Since Godspeed You! Black Emperor dissolved a few years back, the band’s loyal legions have embraced the Godspeed side project SILVER MT. ZION, which has gone from being practically off the radar to launching its first U.S. tour, including three shows on this Chicago stop. The two groups are different animals, though. Godspeed was a mostly instrumental anarchist collective prone to album-side-long epics; Silver Mt. Zion is helmed by guitarist Efrim Menuck (joined by Godspeed cohorts Thierry Amar, also of openers Black Ox Orkestar, and Sophie Trudeau), who sings in a craggy voice over minimal, church-solemn tracks. On their most recent album, last year’s Horses in the Sky (Constellation), plinking single notes of violin, piano, and distant guitar dissolve under swells of discordant vocalizing; there’s a deep Gypsy lilt to the songs, but also a campfire folksiness that enlivens the album’s bedroom-recording pallor. They’ll kick up their holy sort of din tonight as a septet. –Jessica Hopper
