Friday 7
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
CEALED KASKET Actually liking metal in these irony-saturated times can make you paranoid. Priestess’s jackets look suspiciously trendy to me, Early Man have the shifty eyes of former A.R.E. Weapons fans, and the Sword are so earnest it makes me think they’re up to something. But Cealed Kasket just put their shtick right on the table–“We have songs called ‘Cigarettes for Kids’ and ‘Death Train’ and a 500-year-old wizard named Sir Sarsicus on guitar”–and I love them for it. From what I’ve seen on the Web and heard in excerpts from their upcoming live album, their shows are a sloppy collision of New Wave of British Heavy Metal mugging, Medieval Times root-for-your-knight onstage skirmishes, and severe head trauma. And their banter–“How’d you assholes get here? Did you take . . . the Death Train?”–is almost as good as their songs. Perfect Red headlines; Cealed Kasket, the Dog and Everything, Pomeroy, and Ziel open. 8:30 PM, Metro, 3730 N. Clark, 773-549-0203 or 312-559-1212, $9, 18+. –Miles Raymer
CHANDELIERS Ghost Arcade is about to release the three-song seven-inch Circulation, a gleeful little confection from this local electronic space-pop quintet–smooth, squeaky-clean swirls of synth bounce atop glassy percussion that sounds like gamelan from a can. It’s pleasing to the ear, like Kraftwerk or Eno, except with an uncomplicated earnestness those old weirdos never attempted–the Chandeliers may think they’re being cheeky by sneaking Aleister Crowley and Robocop into the influences list on their MySpace page, but their music’s so sweet that you never worry they’d actually punk you. Michael Columbia headlines, and members of both bands DJ throughout. 10 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, 773-227-4433, $8. –Monica Kendrick
BANGLES In 1998, when the Bangles released their prom-ballad classic, “Eternal Flame,” they became only the second American all-girl group that played its own instruments and wrote its own songs to score a number one hit. The band broke up shortly thereafter, but reunited for a tour in 2000 and a 2003 album, Doll Revolution (Koch). Though its summery harmonies and fuzzbox mashing harked back to the girls’ California garage roots, the record bombed. Now they’re developing a making-the-band reality show in which they’ll mentor a young all-female group–alongside the only other women to match their success, the Go-Go’s. 9 PM, House of Blues, 329 N. Dearborn, 312-923-2000 or 312-559-1212, $28 in advance, $29.50 at the door. –Jessica Hopper
Monday 10
MOANERS Melissa Swingle, the front woman of this Chapel Hill guitar-and-drums duo, used to play dark Americana in Trailer Bride, but her partnership with former Grand National drummer Laura King has her delving into the swamp of raucous garagebilly blues–and coming out of the closet to boot. The follow-up to their 2005 debut, Dark Snack (Yep Roc), is slated to come out next year. The Groodies and the Spoken Four open. 9 PM, Abbey Pub, 3420 W. Grace, 773-478-4408 or 866-468-3401, $8 in advance, $10 at the door, 18+. –Monica Kendrick
