KNISHMAS! It doesn’t have to be a ’silent night’ for us. Once again we groove into the night with the alternative to xmas eve alternatives.

This year we welcome back the jams of Even Sh’siyah, who infuse the southern rock grooves ala Allman Brothers with Jewish flavor for a heady groove. Their third self-release album, Wake Up, dropped this year. Joining us for the first time is Brooklyn’s RavShmuel, a Rosh Yeshiva by day and beer-drinking, Phish-following singer/songwriter by night. His single “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” became a youtube sensation following the release of his debut album, “Protocols,’ on Sony/JMG.

And as a special treat, several local singer/songwriters will perform original Jewy tunes, including Alan Sufrin, Miriam Brosseau, Moshe Averick, Evan Jacover, Rachel Kohl Feingold and Adam Davis.

Even Sh’siyah
Shir Hamaalos
Yemenite Fever
Hallelu
Hisoreri

RavShmuel
I’m in Love
Dumb World

“The bastard love child Tenacious D and Fiddler on the Roof never had.” – SEATTLE STRANGER

“Part of a new breed of Jewish hipster comedy that includes Jon Stewart, Sacha Baron Cohen, Sarah Silverman and Heeb Magazine.” – PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS

JEWMONGOUS is a solo comedy song concert with occasional guests, is the colicky, uncircumcised brain child of SEAN ALTMAN: the golden-voiced, song-writing wiz behind the pioneering comedy song act What I Like About Jew and the founder and former leader of the vocal group Rockapella. Sean was featured in Time Out New York’s cover story “The New Super Jews,” (with Jon Stewart and Sarah Silverman) and in the New York Times feature about “the Jewish Hipster Movement.” He debuted JEWMONGOUS in 2006 and has garnered press accolades coast to coast (see them below).

JEWMONGOUS’ debut album Taller Than Jesus will be released on Christmas Day 2007 (to give Jews something to celebrate that day) but is already available exclusively at http://jewmongous.com. The Taller Than Jesus CD release tour hits 16 cities in December 2007. All faiths welcome, even the faithless.

Tickets are $15 in advance, $18 door, $10 students. 18+ show.
Beat Kitchen, 2100 W. Belmont, Chicago Map it

They Tried to Kill Us
Blow Murry Blow
Simchas Torah
Long Tongue Shloime
Be My Little Shabbos Goy
Today I Am A Man
Taller Than Jesus

Mekhaye
Balkan Espanol
Skrip Klezmerl

Contrary to popular belief, Golem is neither a towering Jewish Frankenstein who defended the Jews of 17th Century Prague, nor a creature from Lord of the Rings. Golem is a 6 piece Eastern European folk-punk band.Golem’s JDub debut, FRESH OFF BOAT, is available now. Produced by Emery Dobyns (Patti Smith, Antony and the Johnsons, the Battles) and featuring Mike Gordon of Phish, Amanda Palmer of The Dresden Dolls, and Lenny Kaye of Patti Smith’s band!

“Stellar! A wild edgy approach with a reverance for Old World tradition.” New Yorker Magazine
“Golem produces the sort of music you’d expect if the shtetl were filled with punks instead of peasants.” Washington Post
“This is not your father’s klezmer band…unless of course Sid Vicious was your father…” NY Jewish Week

Aharit
Areut Yehuda
Ein Yeush
Yerushalayim
Lo Lefached

Aharit HaYamim is an Israeli reggae and world-beat sensation whose groove is rooted in love of Zion they share with their Rastafarian brethren. They proclaim love for “Yerushalayim” and “Holy Mount Zion” in tight harmonies layered over thumping basslines. Their music has attracted mixed multitude of followers, comprised of rastafarians, jam band fans, Phisheads, dissillusioned children of Oslo and Haredi Hilltop youth.

“Aharit Hayamim is here to wake you up and spread the message of unity, love and Israel,” says the band. Wearing brightly colored, home-sewn, hemp clothing with tzitzit, Aharit HaYamim delivers a heady musical mix perfect for party people or spiritual seekers.

