Tuesday Happenings

Showdowns

We're still shilling for the String Quartet Showdown, an event that we really dug this summer. Two string quartets vie for supremacy as they work their way through the Western canon and you drink beer, judging their every mistake. (Or paying attention only a quarter of the time, as the case may be.) Last time we dropped in, it was heavy on the Schubert and the Mozart; maybe this week will be all Elliott Carter. Alchemist Lounge, 435 S. Huntington Ave., Jamaica Plain, 9 p.m. Free.

Klezmer

Jazz40 is NEC's series of programs commemorating the 40th anniversary of its landmark jazz studies program. Jazz at NEC has always been a catholic affair—embracing a multitude of approaches to the music—and tonight's concert is a good reflection of that tradition. It's an evening of klezmer and world fusion music with glancing relationship to jazz that should nevertheless illuminate the richness of the jazz tradition. Featuring Another Realm and the Michael Winograd Klezmer Trio. Western Front, 343 Western Ave., Cambridge, 7:30 p.m.

New Music

Back on campus, NEC mounts a memorial concert for Arthur Berger, a former faculty member. The program includes Berger's 3 Yeats Songs for soprano, flute, clarinet, violin, and cello; Kati Agócs's Divisions of Heaven and Earth for solo piano; Michael Gandolfi's Harlequin Sketches for solo guitar; John Heiss's Five for Flute and Cello; John Mallia's Vestibules for piano and electronics; and Malcolm Peyton's String Quartet No. 2. Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, 30 Gainsborough St., 8 p.m. Free.

Dancing Hipsters

The Weekly Dig hosts its first JP dance party, featuring DJs Knife, Mistaker, Yes & No, Doc Claw, and lots of tapered jeans. Milky Way Lounge, 284 Amory St., Jamaica Plain, 9 p.m. Free.

Drone

Austin, Texas was the birthplace of psychedelic music, and the Black Angels are a reassuring sign that the genre is still alive down there. Closer to Loop than Spacemen 3, Black Angels evoke the grittier side of shoegazer drone rock—the come-down rather than the trip upward. Playing with the Raveonettes. Paradise Rock Club, 967 Comm. Ave., 8 p.m. $18.