this week in music

METAMORPHOSIS

Iceland’s Vesterport Theatre returns to the Next Wave Festival with the U.S. premiere of METAMORPHOSIS (photo by Eddi Jonsson)

Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM Harvey Theater
651 Fulton St. between Ashland & Rockwell Pl.
November 30 – December 5, $25-$65
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

In 2008, Iceland’s Vesterport Theatre, under the leadership of director and star Gísli Örn Gardarsson, made its U.S. debut with their visually arresting production of WOYZECK, and they are returning to BAM’s Next Wave Festival this week for a multimedia interpretation of Franz Kafka’s creepy short story METAMORPHOSIS. Billed as “a six-legged nightmare,” the show, directed and adapted by Gardarsson and David Farr, will once again feature a score composed by Australian madman Nick Cave and his longtime Bad Seed Warren Ellis, with set design by Börkur Jónsson, lighting design by Björn Helgason, costumes by Brenda Murphy, and sound design by Nick Manning. Gardarsson and some of his collaborators will participate in an artist talk following the December 2 performance.

JOE DIEBES: CHRONOLOGY

Joe Diebes’s “Scherzo” is centerpiece of frenetic multimedia installation at Paul Rodgers/9W

Paul Rodgers / 9W
529 West 20th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Through December 2, free
212-414-9810
www.paulrodgers9w.com

At the beginning of this year, No Longer Empty held a music-related exhibition, “Never Can Say Goodbye,” in the old Tower Records at Fourth St. & Broadway. The star of the show was Joe Diebes’s “Scherzo,” a frenetic video installation of cellist Rubin Kodheli playing a score by Diebes as fast as he possibly can while being filmed from eight different angles by Andrew Federman. Kodheli’s virtuosic playing had been fed through a computer algorithm that resequenced the various segments into a brand-new, thrilling yet impossible sound piece that questions time and space as well as the reality of seeing and hearing. “Scherzo,” which comes off as a sort of punk-classical amalgamation, is located in one of the small rooms behind what looks like a white closet in the middle of the Paul Rodgers/9W gallery, surrounded by four other audiovisual pieces that line the walls. “One to One,” “Anachronism I,” “Anachronism 2,” and “Steeplechase” involve Diebes tracing and/or erasing scores by Bach, Beethoven, and Charlie Parker, using and/or reusing translucent vellum sheets, while the compositions can be heard through headphones. “I’m receiving and transmitting, or recording and playing, at the same time,” Diebes explains in the exhibition catalog. “My hand is the authority of the composer, but I’m not the composer. My hand is being driven by the recorded performance, so I’m really just a mass of nerves and muscle processing real time information. I’m trying to do it the best I can, but it’s all error.” Diebes might call it error, but the result is an intoxicating multimedia presentation that boggles the senses.

BOB DYLAN AND THE BAND: WHAT KIND OF LOVE IS THIS?

The photos of William G. Scheele of Bob Dylan and the Band are the centerpiece of a multimedia celebration of the seminal American musicians

Friday, December 3, “Bob Dylan and the Band, Woodstock to California 1973-1975,” gallery exhibit opening night, 14th St. Y, LABA Theatre, symposium, $45, 7:00
Sunday, December 5, All Star Concert, (le) poisson rouge, 158 Bleecker St., $35, 8:30
www.14streety.org

The 14th St. Y will be paying tribute to the legacy of Bob Dylan and the Band with a series of special events, including a photography show, a symposium, and an all-star concert. Benefiting the renovation of the Y’s LABA Theatre, “Bob Dylan and the Band: What Kind of Love Is This?” kicks off Friday, December 3, with the opening of the gallery exhibit “Bob Dylan and the Band, Woodstock to California 1973-1975,” a collection of photos taken by William G. Scheele, who served as the Band’s equipment and stage manager from 1969 to 1976. The opening will feature a ticketed symposium ($35) discussing the enormously influential collaboration between Bob Dylan and Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Richard Manuel, Rick Danko, and Garth Hudson, which resulted in such seminal albums as PLANET WAVES, THE BASEMENT TAPES, and BEFORE THE FLOOD; the extremely impressive panel will include Greil Marcus, Christopher Ricks, John Niven, Dana Spiotta, Matt Friedberger, D. A. Pennebaker, Stephen Hazan Arnoff, John Wesley Harding, and Scheele. Then, on Friday night, December 5, (le) poisson rouge will host an all-star tribute ($45) to Dylan and the Band, with performances by Steven Bernstein, John Medeski, Rob Burger, Tony Scherr, Jolie Holland, Laura Cantrell, Nicole Atkins, John Wesley Harding, and Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger of the Fiery Furnaces. This multimedia celebration honors some of the finest American music of the twentieth century while also helping out a great local organization.

MATISYAHU: FESTIVAL OF LIGHT

Matisyahu will once again ight the night at special Hanukkah shows (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Multiple venues in Brooklyn and New Jersey
November 29 – December 5, $38
www.matisyahuworld.com

Matisyahu, the Hasidic reggae rapper formerly known as Matthew Paul Miller, will be celebrating Hanukkah again with his Festival of Light tour, which will burn bright for five nights November 29 – December 5. The man behind such praiseworthy songs as “King Without a Crown,” “Jerusalem (Out of the Darkness Comes Light),” “Late Night in Zion,” “Aish Tamid,” and “Tzama L’Choi Nafshi (Psalm 63:2-3)” — and who is also known to throw in a prayer or two during his live shows — will be at Brooklyn Bowl November 29 with Dub Trio, the Music Hall of Williamsburg November 30 with Tally Hall, Northern Lights in Clifton Park on December 1 with Dub Trio, then back at the Music Hall December 4 with DJ Rehka and December 5 with Moon Taxi. We’ve celebrated Hanukkah with Matisyahu in the past, and it’s a blast, a night of fun music and lots of dancing that you don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy. But just in care you are, Matisyahu has just released a special Hanukkah song, “Miracle,” that is currently streaming for free on his website. “There are so many Christmas songs out there,” he explains. “I wanted to give the Jewish kids something to be proud of.”

