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Established in 2006, Machines with Magnets hosts experimental music performances, sound and art exhibitions and installations, performance art, film and video screenings, cultural and community events, private events, and fundraisers. Past performances include The Body, Dan Deacon, Mirah, Etran de l'Aïr, Braveyoung, Lydia Lunch, Lightning Bolt, Brown Bird, Container, and Mdou Moctar.
Upcoming Events + Tickets
All ages unless otherwise noted, 21+ with valid ID to drink
Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp with DakouDakou
Tuesday, July 1, 2025
8:00 pm
to
Founded in 2006 in Geneva, 90 years after Dada, by Vincent Bertholet (Hyperculte), the 12- piece Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp has released 5 albums on the highly influential Bongo Joe Records and played the European festival circuit for years. This will be their second attempt to conquer America – following the release of the latest album, Ventre Unique. The band’s name is an homage to some of the classic Congolese groups (Orchestre Tout Puissant Konono n°1, Orchestre Tout Puissant Polyrytmo, TPOK Jazz etc...) and to one of the greatest provocateurs of 20th century art. Their music mixes echoes of The Ex, Moondog, kraut rock, minimalism, high life, symphonic touches and punk outbursts - and yet, none of it is terribly relevant: OTPMD has managed to invent its own reality – or, if you prefer, a simulation. Their live performances are mesmerizing affairs with an almost ritualistic slant and arrangements so tight they seem to re-organize chaos itself.
Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp with DakouDakou
Music Show
Tuesday, July 1, 2025
8:00 pm
$15 adv / $20 day of
Founded in 2006 in Geneva, 90 years after Dada, by Vincent Bertholet (Hyperculte), the 12- piece Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp has released 5 albums on the highly influential Bongo Joe Records and played the European festival circuit for years. This will be their second attempt to conquer America – following the release of the latest album, Ventre Unique. The band’s name is an homage to some of the classic Congolese groups (Orchestre Tout Puissant Konono n°1, Orchestre Tout Puissant Polyrytmo, TPOK Jazz etc...) and to one of the greatest provocateurs of 20th century art. Their music mixes echoes of The Ex, Moondog, kraut rock, minimalism, high life, symphonic touches and punk outbursts - and yet, none of it is terribly relevant: OTPMD has managed to invent its own reality – or, if you prefer, a simulation. Their live performances are mesmerizing affairs with an almost ritualistic slant and arrangements so tight they seem to re-organize chaos itself.
This exhibition is a love letter to the ways we create ourselves and each other, again and again, across thresholds both visible and unseen. Eli Kauffman and J Rowen O’Dwyer bring together vivid, psychologically charged paintings that explore the threshold between the physical and the mythic, the home and the holy. Their work charts the sacred rituals of queer life — from moments of pleasure to acts of care, devotion, and transformation. The home becomes a site of alchemy, the body a threshold, and queer experiences a mirror and a myth in constant renewal. The outside world serves as a mirror, a set on which to explore new versions of ourselves, and fill unexpected roles. Images drawn from play, intimacy, domesticity, and community shift between documentation and dream, honoring both the rawness and the magic of trans and queer existence. Otherworld refers to myths and realms in legends, but also to the term “Otherworldly” describing the uncanny nature of otherness, leaving the door open to new realms, for those considered outcast.
This exhibition is a love letter to the ways we create ourselves and each other, again and again, across thresholds both visible and unseen. Eli Kauffman and J Rowen O’Dwyer bring together vivid, psychologically charged paintings that explore the threshold between the physical and the mythic, the home and the holy. Their work charts the sacred rituals of queer life — from moments of pleasure to acts of care, devotion, and transformation. The home becomes a site of alchemy, the body a threshold, and queer experiences a mirror and a myth in constant renewal. The outside world serves as a mirror, a set on which to explore new versions of ourselves, and fill unexpected roles. Images drawn from play, intimacy, domesticity, and community shift between documentation and dream, honoring both the rawness and the magic of trans and queer existence. Otherworld refers to myths and realms in legends, but also to the term “Otherworldly” describing the uncanny nature of otherness, leaving the door open to new realms, for those considered outcast.
1/4 NOISE LOUNGE! 6-9pm and free!!
It's VALENTINES DAY!
Come and hang, talk, play cool games, kiss in public. This is not a show, so feel free to take a seat and have some fun with your friends.
This guy is nuts. Utterly freaking nuts. With both hands on both joysticks. Audio / Visual experimentation abound... expect serious flittering visual stimulation behind an assembly of sensuous sound. Matthew Underwood everybody, aight?
Touring from Chicago -Champagne Mirrors:
Alex Barnett - drum machine, synthesizer, tapes, vocal,
c30 on the Scrapes label. Touring from NYC- P.P.G.
