friday27
cgang gang dance The sky’s always yellow around Gang Gang Dance–even when their vaguely mystical music veers dangerously close to hippie drum-circle nonsense, violence is brewing close at hand. The New York quartet’s latest album, last year’s Hillulah (Social Registry), could be the sound track to a momentous and dreadful trek, maybe to meet a holy recluse or get crucified. Liz Bougatsos processes her wounded, wondering vocals with distortion, turning them into a sort of exhausted, delirious sickbed wail. And the songs always seem to be taking a turn for the worse: plastic-bucket busker’s drums accelerate into a bass-heavy flutter like a muffled death-metal blastbeat, or lonely sonar pings dilate into possessed warning sirens. Eventually all the little snatches of instrumental strangeness get funneled into a tornado of noise, with bits of keyboards or drums spilling out of it and smashing to the earth–and then out of nowhere the whole thing clicks over into a disco track. Of course, Hillulah is edited down from a heap of live material recorded in 2003 and 2004, so it doesn’t give much clue as to what Gang Gang Dance will sound like here and now–they’re consistently weird, though, so there’s basically no risk you’ll be bored. The band might also be selling advance copies of their artsy DVD, Retina Riddim, which is due early next year. Dogme 95 and Andor Destructor open. a 10 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, 773-276-3600 or 866-468-3401, $10. –Liz Armstrong
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jamie lidell British electronica producer Jamie Lidell, a member of the duo Super Collider, reinvented himself in a big way last year with Multiply (Warp), unveiling the persona of a full-fledged soul testifier a la Stevie Wonder, Sly Stone, or Prince. Relegating electronics and digital treatments to the background, Lidell belts out feel-good lyrics in his best Motown/Memphis delivery (which is pretty damn good) over fatback drums and buoyant bass guitar lines and adds vintage touches in spots, like the slinky funk guitar and horn bleats on “Newme.” The album was followed earlier this year by Multiply Additions (Warp), a collection of remixes by the likes of Luke Vibert, Herbert, and Four Tet, along with a few live tracks recorded with a full band. Kate Simko spins before Lidell’s set. a 11 PM, Metro, 3730 N. Clark, 773-549-0203 or 312-559-1212, $16, 18+. –J. Niimi
edwin colon zayas Jibaro is the country music of Puerto Rico: its rhythmic, rustic style was developed in the rural parts of the island, and its stripped-down instrumentation is dominated by the cuatro, an acoustic guitar with four sets of doubled strings. Yomo Toro introduced the cuatro to New York’s bustling salsa scene and is probably the instrument’s best-known contemporary player, but when it comes to jibaro Edwin Colon Zayas is the go-to guy. His live band includes musicians on acoustic guitar, congas, bongos, and guiro (scraper), but Zayas’s cuatro takes center stage, and his ultramelodic, rhythmically complex playing has a jazzlike fluidity, balancing technique and restraint. He headlines the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance’s eighth annual Puerto Rican Cuatro Festival. Modesto Nieves Fuentes, Christian Nieves Maldonado, Angel Luis Torruellas, and Music Express & the Chicago Cuatro Orchestra open. a 7:30 PM, Auditorium Theatre, Roosevelt University, 50 E. Congress, 773-342-8865, $25-$75. A –Peter Margasak
double door halloween bash See Friday. Local H headlines as an unannounced band; opening are the Last Vegas as Skid Row, Colombian Local Pike as the Rolling Stones, Million Yen as the Eagles, Dogs of Ness as Pink Floyd, the Hushdrops as the Beatles, and Blackbox as Hole. a 8 PM, Double Door, 1572 N. Milwaukee, 773-489-3160 or 312-559-1212, $12.
sunday29
WHITE WHALE White Whale arose out of the touring band that former Butterglory singer Matt Suggs assembled in 2003 to support his second solo album, and now includes members of the Kansas group Thee Higher Burning Fire as well as Rob Pope, ex-bassist of the Get Up Kids. Much as Butterglory was always pegged as a Pavement rip-off, the songs on White Whale’s debut, WWI (Merge), pilfer most of their ideas from this decade’s indie-rock zeitgeist–the band’s like a less playful Decemberists, or the Arcade Fire without their dramatic concision. Their eerie cover of a Rodd Keith song-poem is an original touch, though. Hot IQs and Moxie Motive open. a 9 PM, Subterranean, 2011 W. North, 773-278-6600 or 800-594-8499, $8. –J. Niimi
