A very rare convergence
Something you’ll only hear once: a choice improv trio featuring Tom Carter. He made a seven-song cycle of solo guitar work in one take, with no overdubs, called Long Time Underground to punctuate a series. That closer testified to the endless possibilities of the guitar as a tool and led Pitchfork’s best experimental albums of 2015 list. Carter’s path through this area is crossing with that of avant-/free jazz artist Damon Smith; Dallas drummer Stefan Gonzales joins them at Top Ten Records Wednesday for a special improv set. They play at 7 p.m. Donations for the traveling musicians are encouraged. More info here.
Lunch breaks and happy hours
The Dallas Contemporary is open from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Use that soft hour in the workday or just after, if you have it, to see not one but three shows there through December 17. Jennifer Smart found language for women’s lives in Kiki Smith‘s maze of stained-glass panels called “Pilgrim” as part of Mortal; Enrique Echavarria connected with Japanese collective Chim↑Pom and the group’s sorting-out of Hiroshima’s inheritance. The third is I’ve Seen The Future And I’m Not Going, an exhibition featuring artists David McDermott and Peter McGough, who reference the aesthetics of historical recognition while exploring themes of homoeroticism and sexuality.
Less-true crime podcasts, live
Welcome To Night Vale picks up the tone of deep night slots on low-power FMs in barren lands but doesn’t quite edge into the same adventurous territories in form. A trip to the so-named fictional desert town is enough for listeners who enjoy Night Vale‘s mysterious narratives. In a homecoming for co-creator Jeffrey Cranor who grew up in Dallas and studied journalism at Texas A&M, the show visits The Majestic on Wednesday. Doors at 7 p.m.; tickets here. /// LORE is a nonfiction podcast obsessed with grim folktales, a place-based history series for philosophical thinkers attracted to danger — through the glass of time and fiction, at least. Aaron Mahnke saw his creation launch as a TV show on Amazon in October with an interactive haunted house to mark its beginning. A live production is at Texas Theatre Thursday at 8 p.m. Find tickets here.
Pop music
Each Sunday should be the last Sunday during which standing in full sun without a jacket is so easy to do. And yet, another one comes. Perhaps that’s why the guitar-driven power-pop and restfully complete, simple poetry of acts like Charley Bliss and Waxahatchee feel so new and right again. Chart Aussie Alex Lahey‘s music somewhere in that echo of summer’s resolve with lines like fuck work, you’re here, every day’s the weekend. She’s at Club Dada on Wednesday at 8 p.m. Find tickets here. Also at Club Dada, on Thursday: the grand-scaled electronica of recent London Contemporary Orchestra collaborator Actress, with Telefon Tel Aviv (former Nine Inch Nails touring member Josh Eustis) supporting. More tickets. If you’ve got just one night for fare under this subhead, make it to Trees on Wednesday to see violinist and soundscaper Kishi Bashi. 8 p.m.
