Friday 10
THE BRONX I think the dudes in the Bronx are only playing dumb. The first couple times you hear their 2003 self-titled LP, their blend of Murder City Devils swagger and Black Flag stomp sounds like it’d make for the best song on the sound track to the next Tony Hawk game. But if you keep listening you can hear them pulling a total Guns N’ Roses–you can’t quite tell if they’re playing hard-ass rock that’s catchier than the usual blur of shrieking and testosterone or if the songs are just glam pop dressed in street grime. Their greatest accomplishment as a band, though, has more to do with their business sense–these days they’re spending Island/Def Jam’s money on straight-to-eBay limited-edition vinyl-only collabos with Louis XIV, Los Lobos, Circle Jerks vocalist Keith Morris, and whoever the hell else they feel like. I’m not sure who’s getting punked here, the record-company suits or the consumers falling for the band’s “fuck corporate rock” shtick–on the LP cover you’ll find the logo of the Bronx’s own label, White Drugs, and no hint at all that a major put up the money. But now that posthardcore bands are touring under Xbox banners, I’m happy to see someone at least go through the motions. High on Fire headlines and the Bronx plays third; Big Business and Buried Inside open. 9:30 PM, Double Door, 1572 N. Milwaukee, 773-489-3160 or 312-559-1212, $12. –Miles Raymer
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POLKAHOLICS The Polkaholics are one of those bands that really don’t need to make records to keep going. But their new album, the self-released Polka Uber Alles, has a few new variations on the theme (though please tell me they’re not intentionally ripping that lick from “Marquee Moon” on “Pimps of Polka”): “Beer, Broads, and Brats,” “Polka at the Metro,” “Let’s Kill Two Beers With One Stein,” etc. They’re endlessly repetitive but unfailingly exhilarating, and you can’t help but root for a joyously dorky party band that’s done so much to promote beer-sloshed, rowdy understanding between young punks and old Poles. This show is a benefit for the Leukemia Research Foundation. Nice Peter headlines; the Commodes, the Locals, and Snoozie & the Miltonics open. 8 PM, Subterranean, 2011 W. North, 773-278-6600 or 800-594-8499, $10 in advance, $12 day of show. –Monica Kendrick
SUPERGRASS Supergrass has never quite attained the superstardom of their Britpop contemporaries Blur and Oasis, but it’s definitely not for lack of songwriting chops or musical ideas. The new Road to Rouen (Capitol) sounds like the product of a band that’s been around long enough to realize they don’t have to write songs that go all over the place just because they can. With years of distance from the internecine feuds contrived by UK music papers during the 90s and the related stigma of teenybopper appeal, they’re free to let their songs just be poppy and catchy. “St. Petersburg” has a dreamy, Zombies-like feel with languid strings, while “Low C” truly shines with a 70s Lennon-Spector sound, boisterously driven by piano and organ. Pilotdrift opens. 8 PM, the Vic, 3145 N. Sheffield, 773-472-0449 or 312-559-1212, $21.50, 18+. –J. Niimi
BIGG JUS Before I heard Bigg Jus’s new album, Poor People’s Day (Mush Records), I assumed it would suck–I knew that El-P, his onetime partner in Company Flow, had spent the years since then building the Def Jux label into an indie behemoth, but I hadn’t heard much of anything from Jus. It turns out I’m the one who sucks, because his skills haven’t atrophied at all–on the new one he’s still a bristling, bellicose rabble-rouser with a cryptic streak. (At one point he raps, “Besieged with fanatical cherub Enochs at the coronation of King James pontificating / Sistine Chapel look like Hieronymus Bosch paintings.” Um, what?) Luckily there are plenty of relatively transparent lyrics that indict the powers that be and exalt the world’s poor, and they give you some hint of how to read his dense metaphors. Jus often defies the beat, letting his voice spill over accents and bar ends. He’s also a graffiti artist–under the name Lune TNS–and the album’s production, by DJ Gman, suggests the untidy explosiveness of an end-to-end burner on a subway car. Occasionally Gman settles into a gentler groove, but the album’s most inspired moments are its most raucous–Jus and Gman can make confusion and dissonance sound dope as hell. Bigg Jus headlines; also on the bill are Orko Elohiem, K-the-I with DJ Shortrock & V8, Vyle, Serengeti, Rift Napalm, DJ White Lightning, and Skech 185. 9 PM, Abbey Pub, 3420 W. Grace, 773-478-4408 or 866-468-3401, $12 in advance, $15 at the door, 18+. –Kabir Hamid
