friday6
cFALGUNI PATHAK Of the estimated 125,000 Indian immigrants living in the Chicago area, approximately half hail from the western state of Gujarat. To celebrate the autumn Hindu festivals of Navratri and Dussehra, Gujaratis perform a dandiya raas, or “dance of swords,” in which actors use wooden sticks to re-create the battle between goddess Durga and demon Mahishasura. The dance is generally performed to upbeat folk music dominated by traditional percussion instruments like the dhol, but Falguni Pathak has become India’s “dandiya queen” by adding Western instruments. She and her band, Ta-Thaiya, perform both dandiya music and pop songs, a mix that has attracted massive crowds to her live shows in Mumbai. Pathak’s sweet, lilting voice sometimes gets less attention than her short hair and masculine attire, a look that has made her an icon in India’s growing gay community. But though her pop songs explore romantic themes, she tends to brush off direct questions about her sexuality. “I feel people are more intrigued because there is a vast contrast between my feminine voice and boyish dressing,” she told one reporter. She’ll perform with Ta-Thaiya at this show, which like all her dandiya events is part concert, part dance party. a 8 PM, Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel & Convention Center, 1551 Thoreau Dr., Schaumburg, 773-338-0292, $20 in advance, $25 at the door. A –Cara Jepsen
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PIT ER PAT This Chicago trio takes a big step forward on Pyramids (Thrill Jockey), its second full-length. The arrangements are looser and less rock oriented, and the bouncing, bustling rhythms are less spazzy and overbearing–they’re more of a subdued throb, in keeping with the album’s gently floating textures. The sweet, delicate singing of keyboardist Fay Davis-Jeffers is still the focal point, but beneath her soft voice all kinds of sounds go scurrying. On “Brain Monster,” dublike whooshes slip through the stacked keyboard patterns like curls of smoke, and on “Time Monster”–whose melody sounds strikingly like Sun Ra’s “Love in Outer Space”–bongo beats underline a seesawing electric piano, percolating through it in a slightly different tempo so that the two drift in and out of sync. But thanks to the good sense of coproducer John McEntire and the thick-toned lines of bassist Rob Doran, the songs never fall apart, no matter how whimsical they get. Chandeliers and Lark (a side project of Locks and A Tundra drummer Theo Katsaounis) open. For another take on Pyramids, see Section 1. a 10 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, 773-276-3600 or 866-468-3401, $8. –Peter Margasak
awesome color, tall firs Both these Brooklyn trios are beneficiaries of the surprising distribution deal Thurston Moore’s long-running Ecstatic Peace! label signed with Universal this spring. Awesome Color are neither awesome nor particularly colorful; their self-titled debut sticks to one Stoogey shade. Tall Firs’ eponymous full-length, on the other hand, is entrancing. The intimate vocals on the opening track, “More to Come,” have some of the same aw-shucks modesty James McNew radiates when he takes his turn at the mike in Yo La Tengo. The semiacoustic, British-folky songs are minimally adorned, leaving the focus on Dave Mies and Aaron Mullan’s hushed harmonies and their plucked guitars, which flicker like kindling sparks in a hearth. White/Light headlines; Awesome Color plays second; Tall Firs open. a 9 PM, South Union Arts, 1352 S. Union, 312-850-1049, $10 suggested donation. A –J. Niimi
junior boys In the last two years practically every magazine on either side of the pond has lined up to palm a boner at the feet of Canadian duo the Junior Boys. It seemed like every critic thought their 2004 debut, Last Exit, was one of the best albums of the year, and some are saying the same about their newest, So This Is Goodbye (Domino). Whether you’ll agree sorta depends on your appreciation for fey vocals and quiet synthesizers. I think of the JBs as an even-less-macho version of the Postal Service, with songs gingerly balanced between contemporary and retro, scrumptious and fluffy, Luomo and Talk Talk. Via Tania opens, Justin Sconza (of Walter Meego) plays second, and Nonformat spins between sets. a 9:30 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, 773-276-3600 or 866-468-3401, $10 in advance, $12 at the door. –Jessica Hopper
ctv on the radio, grizzly bear When TV on the Radio emerged out of the New York art-rock scene three years ago, they seemed fully formed: a brilliant, gnomic, and mildly confounding group of experimenters. Their debut EP, Young Liars, was a bracing collection of hip-hop, trip-hop, free-jazz, and doo-wop sounds that was hard to describe without resorting to wild hand gestures and comparisons to things of great size. Even without the deconstructed Pixies cover at the end it would’ve been enough to turn TV on the Radio into the biggest indie-boner It Band around. But on their newest, Return to Cookie Mountain (Interscope), the group digs deeper in every way. The vertiginous rhythms and off-kilter horn stabs on the opener, “I Was a Lover,” are as straight-up weird as the melody is catchy, and as was evident on last year’s Katrina-inspired download-only single, “Dry Drunk Emperor,” singer Tunde Adebimpe’s romanticized alienation has sharpened into a fiery, elegant outrage. Turns out the band’s still growing into its strengths–and the more it does, the more everyone else in the world lags behind. –Miles Raymer
flaming fire This New York collective started out in 2000 dressing up like a traditional Greek chorus–perhaps to play up the comedy and tragedy of hipster club life. They’ve also created zines, comics, and video games and launched an ambitious online project where artists are invited to illustrate every single verse of the Bible, one at a time. Their two full-lengths, Grow Old and Die With Flaming Fire and Songs From the Shining Temple, merge pagan pastoralism with urban dystopianism using a mix of primitive rock, singsongy tribal chanting, and sexy-creepy kitsch–think of the cast of Caligula jamming between those orgies and executions. On their latest release, a split EP with Aleph Nought on Perhaps Transparent Records, they explicitly pay homage to the golden age of heavy psychedelic rock–as if that isn’t what they’ve been doing all along. Jackseven headlines and Star opens. a 9 PM, Subterranean, 2011 W. North, 773-278-6600 or 800-594-8499, $6. –Monica Kendrick
