(Poster designed by Robert Beatty)
UPDATE FRIDAY 9/19: Due to an emergency, YLEM will not be able to perform this evening.
The Other Side of Life is proud to present:
The 20th Anniversary of
CHIKAMORACHI (Chris Corsano and Darin Gray)
in their ONLY North American Duo Performance!
with special guests
DANE WATERS & STEVE GOOD
and
YLEM
Friday September 19th at Art Sanctuary (back room)
1433 S. Shelby Street
Louisville, KY 40217 USA
$15 advance tickets, $20 day of show
Advance tickets available online at Art Sanctuary;
Physical tickets on sale Friday September 5th for in-person purchase at Surface Noise (cash only), 600 Baxter Avenue, Louisville KY 40204. Surface Noise is open 12 to 6 PM every day except Tuesdays.
7:00 PM doors
8:00 PM music
“The rhythm team of Darin Gray & Chris Corsano is especially incredible, ever-engaging, consistently creative and supportive.” – Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
“…arguably the most riotously energetic and creative drummer in contemporary free jazz” – The Wire
“One of the world’s great drummers.” –The Guardian
Since 2005 DARIN GRAY (upright bass) and CHRIS CORSANO (drums, percussion) have performed side by side as CHIKAMORACHI. Working either in a trio with Japanese saxophonist Akira Sakata or in expanded line-ups with the likes of Japan-based American producer/engineer and multi-instrumentalist Jim O’Rourke, dancer and actor Min Tanaka, Masami Akita (aka Merzbow), guitarist/vocalist Keiji Haino (Fushitsusha), koto player and vocalist Michiyo Yagi, and jazz pianist Masahiko Satoh, they’ve released six albums to date under the CHIKAMORACHI moniker, including 2011’s And That’s the Story of Jazz double CD (with Akira Sakata & Jim O’Rourke), 2015’s Flying Basket (with Akira Sakata, Jim O’Rourke, and Merzbow), and Live at Hungry Brain LP (with Akira Sakata). Neither member is a stranger to the possibilities afforded when the melodic, harmonic and rhythmic duties are left to an upright bass and drum duo. Their September 19th performance in Louisville will be their only North American appearance as CHIKAMORACHI, after taking part in the SOUND AND GRAVITY FESTIVAL in Chicago, IL on Thursday, September 11th as part of the SACCATA QUARTET with Wilco bandmates guitarist Nels Cline and drummer Glenn Kotche.
DARIN GRAY is best known as Jim O’Rourke’s go-to bassist for nearly 20 years, as half of the duo On Fillmore with Wilco‘s Glenn Kotche, and as the bassist for groups Grand Ulena, Dazzling Killmen, and Brise-Glace and many others. As an improviser he has performed and recorded with (among others): Loren Connors, Joshua Abrams, Jason Roebke, Axel Dorner, Kevin Drumm, Alan Licht, and Jim O’Rourke. As a session bassist he has played on recordings by Louisville’s Will Oldham, as well as Cheer-Accident, Bobby Conn, Early Day Miners, and Jim O’Rourke, among others. He has toured extensively around the world with Mavis Staples, Tweedy, Daniel Johnston, and William Tyler. He currently resides in Finland.
CHRIS CORSANO has been active at the intersections of collective improvisation, free jazz, avant-rock, and experimental music since the late 1990’s. He’s been the rim-batterer of choice for some of the greatest contemporary purveyors of “jazz” (Joe McPhee, Paul Flaherty, Mette Rasmussen, Zoh Amba) and “rock” (Sir Richard Bishop, Bill Orcutt, Jim O’Rourke), as well as artists beyond categorization (Björk, Michael Flower, Okkyung Lee, Ghédalia Tazartès, Merzbow).
CHIKAMORACHI last played Louisville at the Nachbar in January 2012, part of which you can watch here:
Supporting CHIKAMORACHI will be Louisville musicians STEVE GOOD (saxophones, clarinet) and DANE WATERS (keyboards, voice). A vital natural resource in the Louisville music scene for multiple decades, Steve Good‘s musical vocabulary orbits lightly through a vast expansive local history: doing time with The Web, E-Or, Juanita, Ut Gret, Sapat, Crappy Nightmareville, Parlour, The Liberation Prophecy and many, many others. He has documented via audio recording many thousands of local shows. Slint played in his basement, he recorded the first Will Oldham single, he ran sound and documented the weekly experimental music series at Artswatch through the 1990s, and yes, he shared a stage in Switzerland with Donovan back in the 1970s. Dane Waters is one of Louisville’s brightest musical talents. As a solo performer as well as member of Softcheque, Sapat, and The Phantom Family Halo, she displays an impeccable melodic sensibility, and has a voice so wonderfully haunting, it sends chills down your spine. Her most recent releases are available on Bandcamp as well as finer Louisville record stores.
Opening the show, YLEM is the Louisville-based trio of Chris Martin-Leidner, Dustin Marcum, and Eunoia Close. Their self-titled album was recorded by Jim Marlowe (Equipment Pointed Ankh, Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band) at End of an Ear in Louisville and was released in March, 2025.
Special thanks to Kris Abplanalp.
Live music events in Louisville, KY. Show announcements, music and news, and other ephemera at: https://bsky.app/profile/theothersideoflife.bsky.social.
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