In the new issue of Philadelphia Weekly…
Little Worlds
Sat., July 7, 8pm. $5. With The Horrible Department. Highwire Gallery, 2040 Frankford Ave. 215.426.2685 www.museumfire.com/events
Guitarist Ryan Mackstaller, trombonist Rick Parker and drummer Tim Kuhl are the Brooklyn-based Little Worlds, and they’re making a series of EPs focusing on Béla Bartók’s Mikrokosmos. (Book Two is out soon.) Composed for piano as a teaching tool, Mikrokosmos is no mere exercise: it stands up as a 153-part masterpiece, comparable in some ways to Bach’s Goldberg Variations, with section titles like “Triplets in Lydian Mode” and “Two Major Pentachords.” Little Worlds expands the palette for three instruments plus electronics, recasting Bartók in a distinctly noir-ish experimental vein and drawing on jazz/classical precedents that go back decades. West Philly’s The Horrible Department, a theatrical, accordion-fueled troupe, shares the bill. — David R. Adler
Furthur
Sat., July 7, 7:30pm. $34.50-$59.50. Mann Center, 5201 Parkside Ave. 215.546.7900 www.manncenter.org
Given that late-era Grateful Dead was a rickety, frequently out-of-tune machine, Furthur (named after a legendary Ken Kesey tour bus) is arguably a better representation of the band and its legacy. Founding icons Phil Lesh and Bob Weir, plus newer recruits, have found a way to keep the Dead’s repertoire afloat, and why not. Say what you will about the late Jerry Garcia and his tie-dyed minions, but the Dead is a piece of cultural history, the musical link between hippiedom and the earlier Beat Generation. Their epic, country-jazzy improv spawned an entire genre, and they’ve still got something a lot of “jam bands” lack: songwriting genius. — David R. Adler
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