Concatenating Pedals presented by Glad Cloud

Concatenating Pedals is a collaborative experiment in music making. The show offers attendees a chance to participate in the creation of a wholly unique piece of abstract music by manipulating guitar pedals placed throughout the room.

The basic concept is simple: musicians’ instruments will be connected, by a string of guitar pedals, to their amplifiers on the other side of the room.

As the musicians improvise, attendees will be free to walk amongst the pedals, twisting dials, sliding faders, and otherwise manipulating the final sound. We hope to create a space charged with an almost palpable electric current of sound.

The show can be seen as a sort of extension of Glad Cloud, a monthly ambient music showcase organized by Ben Mjolsness at The Whistler. Mjolsness assumed the role of curator for this show, hand picking nearly all of the evening’s performers.

The audio from the evening’s performance will be recorded and released as a limited edition cassette tape, the inaugural release from saki records, the store’s new in-house record label.

The show is co-presented by Glad Cloud and begins at 8pm, Saturday June 30. As with everything at saki, the event is totally free, all ages, and BYOB.

Lineup information is as follows:

Tim Kinsella (Joan of Arc, Owls, Make Believe, Cap'n Jazz)
Jonathan Krohn (Male)
Jordan Martins (The Plastic Council)
Todd Mattei (Joan of Arc, Male, Litesalive)
Ben Mjolsness (Male, Mass Shivers)
Dan Mohr (Dhalgren, DRMWPN)
Jason Shanley (Cinchel)
Sam Wagster (The Father Costume, Dhalgren, The Fruit Bats)
...and of course, YOU!

Plus more to be announced!

Predictive Gaming For Substandard Films

Predictive Gaming for Substandard Filmsis an evening of entertainment that incorporates game show elements into a screening of a "so-bad-it's-good" style movie. Halfway between Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Scene It!, Predictive Gaming invites movie fans to place bets on the plot of a campy B-movie throughout the screening in hopes to take home fabulous prizes - like Schubas, Lincoln Hall & Metro guest list spots & saki gift certificates! So as to prevent precocious predictors from premeditating their prizewinning, the film being screened will not be announced in advance, but bad movie fans (and game show enthusiasts) must trust that saki has dug up a real winner!

Predictive Gaming for Substandard Films, the bad movie game show, is Friday, January 20th at
8pm at saki. RSVP on the book of faces if you wanna be social about it...! As with all our events, Predictive Gaming is FREE & BYOB if you've got your ID.

Christmas Mansion Fun Times!

We'd love to give you our own version of how the saki After Hours Holiday Programme went, but the slideshow on the TimeOut Chicago website reminds us that a picture is worth a thousand words. So take a look at a few thousand words.

saki After Hours: Christmas Mansion!

saki is proud to announce the latest in its After Hours series: A Christmas Mansion Holiday Party. The time when all is bright, merry, and joyous, when movies and television remind us of the true meaning of the season. And we all warm a little in our hearts even as the biting freeze of a winter's day relentlessly attacks us like falling icicles from a shaken tree. On Saturday, December 17th, you can add one more bringer-of-good-tidings to that list of nostalgia driven entertainment when you come to enjoy saki's Christmas Mansion Party with performances by Ami Saraiya & the Outcome and Bob Dey's Tank Engine Man. If ever you wished that life could be more like it is in the movies, let us be your Christmas Genie. Below is a list of exactly what you won't want to miss.

The Party:

- sweater contest

- egg nog, snacks, other tastes of the season

- cookie exchange (bring your own cookies and share with others)

- Christmas Freak Out Room (you'l have to come here and find out)

- sing alongs

- games and other small forms of entertainment

The Performances:

Ami Saraiya and the Outcome will be performing for the release of a brand new record on that day, just in time for Christmas!

Bob Dey's Tank Engine Man will, of course, make their customary After Hours appearance. However, they are currently holed up in the DC/DI Department of Records and Record Keeping working on their own recordings and will be beaming in via "in person" with a Special Christmas Message.

Be sure to RSVP on facebook!

Success! Halloween Carnival

Thanks to everyone who came and everyone who helped with the saki After Hours Halloween Carnival on Oct. 29th. If it was anything, it was a blast.

Well done to all, and all to well done.

Concatenating Pedals (September 2)

Our first saki After Hours show was a complete success!
After performances by Bigcolour and Bob Dey's Tank Engine Man, the night turned into a beautiful sound freak out as things became interactive.

Amps were set up on one side of the room, the musicians playing through them on the other. Connecting the two were linked series of guitar pedals which were manipulated by the audience. The interactive portion lasted for 42 minutes, all completely improvised (you'll believe it when you hear it!) Take a look at the video for a peek at what it was like.

Also, download a recording of the entire performance here.

saki After Hours: Concatenating Pedals from Bob Dey's Tank Engine Man on Vimeo.