Thursday Happenings

Image of Acid Mothers Temple from Myspace.

The NEC Wind Ensemble is a breath of fresh, well, something. Directed by Charles Peltz, the ensemble performs the best new compositions for wind instruments, an overlooked bunch. Tonight, it performs NEC undergrad Kathryn Salfelder's Cathedrals (2008) along with work from William Alwyn and Louis Andriessen. William Drury's NEC Jordan Winds supplements the evening with performances of work by Charles Ives and James Stephenson. Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, 30 Gainsborough St., 8 p.m. Free.

Japanese Psychedelia

Acid Mothers Temple has almost supplanted the Boredoms as a generic metonym for weird Japanese music. Kawabata Makoto's psych rock outfit is just as unpredictable. It might begin a completely free form guitar meltdown or a thoroughly composed motorik krautrock exercise—sometimes the moniker of the particular Acid Mothers Temple group will give you a clue. But it just as often will not. All that we can guarantee is that your face will melt off by the end of the night. Performing with Sonic Suicide Squad. Middle East Upstairs, 472 Mass. Ave., Cambridge, 9 p.m. $12.

Lectures

Vik Muniz, he of the peanut butter and jelly Mona Lisas, presents the MFA's Shapiro Celebrity Lecture to discuss how he turns sandwich spreads and dust into art. Remis Auditorium, Museum of Fine Arts, 6:30 p.m. $35/$28.