WINTER’S EVE AT LINCOLN SQUARE 2010

Broadway from 59th to 66th Sts.
Monday, November 29, 5:30
Admission: free but please bring can of food to Dante Park for City Harvest
www.winterseve.org

The Lincoln Square Business Improvement District’s eleventh annual Winter’s Eve party takes place on Monday, November 29, featuring live performances, food tastings, children’s activities, ice sculptures, street musicians, holiday singalongs, and much more. The festivities begin at 5:30 in Dante Park with the tree-lighting ceremony, with John Pizzarelli handling the honors this year. Chia’s Dance Party will get booties shaking in Dante Park at 6:00, 7:00, and 8:00, the Brazilian percussion ensemble Harlem Samba will do the same in Richard Tucker Park at the same times, violinist supreme Eileen Ivers and Immigrant Soul will be playing in the Winter’s Eve Dance Tent at 6:15 and 7:30, the Anat Cohen Quartet with Avishai Cohen will be joined by Pizzarelli for shows at 6:45 and 7:45 at the American Folk Art Museum, the David Rubenstein Atrium will host a Holiday Bhangra Party featuring Red Baraat at 7:00, Jane Seymour will sign copies of AMONG ANGELS at the Borders in the Time Warner Center at 7:00, Naturally 7 will highlight a cappella holiday songs at the Apple Store at 7:00, the Rose Rutledge Trio will play in the Time Warner Center at 7:30, and the Alice Farley Dance Theater will create site-specific pieces in front of Alice Tully Hall all night long, in addition to performances by the Hungry March Band, Mariachi Real de Mexico, Arm-of-the-Sea, the Raya Brass Band, the West Side Y’s Kids, the Youth Pride Chorus, and others. And the New York Institute of Technology will present the multimedia Festival of Lights in its auditorium. All events are free, although the food tastings will require small payments; however, the Lincoln Square BID asks that everyone bring a can of food to donate to City Harvest in exchange for all of the free fun.

MACY’S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE 2010

The pilgrims arrive for another Turkey Day in NYC (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

The pilgrims arrive for another Turkey Day in NYC, hoping this year not to get wet (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

77th St. & Central Park West to 34th St. & Seventh Ave.
Thursday, November 25, free, 9:00 am – 12 noon
212-494-4495
www.macys.com

In 1924, a bunch of Macy’s employees joined forces and held the first Macy’s Christmas Parade, as it was then known. This year Macy’s celebrates the eighty-fourth edition of this beloved American event. (For those of you going crazy trying to figure out how 1924 to 2010 makes 84, the parade was canceled from 1942 through 1944 because of World War II.) This year’s lineup features such floats as the Pillsbury Doughboy, Kung Fu Panda, “Super Cute” Hello Kitty, Kermit the Frog, Horton the Elephant, Spider-Man, Snoopy, and Pikachu along with such floats as 123 Sesame Street, Jolly Polly Pirate Ship, Elves Raise the Roof, Dora’s Christmas Carol Adventure, and Mount Rushmore’s American Pride, all essentially advertising for your holiday dollars. Also participating in the fun will be a dozen marching bands, tens of thousands of cheerleaders, the Big Apple Circus, the U.S. Pizza Team, lots and lots of clowns, and lip-synched performances by such celebrities as India.Arie, Jimmy Fallon & the Roots, Miranda Cosgrove, Arlo Guthrie, Kylie Minogue, Eric Hutchinson, Jessica Simpson, Michael Grimm, Gladys Knight, Kanye West, and various Broadway musical casts.

To get a head start on the parade, head on over to Central Park West and Columbus Ave. between 77th & 81st Sts. the day before, November 24, from approximately 3:00 to 10:00 to check out the Big Balloon Blow-up. Watching the annual inflation-eve blow-up of Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons is a growing tradition, with crowds getting bigger and bigger every year, but it’s still a thrill to see the giant characters raised from the ground, reborn every Thanksgiving to march in a parade viewed by millions and millions of people around the world.

FREE ENERGY

Philly band Free Energy will be in town for two area shows this week, on either side of Thanksgiving

Wednesday, November 24, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St., $15, 9:00
Friday, November 26, Music Hall of Williamsburg, 66 North Sixth St., $15, 9:00
www.myspace.com/freeenergymusic
www.freeenergymusic.com

Philly band Free Energy, born of the remnants of Minneapolis’s Hockey Night, glory in guitar-based pop firmly based in a 1970s classic rock universe where “the streets are all safe / And you know deep down / You can find a better way,” as they sing in “Dream City.” Scott Wells, Paul Sprangers, Evan Wells, Geoff Bucknam, and Nick Shuminksy don’t care that they don’t have that indie hipster edge and that they might not go out on a limb taking chances, perfectly content to remain out on those safe streets. They know what they like, and they play it. Yes, that is indeed cowbell on the first track of the James Murphy–produced STUCK ON NOTHING (Astralwerks, May 2010). Yes, “Dark Trance” does borrow the main riff from Cheap Trick’s “Surrender.” And yes, Free Energy was joined by tour mates Titus Andronicus at a recent Atlanta gig for a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m Going Down.” So what? You all know you blast CT or the Boss when you’re driving down the highway or through the suburbs anyway, so why not hear it in downtown Manhattan or Brooklyn? Free Energy will keep on keepin’ on at the Bowery Ballroom on Wednesday and the Music Hall of Williamsburg on Friday, with Foxy Shazam and Hollerado.