begins with a screening of the eighth chapter of Kristin Worrall’s rather ordinary life, with the artists themselves serving up PB&Js. The festival features a special focus on French choreographer Jérôme Bel, who will be involved in four programs, beginning October 17 (free with RSVP) with a screening of his short biographical film on Paris Opera dancer Véronique Doisneau, followed by a discussion with Bel and Ana Janevski. Bel’s award-winning The Show Must Go On will go on at the Joyce October 20-22 ($36-$46), with Bel hanging around for a Curtain Chat after the 2:00 show on October 22. Bel will present the New York premiere of his controversial eponymous 1995 signature work at the Kitchen October 27-29 ($20) while also moving over to the Museum of Modern Art October 27-31 (free with museum admission) for Artist’s Choice: MoMA Dance Company, a site-specific piece for MoMA’s Marron Atrium that will be performed by members of the MoMA staff.

Tenth annual Crossing the Line festival features special focus on breakdance world champion Anne Nguyen, including AUTARCIE (….): A SEARCH FOR SELF-SUFFICIENCY

Tenth annual Crossing the Line festival features special focus on breakdance world champion Anne Nguyen, including U.S. premiere of AUTARCIE (….): A SEARCH FOR SELF-SUFFICIENCY

Breakdance world champion Anne Nguyen is making her U.S. debut with a pair of works: the free Graphic Cyphers will take place September 23 at Roberto Clemente Plaza in the Bronx at 2:00 and in Times Square September 25 at 2:30 and 4:30, while Autarcie (….): a search for self-sufficiency has its American debut September 29 to October 1 ($20) at Gibney Dance. “I seek to reconcile the peculiarities of hip-hop with demanding theatrical performance to question the place of human beings in the modern-day world,” Nguyen says; you can hear more from her at the October 1 artist talk “Towards Cultural Equity: The Artist’s Perspective” (free with RSVP) with fellow panelists David Thomson, Mohamed El Khatib, and Rokafella, moderated by George Emilio Sanchez. The UK’s Forced Entertainment, which is “interested in confusion as well as laughter,” will likely dish out a healthy portion of both at the New York premiere of Tomorrow’s Parties in Florence Gould Hall September 28 and 30 and October 1 ($20). From September 30 to October 2 ($35-$55), Venice Biennale lifetime achievement award winner Romeo Castellucci will deliver the one-man show Julius Caesar. Spared Parts, making the most of Federal Hall’s marble columns. This past June, dancer-choreographer Maria Hassabi gave an informal preview of her latest work, Staged, on the High Line; she will now bring the final piece down to the Kitchen, below the High Line, where it will be performed by Simon Courchel, Jessie Gold, Hristoula Harakas, and Oisín Monaghan October 4-8 ($20).

Romeo Castellucci will make his New York City debut channeling Julius Caesar at Federal Hall

On October 6-8 and 13-15 ($35), drag fabulist Dickie Beau will conjure up Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, and Richard Meryman at Abrons Arts Center for Blackouts. [Ed. note: All performances of Blackouts have been canceled because of unexpected travel circumstances.] Also on October 13-15 ($20), Lora Juodkaite and Annie Hanaeur will perform the U.S. premiere of Rachid Ouramdane’s Tordre (Wrought) at Baryshnikov Arts Center; CTL veteran Ouramdane will take part in the October 15 artist talk “Towards Cultural Equity: The Institutional Perspective” (free with RSVP) with keynote speaker Patrick Weil, panelists Firoz Ladak and Zeyba Rahman, and moderator Thomas Lax. On October 25 (free with RSVP), Aaron Landsman will host Perfect City, in which a group of young people from the Lower East Side will gather at Abrons Arts Center and discuss what the future holds in store for them, particularly in their neighborhood. The festival ends on November 3 with My Barbarian’s Post-Party Dream State Caucus at the New Museum (free with RSVP), held in conjunction with the exhibition “The Audience Is Always Right.” Throughout the festival, you can check out Mathieu Bernard-Reymond’s “Transform” art exhibit in the FIAF Gallery, and Tim Etchells’s multichannel video installation “Eyes Looking” will be projected at 11:59 each night in Times Square as October’s Midnight Moment.

TASTE WILLIAMSBURG GREENPOINT

East River State Park
Sunday, September 18, $35-$100, 1:00 – 5:00
www.tastewg.com

North Brooklyn will be strutting its culinary stuff on September 18 at the seventh annual Taste Williamsburg Greenpoint, where you can sample food and drink from more than fifty purveyors of edibles and potent potables from the neighborhood. Among those establishments that will be dishing out delights in East River State Park are Amami, Anella, Black Flamingo, Brooklyn Cupcake, the Brooklyn Star, Cheeseboat LLC, Delaware and Hudson, Delaney BBQ, El Born, Hail Mary, Harvey, Le Fond, Lighthouse, Lilia, Maison Premiere, MatchaBar, the Meatball Shop, Midnights, Nitehawk Cinema, Randolph, St. Mazie, Rosamunde Sausage Grill, Sugar Couture, and Zona Rosa. There are three ticket levels (twenty-one and over only, no pets): The Tastes Firehouse package ($35) gets you four tastes and two drinks, the Firehouse Plus ($60) eight tastes and four drinks, and the Firehouse VIP ($100) twelve tastes and six drinks. There will also be live music, cooking demonstrations, and a beer garden, and first-time Lyft users can get twenty bucks off their ride by using the code TASTENYC now. All proceeds benefit the Firehouse North Brooklyn Community Center on Wythe Ave., which seeks to “renovate and operate the former Engine Co. 212 Firehouse for community activity [to] provide a permanent home to neighborhood social justice organizations for continued advocacy and direct services to Williamsburg and Greenpoint [and to foster] civic and cultural engagement with original arts programming and community gatherings.”

