Gapers Block published from April 22, 2003 to Jan. 1, 2016. The site will remain up in archive form. Please visit Third Coast Review, a new site by several GB alumni. ✶ Thank you for your readership and contributions. ✶
The Grateful Dead's reign in the world of rock music has spanned nearly five decades now, still as iconic to their fans as the day they formed back in 1965. I'm calling on all you Deadheads out there today - though The Grateful Dead may not be touring any time soon, this Saturday evening, you can expect to hear all of your old favorites from the closest thing to the Grateful Dead's signature sound.
Dark Star Orchestra will play The Vic Theatre this weekend, where you can hear perhaps an old setlist recreated from the Grateful Dead's tour archive in its exact form, or a new setlist drafted up by the group themselves. Dark Star Orchestra has been on the scene for 15 years, gracing national and international audiences alike with the recreation of a classic Grateful Dead show for old and new fans to revel in. The group is exact and deliberate in crafting their sound and stage setup to create the most accurate depiction of a Grateful Dead show for their fans, paying homage to the greats all the while. The seven-person group aims to embrace their inner hippie musician, presenting listeners with a portrayal of decades past.
If you're jonesing to take a trip down memory lane this weekend, or immerse yourself in an experience you haven't yet had the chance to be a part of, now's the time to head to the Vic this weekend to catch Dark Star Orchestra play your favorite Grateful Dead tunes. Take a listen to their version of "The Music Never Stopped" below, and get ready for a psychedelic good time on Saturday evening.
Dark Star Orchestra plays The Vic Theatre this Saturday, 2/2. The 18+ show begins at 8pm, and tickets are $24 plus additional service fees. The Vic is located at 3145 N. Sheffield Avenue, (773) 472-0449.
The Right Now are no strangers to the (web)pages of Gapers Block. These spunky funk, R&B and jazz-playing locals have released a stellar sophomore album last year and have pleased us with their live shows in the past.
Most recently, The Right Now teamed up with NYC label Deep&Disco to remix of one of the most soulful tracks off their newest album, "Call Girl." The name already suggests that this track has a significant amount of seductive sauciness, but the disco-influenced remixes really notches it up there as one of those songs that you just have to shake it to. Have a listen to one of the mixes below and purchase the "12 here.
Now we're giving you the chance to check them out first hand. They'll be headlining Martyrs this weekend on Saturday, February 2. Yes, there's plenty of space to dance away the mid-winter blues and we assure you the music will be on point so, really, you have no excuse not to go -- especially if you're not footing the bill. Gapers Block is giving away a pair of tickets to the show. Just email us at contests@gapersblock.com with the subject line "Right Now!" and we'll pick a winner by 5pm today to go with a friend to the show. [Update: We have a winner! Congrats to William!]
So 2013 is the year. You've resolved to strike up the band and make music your priority. If you still have some extra Christmas cash in your pocket after you buy all those mic stands and recording equipment, there's one more small purchase that you could end up finding essential: Chicago career musicians Randy Chertkow and Jason Feehan of the band Beatnik Turtle released the second edition of their highly praised The Indie Band Survival Guide in late 2012.
The handbook itself is an excellent, if not exhaustive, resource for anyone looking to make money by being in a band. In fact, even if turning your music into your moneymaker isn't your endgame, it's still a good read for anyone trying to make music into a successful personal outlet or hobby.
Version 2.0 of the Survival Guide, according to the authors' forward, focuses less on the world of major labels -- a testament to the fact that "going indie" is becoming an ever increasing trend in music. Chertkow and Feehan's guidebook simply teaches you how to do it successfully.
As far as getting the most out of this new edition of The Indie Band Survival Guide, after reading it myself, I have a couple tips for anyone interested.
Retro-soul/R&B trio The Jordan Years is releasing its first full-length album, Homemade Hustler, on Friday, Feb. 1 at the Subterranean.