“Lush instruments flow through the songs with clarinets, flutes, mandolins and more exotic instruments making appearances… Jamaican icon Bob Marley’s musical and philosophical themes also show up in the band’s repertoire – albeit with a Jewish twist.” Israel National Radio

• Rabbinical School Dropouts
  The California big band known as the RABBINICAL SCHOOL DROPOUTS actually does seem to play at a lot of weddings and bar mitzvahs, which is hard to square with their sound. Recalling Zappa at his giddiest and least scatological, the Dropouts seem to have developed a klezmerist form of Sun Ra worship, decked out in kabbalah references and bad Yiddish puns. Vehicles Behind Comets (Ethnic Warrior), released last year, takes their irreverent Semitic space fusion well past the asteroid belt: it’s Exodus as Star Trek, with manna in the form of Guru Guru records. No matter how many metaphors I pile up, though, they won’t capture the band’s exuberant energy, heard clearly in both the dizzy instrumental pivoting of “Yeshiva School Fallout” (at five and a half minutes, it’s the longest song here; they’re jumpy spacey, not epic spacey) and the gusty grace of “Anne Frank’s Ghost.”Opening tonight’s show (presented by KFAR Jewish Arts Center) is LAMAJAMAL, a bunch of locals working a so-called Gypsy-surf style that sometimes feels like they learned it back in the old country—Generistan. But when they’re on, they’re on, arriving at a fuzzy, garagey take on Roma music thanks to a knack for sexy, serpentine grooves and a mean, mean oud player.
  - Monica Kendrick
  7 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, or , $15, $12 in advance.

The show leads off with a tribute on the legendary Nusrat Fateh Ali Kahn with appearances by Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder and others. Those familiar with the Renewal movement’s melody for “Kol Neshama Te’hallelya” will recognize the melody in this broadcast as his “Allahu.” It also features “Dung Gate” by Rabbinical School Dropouts who appear @ Empty Bottle Aug 19 with lamajaml for a musical way forward from last year’s Lebanon War, and a special shoutout to KFAR Jewish Arts Center for its work. The show playlist and segment breakdown is here.

The Rabbinical School Dropouts are Sun Ra, the Hampton Grease Band, Frank Zappa and the Klezmatics all rolled into one. The music of the Friedmann brothers is fresh, imaginative and the future of Klezmer music. Their big band (featuring oboe, mandolin, bassoon, theremin, toy piano, tablas, etc.) storms through a dozen creative originals touching upon klezmer, jazz, funk, Latin, rock, and varied mishegoss along the way. Jewish garage jazz with a sick sense of humor from Long Beach, California. It’s been called Esoteric Space Klezmer, but mostly its just wild musical fun. With special guests, Lamajamal.

Hermitco
Digital Monkey
Bulgarian Chix
Balkan Beat Box performs an inspired madness that crosses multi-cultural circus with non-stop dance party. Its full horns, dj beats, throbbing basslines and percussion come together for a surreal atmosphre that’s part Gypsy caravan, part performance-art collective. Blending electronic music with hard-edged folk music from the Balkans, North Africa, and the Middle East, the exciting and internationally acclaimed collective Balkan Beat Box is out to prove that all the world is indeed a stage — and that we are all gypsies.

Equally influenced by Boban Markovic, Rachid Taha, and Fanfare Ciocarlia as well as Manu Chao and Charlie Parker, Balkan Beat Box presents a wild mixture of styles and sounds on their self titled debut which the Denver Post called “An Eastern Bloc party turned to 11 at 4:30 a.m. – only live and with musicians hailing from Turkey, Israel, Morocco, Bulgaria and Spain.” A band of New Yorkers, Israelis, Africans and Bulgarians, led by ex-Gogol Bordello member Ori Kaplan and Firewater/Big Lazy’s Tamir Muskat, BBB brings together folk traditions with electronic beats, video projections, and a rotating cast of vocalists including the Victoria Hannah, Tomer Yosef, Buglarian Chicks, Jeremiah Lockwood, and gnawa player Hassan Ben Jaffar. Hear them WBEZ’s Radio M:

Ehad
Elokeinu
Merciful One

“World Fusion Beat Scientists” Zohar are led by composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Erran Baron Cohen, whose credits also include the popular Borat movie sountrack, which starred his brother Sacha. ZOHAR weave together the beats and textures of modern club culture with hareem, hip-hop, electronica, dub and future grooves. It is a deconstruction of past, present and future, spanning Jewish Cantors, Arab Muezzins, Byzantine chants, meets today’s modern jazz and experimental musicians. Their approach is resolutely experimental and uncompromising with an instinctive feel for lush cinematic arrangements and intelligent melodies. Their acclaimed debut, One.Three.Seven. was produced by Miles Copeland’s Ark 21 label.

Please Note: HotHouse is closing its Balbo location at the end of July. This event will NOT be effected by this unfortunate turn of events. Join us on one of that last concerts to be held at this venue!