A performance with Bang on a Can brought poet and musician Lee Ranaldo — most famously of the band Sonic Youth — to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, Mass., during the weekend.

The concert, with the Bang on a Can All-Stars, was part of the New York-based music collective's July residency at the museum, which has featured two recitals daily and concludes Saturday night with an appearance by Terry Riley.

Mr. Ranaldo started with a solo (a welcomed, last-minute addition to the program) in which he played a message from his iPhone and made cool sounds with his guitar by taking it off its strap, moving it around, tapping on it, and playing it with a bow. Then he brought in the band, including cellist Felix Fan and percussionist David Cossin, for a physical, riveting sound experience.

The gig was also a family getaway. Before the show, Mr. Ranaldo had dinner at Café Latino, a restaurant on the museum's premises, with his wife, Leah Singer; sons Frey and Sage; artists Thomas Lail and Tara Fracalossi, who run the gallery at Hudson Valley Community College, where Mr. Ranaldo and Ms. Singer have a show opening in October, and artists Charlie and Kathleen Tesnakis (Ms. Tesnakis designs accessories made from salvaged clothing).

The adults had watermelon salad and fish tacos, while the children had chicken fingers and corn on the cob.

The children watched Mr. Ranaldo's performance, and they weren't the only family members of musicians present: Bang on a Can founder Julia Wolfe's parents sat in the front row for the debut of a composition by her.

After the concert musicians headed to local bar the Mohawk, where they drank beer and jammed.

A highlight of the week's recitals was a three-minute performance in which Malina Rauschenfels hung upside down playing her flute while another musician played standing upright beside her. Ms. Rauschenfels wrote the piece after having a dream in which she played upside down, which she said may have been inspired by the upside-down trees in the courtyard at the museum (an art installation, "Tree Logic," by Natalie Jeremijenko).

"I am careful about keeping tempo, because the maximum time I can hang upside down is three minutes," Ms. Rauschenfels said.

agordon@nysun.com