CELEBRATING RED HOOK 2016

BERST will return for the third annual Celebrating Red Hook festival in Erie Basin Park (photo courtesy Red Hook Star-Revue)

Erie Basin Park behind IKEA, 1 Beard St.
Saturday, September 17, free, 12 noon – 9:00 pm
redhookstar.com

The third annual Celebrating Red Hook festival takes place September 17 from 12 noon to 9:00 in Erie Basin Park behind the IKEA. Hosted by the Red Hook Star-Revue, the all-ages event features live entertainment, face painting, henna tattoos, a local marketplace, a Tiki bar, fireworks, and more. “Celebrating Red Hook is a day when we bring so many pieces of Red Hook into a single place in order to display all of the culture that makes our community special,” Red Hook Star-Revue publisher Kimberly G. Price said in a statement. The music lineup consists of Stan Kosakowski (1:00), HAPPS (1:35), the Eephus Band (2:00), William Robertson (3:00), Berst (4:00), the Sanghatones (5:00), Sean Kershaw and the New Jack Ramblers (6:00), Andi Rae Healy and the Back River Bullies (7:00), and Union (8:00). Among the more than fifty participants with booths are Red Hook Winery, Sixpoint Brewery, Cora Dance, the Red Hook Art Project, the Red Hook Justice Center, Giant Jenga, Tarot Cards with Serena, the Brooklyn Bridge Rotary Club, Friends of the Red Hook Library, Addabbo Health Center, Dolce Brooklyn, Brooklyn Whatever, and the Red Hook Conservancy.

STEINWAY SALON: SIMON MULLIGAN

simon-mulligan

Who: Simon Mulligan
What: A Special 9-11 Memorial Recital
Where: Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway at 95th St., 212-864-5400
When: Sunday, September 11, $15, 7:00
Why: In commemoration of the fifteenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, British piano virtuoso Simon Mulligan will perform a special memorial recital at Symphony Space on September 11, consisting of Franz Liszt’s Mephisto Valse No. 1, Franz Schubert’s Four Impromptus, Op. 90 (I. Allegro molto moderato; II. Allegro; III. Andante mosso; IV. Allegretto), and George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” The concert is part of the monthly “Steinway Salon” series, which continues October 20 with Clipper Erickson, November 3 with Christina McMaster, and December 8 with Jed Distler.

MetLiveArts: MULATU ASTATKE

Mulatu Astatke will bring the unique sounds of Ehtio-jazz to the Temple of Dendur on September 9

Mulatu Astatke will bring the unique sounds of Ethio-jazz to the Temple of Dendur on September 9

Who: Mulatu Astatke
What: Live concert in the Temple of Dendur
Where: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Ave. at 82nd St., 212-535-7710
When: Friday, September 9, $65, 7:00
Why: Ethiopian musician Mulatu Astatke, the Father of Ethio-jazz, will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the release of his first records, the two-volume Afro-Latin Soul, which were recorded in New York City, with a special performance in the Temple of Dendur at the Met Fifth Avenue on September 9. It should prove to be a fascinating venue for the seventy-two-year-old Astatke, who mixes traditional Ethiopian music with American improvisational jazz to create his unique, experimental sound, which can be heard on such albums as Yekatit, Assiyo Bellema, Mulatu Steps Ahead, and Sketches of Ethiopia. Part of the MetLiveArts program and a collaboration with the World Music Institute, the show will feature Astatke on vibraphone, wurlitzer, and percussion, Adam O’Farrill on trumpet, James Arben on saxophone, Jason Lindner on keyboards, Tal Massiah on bass, and Daniel Freedman on drums.

BAM NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL: BRIDGE OVER MUD

Norway’s Verdensteatret pulls into the BAM Fisher this week with the U.S. premiere of experimental, immersive multimedia production (photo courtesy of the artist)

BROEN OVER GJØRME
BAM Fisher, Fishman Space
321 Ashland Pl.
September 7-10, $25, 7:30 & 9:30
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
verdensteatret.com

BAM’s 2016 Next Wave Festival kicks off this week with the U.S. premiere of the immersive audiovisual theatrical presentation Bridge over Mud, a multimedia extravaganza by the Oslo-based arts collective Verdensteatret. “Bridge over Mud is in its very nature a fragmented and abstract work. Its main substance rests in a poetic space that stimulates your senses through a symphonic multimedia expression. The form profits both from visual art and video art, sound art and performance,” Elisabeth Leinslie writes in her September 2014 essay “You Walk as Far as the Shoes of Reason Will Take You – Then You Jump,” continuing, “This generates a challenging complexity where opposing forces collide in ‘impossible paradoxes’ on one hand and surprisingly harmonic cadences on the other. It’s a symphony of elements that entice your senses. Listening to this work may take you to places you’ve never been before.” The sixty-minute piece features abstract projections, kinetic sculpture, more than sixty speakers, a tuba player, two vocalists, and nearly two hundred feet of train tracks winding through the intimate Fishman Space at the BAM Fisher. Bridge over Mud was created by company members Asle Nilsen, Lisbeth J. Bodd, Piotr Pajchel, Eirik Blekesaune, Ali Djabbary, Martin Taxt, Espen Sommer Eide, Torgrim Torve, Elisabeth Gmeiner, Niklas Adam, Kristine Sandøy, Thorolf Thuestad, Janne Kruse, Laurent Ravot, and Benjamin Nelson, each of whom brings a unique aspect to the troupe, which “endeavors to use a collaborative process to deeply integrate different artistic disciplines into projects that bridge the gap between artistic borders.” Both exhibition and concert, Bridge over Mud is an attempt by Verdensteatreter (Louder, And All the Question Marks Started to Sing) “to play the whole room like one big instrument.” We can’t wait to check this wild one out.