The Jordan Years is Wes Restless on vocals, Michael Andersen on bass and Roger Panella on guitar (guest musicians fill in details such as drums, keyboards and brass). The trio got together in 2008, practicing and recording in Anderson's Humboldt Park basement. According to press materials, Homemade Hustler "follows the story of a recent corporate castaway who decides to make ends meet on his own terms. He finds love, money, uncertainty, stress, and eventually trouble, but in the end he knows he wouldn't have it any other way."
The Jordan Years' record release show is presented by House Call Entertainment and Gapers Block, the show will also feature The Congregation and The Skinny, as well as DJ Intel spinning between acts and GB editor Andrew Huff (that's me!) emceeing. The Subterranean is located at 2011 W. North Ave. Doors open at 8pm. 21+
An experience with Centralia, the new LP from Brooklyn electronic duo Mountains, out today on Thrill Jockey Records. Mountains will play The Hideout on Wednesday February 27, at 9pm with White/Light with Frank Rosaly and Lucky Dragons.
1) "Sand"
8:08am — Just waking up to catch the sunrise from my perch high in the Blue Canadian Rockies. It's cold up here, but the sun feels warm. Could just be the altitude. Soft electronic drones and gently oscillating synthesizers bring me to my feet. After a few minutes, a meandering synth melody leads the charge of layers and layers of sound. I feel intense sunlight hitting my face. Before long, bowed cellos enter and gather strength, and soon there's so much texture that it's tough to know where the acoustic instruments begin and the electronic ones start. I gather up my belongings and start to walk.
When you are a lover of music festivals, the day, to hours, to minutes winding down to the end is always the hardest part. We enter a world of exuberant bliss, an alternate reality, a bubble-esque respite from our usual routine. We celebrate the sets of seasoned favorites, while catching on to a new artist and falling in love with our next favorite band. It's magical. However, magic has to end. This year's Tomorrow Never Knows festival was filled with acts we revered, with fresh talent also added to the mix in an ample supply. Saturday night featured a blend of both of these aspects; new acts Snowmine and Hundred Waters meshed perfectly with celebrated act Freelance Whales for a night of electronic indie-pop fusion.
Opener Snowmine combined their futuristic, big sound with an eclectic video feed of themselves on stage, the colors obscured and inverted. For some reason, this combination made sense for their performance and identity. Trippy backgrounds complemented the dreamy, atmospheric sounds that emanated from the stage. Lead singer Grayson Sanders's voice floated above the crowd, as each member in the band jolted to the reverberating beats they were creating. It was a great way to start the show off; they've only been on the scene for a little over two years now, but they've made quite the initial impression as they hooked the audience's attention for the entirety of their set.
The last time James Murphy was in Chicago -- as far as I know -- he was at Montrose Beach, hanging out and getting ready to drop a highly anticipated DJ set on Wavefront Music Festival last Fourth of July weekend. The problem is that he never made it to the stage. An early afternoon thunderstorm tore through the city that Sunday and forced the first year festival to cancel several of its performances for time's sake. James Murphy's was one of those sets.
Now the former LCD Soundsystem frontman is coming back to town to spin at The Mid and rain nor, hopefully, snow can stop us from hearing him.
"Free Energy" is such a great band name. Whether the phrase evokes an open offer for fun or a thermodynamics concept, it all pretty much describes what happens when you listen to the band's music or see them live.
On Friday night, cozy little Schubas turned into a sold-out celebration of pure, dumb rock and roll, thanks only in part to Free Energy's unapologetically feel-good set. I don't know about all of the other five venues that had music on night three of Tomorrow Never Knows Fest, but I'm going to guess that Schubas had the rowdiest bill. With a solid lineup split between two local and two non-local acts, the people at Schubas were in for a night of increasingly building energy, in which glowsticks abounded and where there were at least two different instances of band members leaping up onto stacks of amps around the stage, turning Schubas into as much of an arena-rock jungle gym as possible.
