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The fourth installment of the outrageous Cathedral of the Black Goat festival comes to LiveWire Lounge this weekend, with shows on Friday and Saturday night. The festival, which is headlined by the delightfully named Goatpenis, has celebrated gross, Satanic black metal three times before, and the organizers claim that this time around will be the last. If seeing a band called Satanik Goat Ritual isn’t your thing, there are a few other cool festivals going down this weekend as well, including Goose Island’s 312 Urban Block Party, which features Tokyo Police Club and Low; the Chicago Food Social at Kendall College, which is headlined by R. Stevie Moore; and the Englewood Jazz Festival at the Hamilton Park Cultural Center, whose line-up includes Ernest Dawkins and Henry Johnson.
Fri 9/20: Disappears at Empty Bottle
Scout Niblett plays at the Hideout on Saturday, oddly enough with openers Dope Body, whose groovy noise rock seems to clash with her honest and heartfelt sound. “There are lots of breakup records, but few seethe with fury like Emma ‘Scout’ Niblett’s recent It’s Up to Emma (Drag City),” writes Peter Margasak. “The album has an austere, acidic sound, and the opening track, ‘Gun,’ makes it perfectly clear where her mind is: ‘I think I’m gonna buy me a gun,’ she snarls. As the record progresses, its portrait of her emotional state grows more tangled until the only thing it’s easy to be sure about is that her relationship is irrevocably destroyed. She doesn’t threaten violence again, but she stays angry, using her lean, blues-kissed songs as though they could grab her ex by the shoulders and shake him—on ‘Second Chance Dreams,’ though, she allows that her own conflicted feelings make for a murky situation. On ‘Can’t Fool Me Now’ she begins to tap into the cathartic power of self-reclamation, concentrating her contempt into a dusky, clenched drawl, her voice gilded only by cranky, biting guitar chords and long tones on overdubbed violins and violas.”
