After 12 years at its 88 S. 4th St. location, Kaleid Gallery is moving to new digs in the SoFA District. The gallery will now be neighbors with Local Color, which moved into the Valley Title building at 320 S. 1st St., across from Original Joe’s, earlier this year. With two new feature exhibitions by Masha Noir and Jemal Diamond—and work from more than 60 Kaleid’s resident artists on display—Kaleid celebrates its new home by opening its doors for the South First Friday Art Walk on Nov. 1.The New Kaleid
Fri, 7pm, Free
320 S. 1st St, San Jose

It is time once again for the monthly South First Friday Art Walk in downtown San Jose’s SoFA District. This month features a reception by artist Mike Egan at Anno Domini; Egan’s third solo show, “Where Death Goes to Die,” is opening there. Also featured this time around at MACLA, an open mic youth showcase for aspiring rappers, spoken word artists, photographers, singers and other creatives. As usual Phantom Galleries will take over Pho 69—with “Out of the Darkness” by Whisper, while artist Monica Valdez will host a reception at The Pierce Apartments to showcase her new work, “Symbiosis.”

South First Friday
Fri, 7pm, Free
SoFA District, San Jose

What would happen if a bunch of freestyle rappers started a jam-band? It might sound impossible, but that’s exactly what happened to San Jose’s Rebelskamp. Four members of this rock, funk, avant-garde, free-form, genre-busting quintet (along with Kung Fu Vampire) were at one time the local freestyle rap crew, LSB.

“With that pressure of freestyle rap, you’re going to stumble, but the key is how quickly you recover from the stumble. We’re basically taking that freestyle rap pressure that we thrive on and we’re freestyling with our instruments,” says drummer Dan Gilardoni.

Their instrumentation is a fairly standard rock set up: drums, bass, guitar, keyboards and cello. The music meanders from slow, mellow, experimental swells to hyper-funky night-club jams, with just about everything else in-between. It is all 100 percent made up on the spot with no planning in advance, not even the lead vocals.

“We realized that we would stumble upon brilliance by not trying. That was the key. That was our formula, to have no formula,” says guitarist and lead singer Gee Willikers.

They may not sound like rap, but they don’t sound like a typical jam band either. First off, there are no solos. The songs are short and concise, unlike the standard 10-15 minute long songs other such bands tend to play. Plus their music takes shape more cohesively than other completely free-form bands. The songs actually sound pre-written, and people often refuse to believe they are making these songs up on the spot. With just about a year and a half under their belt, they’ve made up and recorded over 800 distinct songs, covering a multitude of musical styles, even within a single song.