Chelsea Wolfe wasn't just the most unusual musician playing in a night of quite varied and unique bands but she might very well be one of the strangest and most intriguing musicians in the entire world at large. She is striking in her very tall, thin stature and she seems like she comes from a totally different time and place, like the silent film era for instance. Wolfe possesses the kind of eyes that make her seem irreconcilably lost. Her music is typically experimental and distorted as in the case of her second full length album Ἀποκάλυψις, which is also referred to as Apokalypsis. She has become known for a sound that is unpredictable and as wild as it is strange so this reviewer wasn't quite sure how a more acoustic set was going to work.
Have you ever stood next to someone at a show who jabbered on and on about how big a fan they were of the next band and then continued talking into that band's set as if they were, say, your deadbeat uncle's Steve Miller cover band? That's sort of how it felt on the first platform at the Vic on Friday for Father John Misty and the Walkmen. Luckily, though, the Walkmen are better than some of the chatterboxes who adore them. They bring an air of professionalism to a forum that sometimes lacks it. They dress to impress, always play at a high level and respect audiences with humility. (To the last point, at the end of the show, singer Hamilton Leithauser jumped from the stage and made his way through the crowd. As someone next to me helped him over a railing, he asked no one in particular, "Everything sound ok? Good show tonight?")
This sounds weird, but I'm used to picturing Christopher Owens singing in his underwear.
It's probably because that was the first image most of us ever saw of him, on the cover of the debut Girls album back in 2009, sitting on the edge of a bed playing his guitar in nothing but underwear and socks, looking either seriously hungover, lovesick, or both. But the image turned out to be a pretty accurate visualization of the music on that album--and for the rest of his music with Girls, for that matter. The songs Owens wrote for Girls laid bare a deeply wounded soul without ever being too specific about anything. Lyrics like "I was feeling so sad and alone / but I found a friend in the song that I'm singing" would have likely sounded trite and unoriginal coming from anyone else. Coming from Owens and his erratic, disturbed singing voice, they were somehow gut wrenching. It was as if he was, in fact, showing himself half-naked and vulnerable.
There's been a lot of buildup to the first big official announcement from Electronic Daisy Carnival Chicago (EDC Chicago). First the festival itself was just a rumor...then it was confirmed by dance music festival titans (and the company behind the flagship EDC in Las Vegas) Insomniac...and today (January 16) the festival announced its first details via Facebook and Twitter. However, with the "big news" was a bit disappointing in both quality and quantity.
Despite the fact that the festival is still months away (and more than likely materializing lineup-wise) the hype surrounding the announcement suggested we were finding out a little more other than the most general of information about venue, dates and ticketing. EDC Chicago posted a three-paragraph statement to its Facebook page just past noon. Here are the bullet points:
It's going down the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.
It will take place at the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois.
Camping grounds will be available.
The festival will be 18 and over and will go til 2am every night.
There will be "thousands of beautiful people" there.
Here's the thing: even though there will also be thousands of "pleasantly average" people there as well, I likely won't be one of them. Today's announcement brought some difficult news to a city of electronic dance music fans so used to their favorite festival being just a few L stops away. Joliet isn't attainable for a lot of us. Sure, the Speedway will provide plenty of space for the festival to truly embrace the "electric carnival" theme but - by the looks of the comments popping up on the festival's Facebook page - I'm not the only city dweller upset with the inaccessibility.
She's Crafty, Chicago's all-female Beastie Boys tribute band, is starring in their very first solo concert at Underground Lounge, 952 W. Newport Ave., this Friday, Jan. 18, at 8pm. Come check out MCAmy, Ken D, MagRock and DJ Sara Tea, about which one person once said, "She's Crafty, not a novelty act."
Your $10 cover includes a raffle ticket for door prizes; additional raffle tickets will be $5 each or five for $20 for a chance to win an iPod, an autographed Starlin Castro baseball, Bulls tickets and more.
