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First Friday Artwalk: A Time and a Place
5pm, free, All ages
Home is a place of safety, comfort and status, but for some a site of darker associations. During childhood, idealized drawings and paintings of home constitute some of our first forays into visual art, revealing conceptions of life's most basic elements - family, security, and connection. In "A Time and A Place," Alexander Cheves, Lisa Dahl and Kyle Bravo each present their views of home with a captivating surface beauty. The colors, shapes and textures draw us in, then slowly, more foreboding overtones emerge. The houses are broken, fractured or inaccessible, yet the paintings, prints and sculptures have a dreamy childlike optimism.
IN THE WINDOW: A new project by local artist Greta Bank titled CLEARANCE: The Four Horsemen. Scatological messages of The False Leader, War, Famine and Plague are camouflaged within an ornate upholstered interior.
The Gill Aharon Trio
Doors at 8pm,
event starts at 8:30pm, $8, 18+
Gill Aharon studied classical piano from the age of three. Raised by Bulgarian parents, Gill's musical stylings reflect his classical and Baltic background. He is the founder of the Piano Festival which used to take place at Zeitgeist Gallery in Boston. His jazz trio includes Andrew DiMola on bass and drummer Brian Vigilone, best known for being half of the Brechtian punk cabaret duo The Dresden Dolls.
http://myspace.com/thegillaharontrio
A Reading: The Thinking Heart
Doors at 7pm,
event starts at 7:30pm, $5, All ages
“The Thinking Heart” is a performance piece in two voices, with cello, based on the journal and letters of Etty Hillesum, a Dutch Jewish woman who lived in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation. Hillesum wrote a luminous diary and over 70 letters, collected and published together in a book, "An Interrupted Life and Letters from Westerbork". Refusing opportunities to escape, she chose to travel east to share the fate of her people and “to act as balm for all wounds.” The journal and letters were written over two years, between 1941 and ‘43, ending with the transport to Auschwitz, where she died at 29. “The Thinking Heart” is an original arrangement of the journal and letters, constellated as poems, written by Martin Steingesser (Portland Poet Laureate), and presented by him and Judy Tierney, with cellist Robin Jellis. Longfellow Books will host a book table, providing copies of "An Interrupted Life and Letters from Westerbork", along with other relevant literature, for perusal and purchase.
Carrie Rodriguez
Doors at 8pm,
event starts at 8:30pm, $10, 18+
Carrie Rodriguez puts an urbane, seductive spin on alternative country and bluegrass, with artfully minimalist production that features melancholy echoes of pedal steel, finger-plucked fiddle strings, brushed snare, a whisper of saxophone and plenty of wide open space for Rodriguez's remarkable voice to fill. She boasts an affecting twang and brings a wonderfully lived-in quality to her vocal performances. There's an intimacy, honesty and sexual frankness within them that makes Rodriguez's every breath worth hanging on to. Her listeners immediately become her confidantes. Seven Angels on a Bicycle, her solo debut, pushes musical boundaries, stripping country-style tunes to their emotional and melodic essence. There's an Austin-style warmth on the tracks, counter-balanced with New York City sophistication. http://www.carrierodriguez.com/
Slavic Soul Party!
Doors at 8pm,
event starts at 8:30pm, $10, 18+
Fiery Balkan brass, hip-grinding American grooves, and ecstatic anthems both new and old: Slavic Soul Party! is just what it says. Brash and strong as slivovitz, these nine musicians have forged a virtuosic new brass band music in the heart of New York City‚ melding Gypsy, East European, Mexican, and Asian immigrant backgrounds with American jazz and soul - and developed a reputation for delivering a great time.
Zhok Therapy is the “unruly alter-ego” of the Casco Bay Tummlers, a klezmer band that has been performing in Maine and around the world for over fifteen years. The members of Z.T. love to take musical elements from the Middle East, the Balkans and eastern Europe as starting points for danceable improvisations and arrangements that range from reflective to rowdy. (Plus, we're probably the only band here tonight that features bass flute).
The band is Carl Dimow, flutes and guitars, Julie Goell, bass and vocals, Steve Gruverman, clarinet and sax, and Hayes Porterfield, percussion.
http://www.slavicsoulparty.com/
Grupo Esperanza
Doors at 9pm,
event starts at 9:30pm, $7, 18+
Grupo Esperanza is an instrumental nine-piece Afro-Cuban band from Portland featuring a jazz-influenced three-piece horn section and a traditional Salsa rhythm consisting of percussion, bass, and piano. They play a mix of Cuban standards and original dance music, ranging from Salsa to Latin Jazz, to funky Afro-Carribbean grooves. Winners of the 2006 Portland Phoenix Best Music Poll Award for "Best World Music Act," Grupo Esperanza has won the hearts of Portland's dance music lovers.
http://www.esperanzaband.com/
7.18.2007 | Wed
CANCELLED
What Do I know About War
Doors at 7pm,
event starts at 7:30p,
$10 gen/ $7 students, 18+
Margo Lee Sherman's compelling new solo performance is based on the actual words of contemporary American soldiers who have served in Iraq. Through a series of fragments and vignettes composed of quotes from an amazingly diverse spectrum of real-life characters, Sherman gets at the human cost of the war. From two gun toting nineteen-year-old girls killed in combat to a long-time professional soldier who reexamined his beliefs in the wake of Abu Ghraib and became a conscientious objector, these remarkable stories, performed with Sherman's unique intensity and concentration, convey the many dimensions of this complex tragedy with power and immediacy, offering new insights. Sherman has created over 30 critically-acclaimed solo performances over as many years. She was one of the early members of the legendary Bread and Puppet Theater, and has worked with Meredith Monk, Joseph Chaikin, Jean-Claude van Itallie, and many other seminal artists of the off-off-Broadway movement.
