Last Chance

It's a meeting of two of the most influential regional collectives in free jazz history — both born of the relatively barren Midwest — when these two join forces. DJs Emynd and Bo Bliz, curators of high-energy year-themed parties, will be packing the club and playing all hip-hop and pop hits from 1989. As dubsteppers go, 20-year-old Liam McLean (aka Bristol producer Joker) seems nearly as focused on sparking dancefloors as he is on inducing woozy, head-nodding hypnosis. If you've slept on N'dambi, it's time to wake up. Ars Nova Workshop's Composer Portrait concerts have been illuminating experiences, emphasizing the vision of some of modern jazz's greatest figures.
As we inch into the frostier months, it's an apt time for the glacial, richly enveloping abstract drone music that Montrealer Tim Hecker has made his stock-in-trade for nearly a decade now.

Philadelphia's loss may have been Montreal's gain, but locally born Adam Gopnik writes as if he never left. The title says it all. Puppets? Fucking creepy. Even when Giuseppe Verdi was not directly adopting Shakespeare for the operatic stage, his work was Shakespearean in dramatic depth and characterization. It's the grit and grunge of city life that intrigue Jim Brossy.
The Ukrainians are coming, and in full force — all stamping, jumping and playing musical instruments at the Kimmel.