This is a weekly overview live avant performances in the Chicago area. Contact us if you’d like your shows listed.

Sunday, January 7th 2018

7:00PM at the New Heartland Café Bar, 7000 N Glenwood, 773.465.8005 ($5)
Jimmy Bennington Colour and Sound, with Fred Jackson, Artie Black, Dustin Laurenzi, Mike Harmon

8:30PM at Constellation, 3111 N Western ($10)
Dal Niente presents: Holes and Tunnels
Mabel Kwan, Jesse Langen, Tom Snydacker, Eric Derr, Fred Gifford — music by Fredrick Gifford, Michelle Lou, Sivan Cohen-Elias

9:00PM at the Hungry Brain, 2319 W Belmont ($10 suggested donation) (wheelchair-accessible)
Jason Stein, Greg Ward, Eric Revis, Jim Black

Monday, January 8th 2018

9:00PM at Beat Kitchen, 2100 W Belmont, 773.281.4444 (wheelchair-accessible)
Extraordinary Popular Delusions : Jim Baker, Edward Wilkerson Jr, Brian Sandstrom, Steve Hunt

Wednesday, January 10th 2018

8:30PM at Constellation, 3111 N Western ($10)
Dark Matter String Band : James Sanders, Christian Dillingham, Matt Gold, Avreeayl Ra

Thursday, January 11th 2018

9:00PM at Elastic, 3429 W Diversey, #208, 773.772.3616
Josh Berman, Keefe Jackson
Dan Phillips, Krystof Pabian, Tim Daisy

Friday, January 12th 2018

8:30PM at the Hungry Brain, 2319 W Belmont ($10) (wheelchair-accessible)
SNAKETIME: The Music of Moondog
Nick Mazzarella, Jason Stein, Quentin Coaxum, Dustin Laurenzi, Dave Miller, Matt Ulery, Quin Kirchner- drums/percussion, Ryan Packard

Saturday, January 13th 2018

8:00PM at Sugar Maple, 441 E Lincoln Ave, Milwaukee WI, 414.481.2393
Hassles : Terrie Ex, Ken Vandermark, Norwegian musicians

For more information, such as directions, as well as upcoming performances, see:

http://now-is.org/, http://www.ratchetmusic.com, http://www.mcachicago.org, http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/chicago_culturalcenterschedule.html, http://www.skylarkchicago.com, http://www.hideoutchicago.com, http://www.elasticrevolution.com, http://www.myopicbookstore.com/music.html, http://www.lampo.org, http://dalniente.com, http://iceorg.org/events/category/chicago, http://www.emptybottle.com/

From The New York Times.

CONTACT! at National Sawdust (Jan. 8, 7:30 p.m.). The New York Philharmonic’s new music series, saved from the chopping block last season, always offers valuable helpings of contemporary works for chamber forces and small ensembles. This program is a particularly timely one amid widespread and justified outrage about gender inequity. It focuses on a fine set of female composers: Du Yun, Ashley Fure, Fernanda Aoki Navarro, Sarah Kirkland Snider and Anna Thorvaldsdottir.
212-875-5656, nyphil.org

‘ACQUANETTA’ at Gelsey Kirkland Arts Center (Jan. 9, 7:30 p.m., through Jan. 14). Inspired by cult horror films, Michael Gordon’s one-act opera (with a libretto by Deborah Artman and directed by Daniel Fish) ends up a reflection on identity and acting. It is a highlight of this year’s Prototype festival of new music theater, which runs through Jan. 20 at a variety of locations and includes a characteristically bold and broad range of styles.
prototypefestival.org

ROOMFUL OF TEETH at Zankel Hall (Jan. 11, 7:30 p.m.). This intrepid vocal ensemble, whose repertoire of clicks, hisses, yodels and pitch-bends borrows from styles that span the globe, includes here the shining, endlessly resourceful work that has become its standard, its “Born to Run” or “Let It Be”: “Partita for Eight Voices,” which won Caroline Shaw, a group member, the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2013. The program is rounded out by premieres of pieces by two young artists from the jazz tradition: the trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and the pianist Tigran Hamasyan.
212-247-7800, carnegiehall.org

From: The New York Times.

VIJAY IYER SEXTET at Birdland (Jan. 9-13, 8:30 and 11 p.m.). Mr. Iyer’s sextet was one of the most discussed stories in creative music last year, when it released a stalwart debut album, “Far From Over.” The group plays this pianist’s compositions, which cut and weave while maintaining solid structures, and build much of their energy around the jagged interplay of the three-horn front line. The sextet appears here with the lineup from the album: Graham Haynes on cornet, flugelhorn and electronics; Steve Lehman on alto saxophone; Mark Shim on tenor saxophone; Stephan Crump on bass; and Tyshawn Sorey on drums. (Marcus Gilmore takes Mr. Sorey’s place on Jan. 12 and 13.)

AMIRTHA KIDAMBI AND SAM NEWSOME/JAMES BRANDON LEWIS AND ARUAN ORTIZ at the Clemente (Jan. 9, 7 p.m.). The vocalist Amirtha Kidambi, who frequently doubles on harmonium, takes a holistic approach to singing, which can mean treating every element as unfixed: Words can be opened up, rendered nonspecific. Melody can be repeated and frozen and stuck in place. Markings of rhythm can become utterly abstract, freed from cadence. She appears here in duo with Sam Newsome, a soprano saxophonist whose solo performances often deconstruct the workings of his own instrument in a similar way. Earlier in the evening, the tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis and the pianist Aruan Ortiz — both prodigious experimenters — will also play in a duo. This concert is part of Arts for Art’s monthlong “Justice Is Compassion, Action Is Power” festival, which ends later in the week. artsforart.org/evolving

Source: dirkserries.com.

COLIN WEBSTER/DIRK SERRIES
12/01/18 – water into beer, london – uk

TONUS ENSEMBLE
13/01/18 – hundred years gallery, london – uk

DST TRIO + KRIS VANDERSTRAETEN
19/01/18 – oratorienhof, leuven – belgium

KODIAN TRIO
08/02/18 – zaal 100, amsterdam – the netherlands
09/02/18 – koffie & ambacht, rotterdam – the netherlands
10/02/18 – het bos, antwerpen – belgium
11/02/18 – parazzar, brugge – belgium