Photo: Kathy Chapman

Cardinals featuring Ryan Adams

One-time Whiskeytown frontman and full-time Ryan Adams will take a break from blogging tonight to bring his massive catalog of songs to the Capital Region. And he’ll be fronting his band of the last several years, Cardinals, which we can assure you is a very good thing—the band’s last regional appearance was a three-hour-long meander through Adams’ repertoire that only got better as it went on. Word has it the band’s new record, Cardinology, is very good (it’s out in October), marking another creative high point in Adams’ maddeningly prolific career.

By the way, this show has been moved from downtown Schenectady to downtown Albany, from Proctors to the Egg. All tickets purchased for the Proctors show will be honored at the Egg.

Cardinals featuring Ryan Adams will perform tonight (Thursday, Sept. 25) at the Egg (Empire State Plaza, Albany). Tickets for the 8:30 PM show are $32.25, and can be reserved through the Egg box office at 473-1845.

Nick Brook: Time and Motion Study

MASS MoCA is renowned for its exploration of the avant-garde, and this Saturday the unconventional will be set in motion with a performance of Time and Motion Study, composer Nick Brook’s latest work-in-progress. The eight-person musical performance piece blends history, dance, sound and technology into a synchronized examination of our daily rituals. Meredith Monk called Time and Motion Study “one of the most innovative and exciting pieces of musical theater I’ve seen in years.”

Frank Gilbreth developed the concept of “time and motion studies” in the 1920s for his ergonomics research on the movements and efficiency of factory workers. Brook’s piece plays with those same themes, evoking the precision of the machine aesthetic and micromanaged routines, its complex soundtrack spun from quotidian sounds and the precise ebb and flow of Muzak, which was originally pumped through factories to increase employee productivity.

Time and Motion Study will be presented with Mass, an earlier work, described by Brook as “half American Idol and half religious service,” teaming “virtuosic singing with hand-to-hand combat.”

You can catch the pairing at MASS MoCA’s Hunter Center (87 Marshall St., North Adams, Mass.) at 8 PM on Saturday (Sept. 27). Tickets are $10, $9 for members, and can be purchased online or by calling (413) 662-2111.

Albany Symphony Orchestra

The ASO will open their 2008-09 season tonight (Thursday) through Saturday with a tripleheader of concerts in Saratoga, Troy and Pittsfield, Mass. The program is Voyages of Exploration, and features the U.S. premiere of Portuguese composer Luis Tinoco’s From the Depth of Distance, which was inspired by “the Portuguese sailors who set off into the unknown in search of new lands and riches.” Soprano Ana Quintans will be featured on this work.

Pianist Peter Serkin will join the ASO for Brahms’ “blockbuster” Piano Concerto No. 1. Also on the bill: Beethoven’s Egmont Overture and Mendelssohn’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage.

Albany Symphony Orchestra will perform tonight (Thursday, Sept. 25) at 7:30 PM at the Canfield Casino (Congress Park, Saratoga Springs); tickets are $30. They will perform tomorrow (Friday, Sept. 26) at 8 PM at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall (2nd and State streets, Troy); tickets are $25-$49. They will perform Saturday (Sept. 27) at 7:30 PM at the Colonial Theatre (111 South St., Pittsfield, Mass.); tickets are $30. For more info, call 465-4755.