Provocative and moving, surprising and beautiful, “The Neck is a Bridge to the Body” is Kaki King at her visionary best. A groundbreaking multi-media show like nothing you’ve seen before!
Highland Square’s annual PorchRokr Music and Art Festival transforms the verandas of one of Akron’s most historic and eclectic neighborhoods into one-day art studios and concert venues. Thousands of locals and out-of-towners rock out to some 130 diverse musicians and artists, using both area residences and business establishments as their personal stage. The festival rotates each year among four sections of Highland Square to encourage spontaneous interaction among all its neighbors.
Hailed by Rolling Stone as “a genre unto herself,” composer and guitarist Kaki King is a true iconoclast. Over the past 13 years the Brooklyn-based artist has released 8 extraordinarily diverse and distinctive albums, performed with such icons as Foo Fighters, Timbaland, and The Mountain Goats, contributed to a variety of film and TV soundtracks including Golden Globe-nominated work on Sean Penn’s Into The Wild, and played to an increasingly fervent following of music lovers on innumerable world tours.
Her latest work, “The Neck Is A Bridge To The Body,” is Kaki at her visionary best: deconstructing and redefining the role of solo instrumental artist though virtuoso technique, insatiable imagination, and boundless humanity. This groundbreaking new multi-media performance uses projection mapping to present the guitar as an ontological tabula rasa in a creation myth unlike any other, where luminous visions of Genesis and death, textures, and skins, are cast onto her signature Ovation Adamas guitar which has been customized specifically for this production.
In addition to her own solo work, Kaki sometimes performs accompanied by NYC-based string quartet ETHEL. She has also performed at Carnegie Hall, premiering a classical piece commissioned by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang.
Check out the new song, “Swamp Thing” inspired by Grace Frank’s paper mask.
You can hear this song live and see the mask tonight at 3204 Lorain Gallery for Some Nice People Made Some Nice Things! Come see what local artists Grace Frank, Erin Guido and John Paul Costello have been up to. Uno Lady performance at half time #CAVS
You can win the Swamp Thing mask, an Uno Lady record, and other sweet art through the $5 raffle. Details in post below. See you there!
Most of the songs for this set were crafted just for this show. The performance is part of the exhibit “THEM!, a group showcase centered around music and photography. Artists include Melissa Auf der Maur, Tim Davis, Joseph Desler Costa, Jacob Koestler, Darin Mickey and Nick Zinner. Representing large commercial bands such as Hole, Smashing Pumpkins and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Melissa Auf der Maur and Nick Zinner separate their artistic practice, their photography and music functioning as separate entities.”
– Transformer Station
If you haven’t already, check out Like a Villain (Portland), who also performed that night. It was the first show I have played (in 9 years!) where I was matched with a similar act (she loops operatic vocal). It was mesmerizing.
Next Uno Lady show is this Thursday, November 17 at Happy Dog West.
FUCK RAPE CULTURE : A benefit for the campaign to unseat Judge Aaron Persky. http://www.recallaaronpersky.com/
PERFORMANCES BY: Uno Lady, Blaka Watra, Ouster, & Old Brooklyn
Doors open 8:30 pm/ Bands 9:30 pm/ $8