Jessie Ware's Devotion is a striking debut album from a London talent. It doesn't crush ears immediately, but it burrows in brains. It's a subtle approach to the modern R&B and soul that finds its way onto the pop charts. There's not a lot of flash, but it's emotive and enthralling. "Wildest Moments" is a dazzling showcase for her voice; elegant and energizing, with an abundance of confidence. That aesthetic carries on through the album that draws from R&B, soul, electronic and even drum'n'bass. It sounds like Ware could belt it out at any moment, but she generally keeps her voice reined in, which makes the very few moments when she cuts loose even more affecting. Sunday marks Jessie Ware's first show in Chicago. Gapers Block is giving away a pair of tickets to see her. Write to contests@gapersblock.com with "Wildest Moments" in the subject line by 5pm Wednesday for a chance to win. [Update: We have a winner. Enjoy the show, Bruno! Thanks for writing in, everyone.]
Tomorrow Never Knows, Chicago's own multi-venue festival, welcomes many a great band to our city for a weeklong extravaganza of shows, spanning the concert halls of Schubas, Lincoln Hall, the Metro, Smart Bar, Hideout and the Vic. On Saturday evening, Lincoln Hall will feature electro-pop favorites Freelance Whales, while introducing fresh openers Snowmine and Hundred Waters into the mix.
If you've already grabbed your 5-day pass to the TNK fest, make sure to head over to Lincoln Hall early to catch show openers. Snowmine, hailing from Brooklyn, have developed their own unique indie pop sound, with fuzzy, dream-pop layered beats surrounding crisp vocals, creating a deliberate ambient feel with their tunes. You can download their two-track album released this past year featuring "Saucer Eyes" and a remix of Twin Sister's "Meet The Frownies" by naming your price.
Hundred Waters, from Gainesville, Florida, have had a whirlwind year introducing us to their music, gaining exposure all the way through. Releasing their first EP, Thistle, and full-length album later on in 2012, Hundred Waters LP, their sound is mesmerizing and glimmering. Opening track "Sonnet" is hushed and haunting, ambling slowly along, introducing layer by layer of electronic sound to the steadily grooving vocal line. These slower ballads are juxtaposed against more abrupt, though still perfectly mixed electronica numbers such as "Me & Anodyne" heralding a tribal backing and synthesized beats, and percussive, surprising horn instrument-saturated "Theia." The group wasted no time after their album release by touring this past summer with Diplo, Skrillex, and Grimes. Their sound is folk interweaved with electronic elements, pop riffs, and tribal rhythms, creating an interesting and refreshing sound. Take a listen for yourself as you watch live recording of "Caverns" below:
Merchandise's members have done time with Tampa-area punk and hardcore bands, but their Children of Desire album doesn't sound like a product of their pedigree. It's more rooted in the Jesus & Mary Chain's melodic noise or the Church's oft-kilter alternative sound. There're hints of electronic and jazz sprinkled through, too. It's a fresh melting pot from a band that seems to have been filing away ideas that would be risky in punk and hardcore. On the standout "Become What You Are", singer Carson Cox broods through sweeping guitars and keyboards that never fatigue during its 11 minutes. "Satellite" carries the spirit of a somber country tune with its stirring "you'll never escape from my mind" refrain. Thursday's Schubas gig will be a bit of a change from the DIY spaces, like Mousetrap, that they've previously played in Chicago. Their sound may have been renovated, but don't expect them to have lost the DIY aesthetic.
Merchandise headlines Schubas on Thursday, the 17th, as part of Tomorrow Never Knows. Toronto's Dusted, Denton's Sundress and Chicago's Sybris open. The show's $15, 18+ and starts at 9pm. Schubas is at the corner of Belmont & Southport.
When a Niki and the Dove song plays, it's almost impossible to discern how many different instruments and which ones in particular are at work on the track. "Is that a didgeridoo?" you might wonder as their echoing tune "The Birth of the Sun" fills your ear. All the catchy art-pop noise that emanates from Niki and the Dove, aka Malin Dahlström (vocals) and Gustaf Karlöf (keyboards), encapsulates the brilliance of Swedish pop engineering. It's not a didgeridoo. It's a mixer, and Niki and the Dove have mastered it ... at least on record. Their avant-garde take on pop is infectious like Abba, strange like Bjork, and modern like The Knife. It's also greater than the sum of these compared parts. It's more ambitious and hearing grandiose, drum-driven tracks like "DJ Ease My Mind" takes a listener to the edges of himself and begs him to dance until he becomes an unrepressed, blurry mess.
