Thursday, Jan. 4

* The Centaur’s Wildside Festival begins
* Art Battle Montreal
* Laurence Philomène vernissage/N NAO live show
* Jeudi Velvet DJ night
* NYC electronic producer Black Asteroid live
* Uma Gahd’s Are You There Margaret? It’s Me Gahd

Work by photographer Laurence Philomène

The Centaur Theatre’s annual Wildside Festival, showcasing exciting emerging talent from Montreal and beyond, launches today with a 5à7 vernissage and two performances beginning with the Irish production The Morning After The Life Before (a playful story centred around Ireland’s 2015 vote for marriage equality) followed by Pluck’d (A family of Chinese immigrants try to overcome generational and language gaps over Christmas dinner). 453 St-François-Xavier, vernissage from 5–7 p.m., performances at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., $16/$13 students for each performance

Bar la Shop is the site of the 12-sided Art Battle Montreal, wherein a dozen artists will create a piece within 20 minutes, have it judged by the audience and then auction it off during the event. 4177 St-Denis, 7:30 p.m., $10/$15

The folks behind neighbourhood-hopping arts & culture fest SOIR partner with Divan Orange tonight to present a vernissage of new works by Montreal photographer Laurence Philomène, whose practice explores gender identity and queerness through vibrant colour palettes. Stick around for a performance from experimental ambient pop trio N NAO. 4234 St-Laurent, vernissage from 7 p.m., performance at 9 p.m., free

Notre Dame des Quilles hosts Jeudi Velvet, a women’s/LGBT-oriented electronic/house/footwork night with DJ Carmen Sandiego. Before the dance party gets going at 10 p.m., show up early for a “Lesbo Apero” happy hour at 8 p.m. 32 Beaubien E., 8 p.m./10 p.m.

From NYC, Kompakt Records artist Black Asteroid plays Newspeak tonight. 1403 Ste-Elisabeth, 10 p.m., $10/$17

Don’t miss your chance to see one of Montreal’s best drag queens, House of Laureen’s Uma Gahd (voted #3 Best Drag Queen in our 2017 Best of MTL readers poll!), as she reprises her hit Fringe show Are You There Margaret? It’s Me Gahd at Cabaret Mado for one night only, and witness her comedic prowess as she tears into topics from fame and family to feminism and failed marriages, with an opening set from Tranna Wintour. 1115 Ste-Catherine E., 10 p.m., $12

For more music events, see our Event Listings. Art Listings can be found here.