Friday 2
MIKE JONES TRIO It may seem improbable that a pianist could rival the fearsome technique of giants like Earl Hines, Art Tatum, and Oscar Peterson yet remain off the national radar. But Mike Jones can match every dizzying plunge down the keyboard, every logic-defying rhythmic turnaround, and every galloping bass line of his idols, and he does so with sly but eager humor, interpolating unexpected quotes with split-second timing. The usual rap is that sheer virtuosity is not enough–that for all the technique the artist can’t tell good stories on the level of a Miles Davis or Bill Evans. Normally I’d agree, but in rare circumstances the technique itself becomes the story–something that’s true of Tatum, to a lesser degree Peterson, and now Jones. These shows mark his annual visit to the scene of Live at the Green Mill (Chiaroscuro), his most recent disc (for which I wrote the liner notes). See also Saturday. 9 PM, Green Mill, 4802 N. Broadway, 773-878-5552, $12. –Neil Tesser
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
MEAT PURVEYORS Stood next to the current crop of popular bluegrass bands, the Meat Purveyors might as well be drooling, inbred backwoods monsters–exactly what bluegrass needs, considering the way it’s been battered into a domesticated, suburbified shadow of its former self by soccer moms with Visa cards. On the new Someday Soon Things Will Be Much Worse! (Bloodshot) the Austin quartet burns through a set of mostly acoustic songs about fucking, drinking, and hating the person you’re fucking, all with the furious energy of a teenage hardcore band. Their only mistake is the cover of “Hot Blooded,” which sounds like something from a Pickin’ on Foreigner record that never needs to exist. Tijuana Hercules and Pickin’ Trix open. 10 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, 773-276-3600 or 866-468-3401, $10. –Miles Raymer
PERSONALS One of the more pleasant surprises at this year’s SXSW was Austin’s Personals, who delivered one of the most inspired sets of spitfire rock ‘n’ roll I heard all week. Guitarist-vocalist Adam White, bassist (and part-time Chicagoan) Erin Black, and drummer Kristen Brown mostly bow at the altar of early-80s SoCal power-pop bands like 20/20 and Paul Collins’s Beat, though they scuzz up and buzz out their melodies with a raw insouciance. White’s reedy voice conveys a desperation that recalls the Undertones’ Feargal Sharkey, and Black and Brown bring a rhythmic pugnacity to the tunes. Live and studio tracks are available at their Web site, thepersonalsrock.com, and they’ve just put out their own EP; the self-titled, six-song disc will be available at this show. The Blissters headline, the Romeros play third, and the Negligents open. 9 PM, Subterranean, 2011 W. North, 773-278-6600 or 800-594-8499, $6. –Bob Mehr
MAN MAN They say they’re from somewhere “above New York and Philadelphia,” but this five-piece band bangs out the sort of bastard sounds you’d expect to hear from a tribe of half-civilized animal-men who learned to play party waltzes around Gypsy campfires deep in the Transylvanian woods. Their latest album, Six Demon Bag (Ace Fu), is a polyrhythmic, calamitous, kitchen-sink stew of militaristic marches, synth solos, and yodeling–plus bits that sound like Prince’s “Hot Thing” as performed by liquored-up cartoon dogs. Front maestro Honus Honus plinks on a hardly tuned piano and sings in a low, gravelly voice about sexual entanglements and Noriega, though it’s never clear whether he’s referring to the dictator or the rapper. The band’s been compared to Zappa and Beefheart on more than one occasion, and there are plenty of people who think it’s all a joke–but those are just the sort of folks who wouldn’t recognize a collect call to Kokopelli if they heard one. Skeletons & the Girl-Faced Boys and Brighton, MA open. 9:30 PM, Subterranean, 2011 W. North, 773-278-6600 or 800-594-8499, $10. –Jessica Hopper