But can a Niki and the Dove live experience be all that and more with such a minimalist approach? Performing lofty songs with just a mixer and a vocalist (and perhaps a drum kit) instead of an orchestra doesn't have to be a compromised affair-- Robyn proves that a thousand times over. Such a complicated endeavor could very well succeed in the hands of these inventive outliers whose backgrounds in performance art will come in handy as they attempt to build an energetic yet eerie enough mood fit for their sinister dance grooves. A killer light show would certainly elevate things but if that isn't present, close your eyes, use your imagination, and enter into a dance-induced hallucination in which you and your neon shadow are dancing on the edge of the Grand Canyon together ... or something like that.
Nicki and the Dove bring their experimentation to Lincoln Hall on 1/18 at 9 p.m.. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased here.
"There is no other day
Let's try it another way
You'll lose your mind and play..."
--"See Emily Play," Pink Floyd (1967)
Billed as a night "Into the 4th Dimension" to mark the homespun fest's fourth year, night two of the Chicago Psych Fest boasted an eclectic mix of artists each staking out claims in their own corners of the city's flourishing psych scene. While headliners Outer Minds may have been the biggest draw to look at Saturday night's lineup, Pysch Fest, carefully curated in all aspects from artist selection to venue choice (at the "perfect place for a freak-out" in The Hideout) to poster design, remains mainly a gathering of the tribes, where psych-freaks young and old assemble in celebration of some wonderfully weird music.
Saturday night built off Friday night's sets by Plastic Crimewave Syndicate and Energy Gown, continuing the mesmerizing mid-set video displays programmed live by artists Nick Barner and Nick Ciontea. DJs Psychedalex and Psyche Prissy Pie played tons of deep cuts, but made sure to phone in some old favorites for the crowd (with the most enthusiastic response given to the Pink Floyd classic "See Emily Play"). The merch booth, meanwhile, was flush with psychedelic swag, ranging from new vinyl releases from the night's acts to back issues of lauded psych zine Ugly Things, and even had event posters printed onto discarded discs of vinyl. Bending time and space even further, select band and audience members even dressed in full-on Haight-Ashbury garb, boasting fringe jackets, beads, and some very inspired facial hair. For some, it could have been mid-summer in 1967 as much as a cold night in early 2013.
Wild Belle's awesome ear worm "Keep You" gave the duo plenty of mileage, but after six months of play the track's tank is almost empty and the brother sister duo's debut album, slated to release March 12th, can't come soon enough. Would-be fans want to feel affirmed in their likeness for Wild Belle's three songs currently available to the masses and would-be haters are dying to know whether the hype is deserved. But just as you can't judge a book by its cover, so to you can't judge an artist by a single.
It's undoubtedly a good single. It's thick with texture, rich in style, its influences are diverse and worldly (West Africa, the Caribbean), and it has surprising elements like a dusting of synthesizers on top of a reggae beat. Then again the song also rang loudly over the opening moments of the feature film, "Pitch Perfect," a complaint lodged against them by many Youtube commentators, and another Wild Belle song was in the CW show Vampire Diaries. The question that is raised by these complicated truths is simply, "On a scale of Lana Del Ray to Tame Impala, how legitimate is Wild Belle?" Answer that question for yourself at the local duo's Lincoln Hall show on January 17th.
Tickets are $15 and the show starts at 9 p.m. Buy your tickets for the almost-sold-out show here.
