Mon, Dec 12 - 8pm - $7

The Gabriel Construct is the avant-prog brainchild of Gabriel Lucas Riccio, a vocalist, composer, and instrumentalist from Salisbury, MD. His debut album, 'Interior City', is a dark and atmospheric concept album featuring Travis Orbin (Darkest Hour, ex-Periphery, Of Legends) on drums, Thomas Murphy (ex-Periphery) on bass, David Stivelman (ex-Debbie Does Dallas) on guitar, Soren Larson on saxophone, and frequent collaborator Sophia Uddin on violin. The album unites players from rock, metal, classical, and jazz backgrounds to create a sound which incorporates influences from a wide variety of genres, including progressive rock, 20th century classical music, extreme metal, drum-n-bass, jazz, '90s grunge and space rock, '80s pop and more. The album's densely layered vocal harmonies, distorted pianos, dissonant chords, and complex rhythms envelop the listener in a hallucinatory wall of sound.  Gabriel currently resides in Chicago, IL, where he’s been working on sheet music books for King Crimson (including the recently released book for Tony Levin's Stick Men) and performing live with The Gabriel Construct and Pavlov3.

 The Phantom Broadcast is an alternative rock group from Chicago, IL (formerly Urbana, IL) stemming from multi-instrumentalist Evan Opitz.  We aim to create music that pushes the boundaries of Indie Rock and Pop music with the influence of Folk, Jazz, and Classical elements. The result yields instrumentation atypical to rock music, lively improvisation expanding from shorter recorded versions of the songs, and a new approach to the performance of each song every time it is played. Our influences range from Radiohead and Fleet Foxes to Miles Davis and Claude Debussy.  Over the past 5 years we have released two full-lengths (Orphic Hymns, Until Next Time) and one ep (Sublimation Love) as a full band. We are currently finishing up our most recent Self-Titled record which we tracked at Earth Analog Studio by Colin Althaus (Tara Terra) and mastered by Rick Fritz (Audiotree). With our new music in hand we plan on taking over the midwest circuit.  Over the last few years, we have performed at virtually almost every venue in Champaign/Urbana including The Accord, The Canopy Club, Cowboy Monkey, Mike N Molly's (RIP), Exile on Main St. (Record Store Day), Thee Deathtower, and more. In addition, we have played scattered shows all over the midwest including Chicago, Gurnee, Willow Springs, etc.

 Conflux's style can be roughly defined as contrapuntal jazz-metal. Their music coalesces meticulous classical composition, loose jazz improvisation, and raw heavy metal brutality into a deeply sophisticated but widely accessible sound. With a broad range of appeal, the quartet consistently challenges the notion that "art" and "entertainment" are two separate entities, producing songs that are just as groovy as they are cerebral.