Brokeback, the long-running side project for bassist Douglas McCombs (Tortoise, Eleventh Dream Day), has been a very scant presence in Chicago for the last couple of years, but a show tomorrow night, January 10, at the Empty Bottle, kicks off a short burst of activity over the next couple of months, culminating with an April performance at All Tomorrow’s Parties, organized this year by the Dirty Three. McCombs and fellow bassist and composing partner Noel Kupersmith (ex-Chicago Underground) will be joined here by drummer Tim Mulvenna (Eternals); he says they’ll play a few new tunes but most of the material will be older stuff. One change is that Kupersmith has put down his old upright to focus exclusively on electric bass in Brokeback.