If you search about Willy Mason online, soon enough you will come across somebody calling him a "new [Bob] Dylan." This is unfair because nobody deserves that burden. But it's not completely out of line. The 28-year old Massachusetts native's bluesy folk invites comparisons to some of the best who've preceded him. His rich voice sounds years beyond his true age and he has a knack for descriptive scene-setting in his songs, whether it's lovely or the dregs. His most recent album, Carry On, has Mason moving in a slightly different direction with Dan Carey at the helm. (Carey has produced for Franz Ferdinand and Bat for Lashes, among others.) But all of the good stuff from his previous albums carries over. Gapers Block's giving away a pair of tickets to see Willy Mason at Old Town School of Folk Music with Paul Kelly on Thursday. Write to contests@gapersblock.com with "Carry On" in the subject line for a chance to win. [Update: We have a winner. Enjoy the show, Kristin! And thanks for reading and writing in, everyone.]
Mason opens for Kelly at the Old Town School of Folk Music's Gary and Laura Maurer Concert Hall at 4544 N. Lincoln Ave. on January 17. The show starts at 7pm. Tickets are $22 for the public, $20 for members.
Green Dolphin Street, located at 2200 N. Ashland Ave., first opened its doors back in 1992. Stemming from the song title-inspired name was the jazzy climate of the music venue, often raucous and lively. Hip hop shows were booked here during the weekends, while Monday promised the "Boom Boom Room" dance music extravaganza that attendees cherished. However, in 2010, the establishment suddenly shut its doors, rebooking artists, leaving frequent attendees befuddled and curious as to the reason for its hasty change. Spaces filled with dancing bodies and loud music became hallowed and weathered over time, with no real future date set for the club's shakily billed reopening.
However, on January 18, newly dubbed "Dolphin" will open its doors, in the same spot that its predecessor once stood. Reimagined, the club will bring to life the elements of Green Dolphin Street that attendees cherished, while infusing fresh aspects into the club's identity. Redesigned, the club now features numerous distinct spaces, including the Ballroom, which features numerous VIP tables and the main dance floor, The Garden Lounge, which paves the way to a outdoor area perfect for Chicago's spring and summer months, and The White Lounge, which acts as a secondary dance space of the nightclub.
Coming just in time to remedy your post-New Years lull, the fourth annual Chicago Psych Fest returns to The Hideout's string-lit confines for two nights of star-gazing psych-rock on Friday, January 11 and Saturday, January 12 at 1354 W. Wabansia. Now in its fourth year, this year's fest is billed as a journey "Into the 4th Dimension," and features some of the best psych acts in the city, including Outer Minds, Energy Gown, Plastic Crimewave Syndicate, Miracle Condition, and more. (A full list of bands can be found on the event's Facebook page.) And just to make sure no one strays too far off the astral plane in between bands, each night also features some serious deep-cut record spinning in between sets courtesy of DJs Psychedalex and Psyche Prissy Pie, as well as some mind-melting projections behind the Hideout stage courtesy of local video artists Nick Barner and Nick Ciontea.
Building on three years of strong showings from the best of Chicago psych, this year's festival continues its momentum by tapping into some of the best acts in the city's already-booming psych scene. Each of the ten acts selected to play throughout the weekend were chosen by fest curators Steve Krakow (Plastic Crimewave Syndicate, Moonrise), Matt Ginsberg (Underground Symposium, ex-Dark Fog), Andrew Kettering (Plastic Crimewave Syndicate, Rabble Rabble), and with help from Karissa Talanian (Plastic Crimewave Syndicate, Strychnine) — all of whom are well-versed in what it takes to throw some of the grooviest freak-outs in town.
The show starts at 9pm each night, and tickets are $10 a night or $16 for both nights and can be purchased online here.
I started listening to Quicksand at the behest of a friend who worked at my hometown's one record store. Simply by their pedigree, they were a force in New York's (post-)hardcore scene with members having done time with Gorilla Biscuits and Bold. I heard them as crisper and more melodic than those bands. Yet they were still plenty heavy, like Fugazi for metalheads. The guitars were like jackhammers. The rhythms were pummelling. Walter Schreifels' voice exploded with rage (even sometimes on the songs I didn't think were attacks). Their two albums, Slip and Manic Compression, are full of brutal and well-crafted tunes that have aged nicely. And they could whip up a frenzy live when everyone was clicking. (In fact, my worst pit injury came at a Quicksand show in 1995.) On Saturday, they'll hit Metro on a reunion tour that'll bring some old fans out from the shadows and probably even make a few new ones.
