After one of the coldest and snowiest April weekends to date, let's hope that this week spring will finally start for real. Here's to spending the weekend sipping a beer al fresco and then hitting one of the many great gigs the city has to offer.
Basta, one of the most popular Russian hip-hop artists of the past decade, will perform on Thursday at an unusual place — the Kremlin Palace, with an unusual accompaniment — a philharmonic orchestra. As Basta's audience becomes older and increasingly gentrified, it seems like a logical step.
Kremlyovsky Dvorets. 1 Ulitsa Vozdvizhenka. Metro Arbatskaya, Biblioteka imeni Lenina. Tickets from 3,000 rubles ($45). Thurs. at 8 p.m.
Naadia will present her new EP album, "Khorosho" (Good), at TsDKh on Thursday. Founded by Nadya Gritskevich, leader of the electro and trip-hop band Moremoney, Naadia has become one of the leading Russian-language indie bands. "Khorosho" consists of three new tracks, which have all the hallmarks of Naadia's familiar indie-pop style with very personal, emotional lyrics and complicated electronic arrangements.
TsDKh (Central Artist's House). 10 Ulitsa Krymsky Val. Metro Oktyabrskaya, Park Kultury. Tickets from 800 rubles ($12). Thurs. at 8 p.m.
A'Studio
After the successful release of her debut electronic album Binasu last month, NV plays another concert with a live band on Friday, this time at 16 Tons. NV is a side-project of Kate Shilonosova, front woman of a popular post-punk band Glintshake. Binasu actually means Venus in Japanese, and sometimes it seems that Shilonosova sings in Japanese, and sometimes in English, but it is actually a made-up language. The album was released on a U.S. record label and received great critical reviews.
16 Tons. 6/1 Ulitsa Presnensky Val. Metro Ulitsa 1905 Goda. Tickets from 500 rubles ($7.50). Fri. at 11 p.m.
On Saturday British duo The KVB will visit Moscow for the second time in less than a year — they played at last year's Outline festival. This time they will present their new album "Of Desire" which mixes post-punk, electro-pop and shoegaze.
16 Tons. 6/1 Ulitsa Presnensky Val. Metro Ulitsa 1905 Goda. Tickets from 900 rubles ($15). Sat. at 11 p.m.
On Sunday indie-rockers from Yekaterinburg Sansara will present their brand new album at Yotaspace. Sansara has been around for more than fifteen years but recently has picked up in popularity. The band's leader Alexander Gagarin's voice sounds a bit like late Viktor Tsoi of Kino fame. There will be guest performers, including OQJAV, Red Samara Automobile Club (side project by one of the band members) and AloeVera.
Yotaspace. 11 Ulitsa Ordzhonikidze. Metro Leninsky Prospekt. Tickets from 300 rubles ($4.50). Sun. at 8 p.m.
Apparently it's the season for pop concerts featuring a philharmonic orchestra. A'Studio, bona fide veterans of Russian pop-scene, will present their new program Symphony'A on Sunday. Almas Serkebayev, an older brother of A'Studio's leader Baygali Serkebayev, worked on the new, classical arrangements for A'Studio hits in this truly family production.
Crocus City Hall. Crocus City, MKAD 65-66 km. Metro Myakinino. Tickets from 1000 rubles ($15). Sun. at 7 p.m.
Contact the author at artsreporter@imedia.ru
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