Rose E. Kross + 51717 // Gynoid Exotica
(members of further reductions, 51717). With local support:
Apathy and Steel (Mark Cetilia),
Drekalo (Kristin Hayter),
Thorn (Tay la), and V Special Guest:
Shawn O'Sullivan (DJ sets between acts).
The SECOND of the revived edition 1/4 Vol. Noise Lounge.
A true class act, HOUSEBOY's Rebecca Mitchell (House Red, Whore Paint) and Dylan Going fashionably bring SWANK and ELEGANCE to the room while you sip ultra cool martinis and slowly fill your cheeks with sexy olives. We will be hosting GALLERY HOURS during the noise lounge, so you can check out the real artwork in there.
THEY'VE GONE ELECTRIC. THE NEW SHIT. That's right, The Sugar Honey Iced Tea returns to us in a new, electrified form. Playing along are our swamp-yank rock heroes The Quahogs and Convergence (Florence+James Falzone duo!) A truly magnificent event.
!!¡¡!¡¡¡¡!¡ TIGUE !¡¡!¡¡¡!!¡!¡¡¡ EXPERIMENTAL POWERHOUSE PERCUSSION TRIO TIGUE, FROM BROOKLYN, READY TO MASSAGE YOUR MIND. THEIR NEW ALBUM, PEAKS, DEBUTED NOV 13 ON NEW AMSTERDAM RECORDS. CHECK OUT THEIR SINGLE "MOUTH" FEATURING Ira Kaplan and James McNew OF Yo La Tengo. The "bubbling and hovering" track is featured on stereogum. With local spectacles JPA Falzone + Martim Galvão & Todd Anderson
https://martimgalvao.wordpress.com/ 8pm, $8
Announcing the 80th consecutive PechaKucha Providence (er... the Greater Providence area)! This month we return to Machines With Magnets, the cool performance space/recording studio/art gallery in downtown Pawtucket. During this month of giving thanks and eating too much, we will be doing a special canned goods drive for the Rhode Island Community Food Bank. Please bring a canned good or other nonperishable food item to donate. In keeping with that spirit, our theme will be "canned." Presenters should feel free to interpret the theme literally, loosely, or not at all. If you haven't heard of this global yet unpronounceable phenomenon, PechaKucha is a monthly format for sharing ideas in which presenters are allotted 20 slides and 20 seconds per slide. Simply put: it's 6 minutes and 40 seconds of show and tell for grown-ups. It began in Tokyo in 2003, has since spread to over 780 cities worldwide, and first landed in Providence in March of 2009.
Wash yourself away in the November surf. We're turning the heat up for this one, so don your suits and shades. Coke Weed:
Uncontrolled substances swelling out of Bar Harbor, ME. Pixels:
Providence home-schooled garage rock. String Builder:
The ever-resonant and uplifting Thibodeau Brothers.
Coming in for landing:
//// Cloud Becomes Your Hand
Coming in from Brooklyn, psych-rock quintet Cloud Becomes Your Hand's magical sound will take you safely over the crests of the sea's most impressive swells. //// Minibeast
Minibeast is the musical creation of Peter Prescott (Mission Of Burma, Volcano Suns, Kustomized, Peer Group). Minibeast combines surf, psych, punk, easy listening, 60's children's music, and soundtrack influences to create instrumental soundscapes. Providence homies:
//// OMNIVORE Providence's own Glenna Van Nostrand eats all. Riding a border between experimental electronic music and vocal performance, Omivore has been known to repurpose corded phones and electronic bits to piece together an ethereal and overwhelming sound. //// HOST
Recent Providence transplant from Savannah, GA, Host, (Alex Maddalena) creates melodic, repeating compositions that build tick, wet astmospheres using a guitar and table of electronics.
The Quahogs . Tapestries . Pyramid . Ian O'neil and Dennis Ryan
October 24, 2015
8:00 pm
Tour Come Back Show!! The Quahogs, Tapestries, Pyramid, &
Ian O'neil and Dennis Ryan (of Deer Tick). We wish Rafay Rashid continued superhuman strength in his beastly recovery.
CTRL+ALT+REPEAT is an experimental music series that was founded in 2004 by Mark + Laura Cetilia out of an interest in exploring the intersections of electronic music, improvisation, contemporary classical music, and sound art.
KONUS QUARTETT:
As a chamber music ensemble whose instrumentation changes frequently, the Konus Quartet engages its audience with highly expressive and idiosyncratic sounds. Contemporary original compositions are interpreted predominantly by the quartet, but these are also contrasted with pieces from past centuries and arrangements for saxophone instrumentation. TOMAS KORBER:
Born in 1979 in Zurich, Swiss-Spanish composer/improviser Tomas Korber has written numerous compositions and played improvised music since the early 90’s. He has worked solo and collaboratively. and composes music for theater- and film-productions.