Quicksand headlines Metro on Saturday, the 12th. Single Mothers, a band from London, Ontario and not actually women raising children on their own, open at 9PM. The show's 18+ and $29. Metro's at 3730 N Clark.
Let's hope for Christopher Owens sake that hard times inspire. Right after the dissolution of his beloved band Girls, Owens began to reminisce and record. What poured out of him, allegedly in a single songwriting session, is the album Lysandre, a heartbreaking and heartwarming homage to the former band's first tour that he has been promoting since early October. YouTube leaks and Pitchfork interviews reveal that the album is a collective of eclectic and genre-defying tracks that range from singsong acoustic love songs to saxophone-laced, slinky, surf rock that come together to tell a coming of age story. A story about love won and lost and the highs and lows that come with living out and moving beyond a lifelong dream.
With his new solo self at center stage, Owens has been reportedly confident and graceful and his seven member backing band help fill the room with layered sounds so his upcoming show at Lincoln Hall should be far from an acoustic, somber affair despite the break-up. Rather, expect to see the always forthcoming Owens excited to be sharing his fragile little story with you. Oh, and also expect a few covers. Lysandre clocks in at 30 minutes so Owens will have to fill time with something and it most likely won't be old Girls tracks. Ever the devout fanboy of the classics, Owens will instead probably choose to wax his stylistics on a few Dylan or Cat Stevens tracks which means that this concert should be an affair for listeners of all different tastes. Rockists and indie fans alike can unite around Christopher Owens and his new sound on Tuesday, January 15 at Lincoln Hall.
The show is 18+ and starts at 8 pm. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased here.
This is something to be excited for. Music producer/Mad Decent Records founder/Gwen Stefani collaborator Diplo is bringing his dancehall-inspired electronic dance music outlet Major Lazer to the Congress Theater on March 2 for the group's biggest Chicago show to date.
Between Major Lazer's absurdly raucous and raunchy live shows, their infectious rhythms and sporadic touring in light of Diplo's increasingly busy schedule they've built a bit of a mysticism around their live shows. Their first real splash in this city was at Pitchfork 2010 -- a performance that brought way more booty clapping than you'd ever expect to find at an indie rock fest. They returned the following summer for a similarly insane set at North Coast Music Festival.
This Sunday, catch the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) in two different locations in Chicago, first as a listener, then as a competitor.
At 3 p.m., the Chicago Cultural Center (78 E. Washington St., Preston Bradley Hall) welcomes ICE for Shadowgraph: Octets by Franz Schubert and George Lewis. Using the wide-open theme of "music for octet," ICE contrast Schubert lyrical yet complex piece from 1824 with two compositions by AACM member George Lewis, whose works ICE performed at the MCA in February of last year. Shadowgraph (1977) and a reprise of Artificial Life 2007 (2007) will bookend the Schubert piece, giving listeners a look at the many ways that groups of eight can be ordered and utilized. The performance is free, seating is first come, first served.
If you're feeling making a day of it, head over to the Fireside Bowl (2648 W. Fullerton) at 7 p.m. for ICE's 10th Birthday Bash. The $10 admission fee gets you unlimited bowling and shoe rental, with live music by DJs Searchlight and Good Evening. There's also talk of rouge ICE performances throughout the night. Go frame for frame against an honest-to-Debussy MacArthur Grant winner in the true sport of kings!
The range of concerts this month guarantees that you will start 2013 by 1) hearing something you've never heard before, or 2) experiencing an old favorite performed with new energy — likely on the same program. See them all, or close your eyes and pick one. You won't go wrong.
Retro-soul/R&B trio 