Documentary Film: Row Hard, No Excuses
Doors at 7:00pm,
film starts at 7:30pm,
$6 advance, $8 at door, $5 for members, All ages
Two middle-aged American men set out to win the "world's toughest race" — three thousand miles across the Atlantic in a rowboat — is it a noble quest or an ill-fated nightmare? Row Hard, No Excuses chronicles the voyage of the only American entry in a 3,000 mile rowing race across the Atlantic Ocean. It is both an exciting sports-adventure story and an intimate portrait of the two-man crew, that explores masculinity, midlife and ambition. Post-film Q&A with director Luke Wolbach and trans-Atlantic rower Tom Mailhot.
http://www.lanternfilms.com/clips.html
Brett Dennen
Doors at 9pm,
event starts at 9:30pm, $8 advance, $10 day of, 18+
Brett Dennen has a bare bones aesthetic, underpinned by a kind of unassuming, elemental funk. His band, beautifully locked in and occasionally augmented by the likes of Keb Mo and multi-instrumental wizard Greg Leisz, manages to transmit a stunning range of textures without sacrificing the music’s open spaces. Brett has been on the road playing with John Mayer, Sheryl Crow and Dave Matthews. His latest record, "There is So Much More," unabashedly beautiful, reflects Brett's greatest gift as a songwriter, his ability to work with one foot in a tradition associated with social protest while the other foot is in the love song tradition. The effect is altogether convincing, leaving us with the sense that we have on our hands a performer for whom the personal is always political and the political is always personal. http://www.brettdennen.com
Subject Bias w/ Tree By Leaf and Rural Electric
Doors at 9pm,
event starts at 9:30pm, $5, 18+
Subject Bias uses acoustic and electric sounds to deliver smart lyrics with a real edge. Listeners are carried through the music with a brilliant combination of guitar, strings, horns and vocal harmonies, while its words question everything that is personal. Tree by Leaf is an enthusiastic ensemble with disparate gifts - pretty voices, virtuosic musicianship, insightful lyrics, and a melodic talent. They combine these elements into something near to alchemy and bring forth music quite extraordinary. Rural Electric is a guitar-wielding fuzz-folk combo from the backwoods of Maine. They meld pretty acoustic playing to a noisy backdrop, with fine harmonies atop it.
The Cliks
Doors at 9pm,
event starts at 9:30pm, $8, 18+
Gutsy, melodic, dramatic, and dark, Toronto's The Cliks arrived on the scene covering Justin Timberlake's hit "Cry Me a River" in a White Stripes meets the Pretenders style. Lucas Silveira, a transgendered FTM (female-to-male) leads this all-female, androgynous band with music that seems to emanate from a parallel universe, one where fundamental distinctions are blurred, living passionately is the highest level of existence and rock & roll is the ultimate form of expression. http://www.myspace.com/thecliks
7.26.2007 | Thurs
This Land Is My Land, That Land Is Your Land: Stories of Borders
Doors at 7pm,
starts at 7:30pm, $6, $5 for members, All ages
A legal resident of the US is deported to his old home of El Salvador where he becomes a refugee in his own homeland, and struggles relearn his native tongue. A group of vigilantes tries to guard the southern border but ends up entrenched in a battle with protestors where victory is decided by whomever has the loudest stereo, the brightest lights. And a Sierra Leonean girl who’s been living in the U.S. since she was an infant tries to apply for college. There’s just one problem, technically she doesn’t exist.
A listening event featuring stories of people trying to cross borders, having borders cross them, and the trouble with being on the wrong side of the line. Hosted by radio producer Josh Gleason, with live music by Tempera.
Presented with PRX: http://www.prx.org/
Casco Bay Cabaret
Doors at 8pm,
event starts at 8:30pm, $5, All ages
The Casco Bay Cabaret was founded in January 2004 by Portland based artist and clown Kelly Nesbitt along with puppeteer and activist Jonah Fertig. Being performers, both Kelly and Jonah felt a strong need to create more opportunity for artists to come together in Portland. The Casco Bay Cabaret is a variety show that consists of about 10 different acts of puppetry, clowning, circus arts, spoken word, dance, music, and various theatrical skits. The Cabaret is a jammed-packed, thoughtful, and hilarious show that supports performers of all levels of experience. Tonight's Cabaret will be followed by a kid-friendly matinee on Saturday, to be held at the Adams School on Munjoy Hill. We strive to make all the Cabarets accessible and affordable so that no one is ever turned away.
http://www.myspace.com/thecascobaycabaret
Phantom Buffalo and Tulsa
Doors at 9:00pm,
event starts at 9:30pm, $5, 18+
Led by songwriter Carter Tanton, Tulsa's core sound is alternative-country a la Wilco's "Being There," but this is enhanced with gorgeous Fender Rhodes keyboard and heavily echoed guitar reminiscent of Pink Floyd at its pre-"Dark Side of the Moon" trippiest, combined with effective harmony vocals throughout. The group recently released a strong EP called "Hunting With Cats" on the digital-only Park the Van label. Phantom Buffalo are a quintet from Portland, Maine who have been influnced by Neil Young, the Zombies, the Byrds, Belle and Sebastian, Jim Henson, and Star Wars, blending bits of each into their own surreal, melodic and suprisingly danceable songs. Word is that they're working on a new record, which fans are begging to hear as soon as possible.
http://www.parkthevan.com/tulsa/
http://www.myspace.com/phantombuffalo
