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Preview Thu Jul 30 2015
Five Concerts This Weekend That Aren't Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza will be the center of the Chicago music world this weekend, and for good reason. On top of the stacked three-day festival itself (check out Transmission's recommended acts here), there will be various parties and aftershows filling the city's various venues with Lolla artists and celebrities for the next four nights. If you aren't taking part in the revelries but still want to catch some live music this weekend, your options are understandably limited, but not totally nonexistent. Here are five of the more interesting non-Lollapalooza shows happening over the next few days.
Brandi Carlile with Old Crow Medicine Show
Friday, July 31, 7pm, Ravinia Pavilion
As far as outdoor festival grounds go, Ravinia will certainly be calmer than Grant Park on Friday night, partially as a function of the smooth Americana songwriting of the evening's featured acts, who are well worth a ride up the Metra Union Pacific North. Brandi Carlile is among the most notable female voices in the genre today, integrating ear-warming pop melodycraft into a soundscape that incorporates rippling acoustic guitars, rootsy chord-driven backgrounds, and her own saloon-singer voice. Old Crow Medicine Show will open the night with some toe-tapping Appalachian-style bluegrass and it will, as always, be impossible to resist the urge to sing along to OCMS' "Wagon Wheel" with your arms around your friends. Tickets for both the pavilion and the lawn are available here.
Jessica Lee Wilkes
Friday, July 31, 10pm, The Hideout
Jessica Lee Wilkes is a phenomenon rarely seen since Tia Carrere starred as Cassandra in Wayne's World--a female lead vocalist who also plays the bass. The Paducah, KY native is on tour supporting her debut solo EP, Lone Wolf, which features a delightful mix of 1950s-nouveau swinging rock-and-roll and warm, bluesy guitar and saxophone work. Wilkes' voice has just enough raspy edge to go with her native Kentucky twang to render a comparison to Cage the Elephant's Matt Shultz, albeit within a very different musical ambience. The Dyes and Baily Dee will be opening for Jessica Lee Wilkes, and you can purchase tickets here.
The Ike Reilly Assassination
Saturday, August 1, 9pm, The Abbey
Ike Reilly has zigzagged along a long, adventurous road over the past twenty-five years, and the wandering spirit and travel-dirtied honesty he picked up on the way pervade his straightforward rock songwriting. Reilly, a native son of north suburban Libertyville, verges on a Dylan-esque storytelling drawl over steady driving drums, percussive strumming, and guitar leads that skim the top of the sonic forest as they glide along. His latest album, June's Born on Fire, acts as a sort of personal credo for Reilly, spinning street-level tales from late nights at bars, bustling downtown Chicago, and the avenues of his past. The show will also feature Top Shelf Lickers and Tribe, and tickets are available here.
Dwele
Saturday, August 1, 7:30pm, City Winery
Dwele's music exemplifies the groovy, 808s and jazzy electric piano-dominated sound of '00s R&B. The man who provided the hook on Kanye's "Flashing Lights" pulls listeners in with a gentle, soulful voice that evokes the memory of the '70s Motown artists he grew up idolizing, and he shakes things up every once in a while with intricate vocal runs and a delicate falsetto on "Open Your Eyes" that anticipates Frank Ocean. His lyrics fit right into the typical R&B love-struck catalog, dealing mostly with infatuation and the determination to make a relationship work, which makes this show an ideal start to a romantic evening. Tickets are available here--and if you'd like to see Dwele later in the evening, you can join the waiting list for his sold-out 10:30 set, also at City Winery.
State Champs
Sunday, August 2, 7pm, Bottom Lounge
Pop punk has undergone a recent revival, particularly in Chicago, and is at its most vibrant since the mid-2000s heyday of Fall Out Boy. New York-based State Champs ranks among the leaders of the genre's new generation, packing an emotive punch with tight guitar work and rapid drumming. And despite the band's high school-referential name, its lyrical content moves beyond teenage love and heartbreak into the territory of real introspection on its latest single, "Secrets." The Bottom Lounge is well known as a great venue for pop punk, which might be ideal for the dread that accompanies a Sunday night. You can purchase tickets to the show here.