MUSIC

FUNKSS EP RELEASE

KINGS, RALEIGH | SATURDAY, NOV. 8

In September, I sat down with Jake Funke, the young musician who goes by the name Funkss, for an afternoon beer to talk about the small but very potent cache of electronic artists he’s helped helm in Raleigh. When I asked him when his debut EP might finally arrive, he hesitated: “It was supposed to be out in August. That’s the part I don’t really know that much about, so I rely on my friends for help.” He must be a fast learner: Funkss’ six-track release Radon arrives tonight, and it’s excellent. Spinning between deep, dodgy dubstep (“Taste”) and halcyon handclap-and-piano bliss (“Wheels”), with stops for slow-motion electro and collected footwork along the way, the 22-minute set feels both animated and articulated. It’s the work of someone equally accustomed to conducting late-night-out dance floors as a DJ and late-night-in beat-making benders as a producer. With Doom Asylum, Nick James and Raphael. 10 p.m., $5, 14 W. Martin St., 919-833-1091, kingsbarcade.com. Grayson Haver Currin

N.C. OPERA’s TRISTAN AND ISOLDE

MEYMANDI CONCERT HALL, RALEIGH | SUNDAY, NOV. 9

In the opera Tristan and Isolde, Wagner wanted to transcend the idea of mere love story. He took the affair of the princess and the nobleman who kills her lover and steals her heart to a metaphysical level; here, love creates and destroys the world. Wagner left the third and final part of his massive Ring Cycle unfinished for five years to build this piece, whose Symbolist libretto and score helped inspire the tonal innovations of 20th century composers such as Schoenberg and Mahler.

The N.C. Opera presents the prelude and second act in concert. The Grammy Award-winning Jay Hunter Morris, who performed the whole four-opera epic Ring Cycle at the Metropolitan Opera, takes Tristan. Heidi Melton, who stole the show as the Foreign Princess in N.C. Opera’s Rusalka last year, is Isolde. Maestro Timothy Myers conducts the 80-piece N.C. Opera Orchestra. 3 p.m. $25.43-$85.38, 2 E. South St., 919-792-3850, ncopera.org. Chris Vitiello

THE PINHOOK’S SIXTH ANNIVERSARY WITH EX HEX & SPEEDY ORTIZ

THE PINHOOK, DURHAM | FRIDAY, NOV. 7

In the six years since it opened, The Pinhook has grown to become one of the state’s best venues, and not just because its calendar presents an excellent mix of top-notch locals and emerging international acts. What’s more, co-founder Kym Register has worked to ensure that the bar is also a community space, where everyoneregardless of race, gender identity, genre or any other distinctionfeels welcome. In addition to bands, The Pinhook regularly hosts benefit dance parties and drag shows and the like, building its calendar so that alternatives are part of the norm.

For this anniversary-celebrating show, Pinhook alums Ex Hex and Speedy Ortiz split the bill. Rips, the Merge debut of Ex Hex, offers no false advertising: The 35-minute romp is energetic and upbeat, offering refreshing takes on breakups and lives of little regret. Speedy Ortiz complements with less bold but equally excellent rock ‘n’ roll. Des Ark, a veteran of The Pinhook’s stage, opens. 10 p.m., $12–$14, 117 W. Main St., 919-667-1100, www.thepinhook.com. Allison Hussey

MUSIC & THEATER

CURLEW RIVER

UNC’S MEMORIAL HALL, CHAPEL HILL

THURSDAY, NOV. 6–FRIDAY, NOV. 7

Noh is an ancient form of Japanese theater involving actors, musicians and dancersall men, even in female roles. Folkloric gods and heroes shimmer to life through masks, props and languid, poetic gestures. The plays stretch out all day, gradually immersing viewers in a different order of time. Benjamin Britten, the mid-20th-century composer of Peter Grimes and Billy Budd, saw Sumidagawa in Japan and absorbed it into the slow, intense opera Curlew River with librettist William Plomer. It blends the ritualistic air of Noh, and some of the staging, with Britten’s abiding interest in the psychology of outcasts. As a Madwoman looking for her lost son, tenor Ian Bostridge leads a fine British cast, accompanied by the Britten Sinfonia and Britten Sinfonia Voices. The show is traditionally performed in church pew aisles that represent a boat (A Parable for Church Performance is the subtitle). The producers, which include Carolina Performing Arts, London’s Barbican Centre, New York’s Lincoln Center and UC Berkeley, promise that Memorial Hall will be suitably transformed by an elaborate multimedia set piece from director Netia Jones. It won’t take all day, but it’s a great chance to slow down. 7:30 p.m. Thurs. and 8:00 p.m. Fri., $10–$35, 114 E. Cameron Ave., 919-843-3333, www.carolinaperformingarts.org. Brian Howe

DANCE

STATE OF DANCE

MURPHEY SCHOOL AUDITORIUM, RALEIGH

THURSDAY, NOV. 6–SATURDAY, NOV. 8

There’s something in the air among the Triangle’s young independent dance-makersa sense that it’s time to join forces and incubate new ideas, or capitalize on some momentum. Dance-focused support organizations such as Durham’s DIDA and Saxapahaw’s Culture Mill are just emerging and defining their roles. With State of Dance, Raleigh’s Burning Coal Theatre, bolstered by grants from various state and city arts councils, claims complementary goals of “bringing innovative minds in the local modern dance community under one roof for an extended period of time to create work, to perform, to train, to learn and to teach.” A month-long residency filled with free talks, classes and open rehearsals climaxes with these premieres of five new pieces by five emerging local outfits. They include Ashley Walls White’s philosophically tinted AWW Performance Company, Raleigh’s Black Box Dance Theatre, multimedia collective Code f.a.d., the Carol Finley Dance Group and Durham’s Renay Aumiller Dances, fresh off premiering RAD RAD Revolution at Motorco. This is a partial but vital survey of the new wave of local dance; see Burning Coal’s website for the full details of what they have incubated. 7:30 p.m., $10, 224 Polk St., 919-834-4001, www.burningcoal.org. Brian Howe