CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA WITH LEIF OVE ANDSNES In the absence of Riccardo Muti, who fainted and fell from the podium during a rehearsal two weeks ago, fracturing multiple bones in his face and jaw, the CSO has scrambled for replacement conductors. The good news is that the ebullient Gianandrea Noseda takes the reins for this program, though with an unfortunate change away from the unique music of Edgard Varese. Most important, pianist Leif Ove Andsnes will still play Brahms’s glorious Piano Concerto no. 2 in B-flat Major. The restraint he brings to the Romantic repertoire—rubato is barely in his vocabulary, and his critics would like to thaw some of his Norwegian reserve—seems very natural and can be quite convincing. Andsnes has called this work “the most joyful thing I’ve done with an orchestra,” noting that he finds “so much chamber music in it.” Brahms beautifully weaves piano and orchestra together in this most symphonic of concertos—the soloist’s virtuosity is buried in the music. The concert opens with Stravinsky’s Divertimento (Suite From The Fairy’s Kiss), a lightweight piece drawn from his 1928 ballet homage to Tchaikovsky, which used melodies from that composer’s early piano pieces and songs. Next comes Borodin’s sensuous Polovtsian Dances, from his opera Prince Igor, whose melodies have seeped into popular culture. Noseda, once a protege of Valery Gergiev at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg (home of the Kirov Orchestra, Opera, and Ballet), knows just what to do with this music. See also Friday and Saturday. 8 PM, Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan, 312-294-3000, $28-$239. —Steve Langendorf
Thursday17
Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Leif Ove Andsnes
Friday18
Beans Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Leif Ove AndsnesStartlessWild Nothing
Saturday19
Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Leif Ove Andsnes Dismemberment PlanFuture Islands Motorhead
Old 97’s
Sunday20
Available Jelly Dismemberment Plan
Tuesday22
Absu
Available JellyLizz Wright
Thank You
Wednesday23
Available Jelly
Fishbone
Krunchies
STARTLESS The current cassette revolution is, for the most part, a nostalgic exercise in fetishizing old crap, and as such it’s worth sitting out. If you want downgraded sound that fits in your coat pocket, there’s got to be some kid on your block with an outmoded MP3 player he doesn’t want anymore. But Jason Zeh of Bowling Green, Ohio, has found a way to make music out of the cassette’s destruction. Live, Zeh stretches tapes, runs handheld demagnetizers over them while they play, and even uses candles to melt both cassettes and players, yielding a rich variety of squelching, clicking, and scraping sounds. Startless is Zeh’s project with local noise magnate Blake Edwards (best known as Vertonen), who in this context sets aside his usual electronics to work with playback media, including turntables, tapes, and shortwave radios. The 36-minute piece from their forthcoming debut CD-R, Circulation Decay (C.I.P./Eye Wish Arts), consists of sounds you might call noise, but it’s never particularly harsh or noisy. Instead the duo uses remorselessly looped static and cartridge bumps to create a meditative backdrop for a leisurely conversation between shuddering tape flutters and dry, fuzzy hisses. Robert Turman headlines; Olivia Block & Lou Mallozzi, Startless, and Karl J. Paloucek open. 9 PM, Enemy, 1550 N. Milwaukee, third floor, enemysound.com, donation requested. —Bill Meyer
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FUTURE ISLANDS Before they released In Evening Air (Thrill Jockey) last year, Baltimore trio Future Islands seemed like they’d always be one of those bands that excels onstage but not on record. Live, they pump out energetic New Order-style post-new wave, heavy on the bass and synths, while engrossing front man Samuel Herring—who commits his body totally to the music, as if his bandmates’ notes were actually physically striking him, and might leap at any moment from a soulful melody to a gnarly, frazzled croon—directs audience-wide dance frenzies. But that vigor didn’t quite come across on some of the band’s earlier recordings—their 2008 album, Wave Like Home (Upset the Rhythm), suffers from rinky-dink, underpowered production that’s downright distracting. In Evening Air sounds like Future Islands were able to breathe easy in the studio, though, and take the time to get everything right—the album’s strong mix shows off their knack for exuberant floor-filling jams as well as mellow synth-pop. It’s great to finally be able to hear some of the band’s great onstage punch even when they’re between tours. Ed Schrader’s Music Beat and Wumme open. 10 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, 773-276-3600 or 866-468-3401, $8. —Leor Galil
DISMEMBERMENT PLAN See Saturday. Maritime and the Forms open. 7 PM, Metro, 3730 N. Clark, 773-549-4140, sold out.
LIZZ WRIGHT In her quest to find the style that best serves her rich, powerful voice, Lizz Wright has traipsed through fervent neosoul and sophisticated Cassandra Wilson-esque folk jazz. On her latest album, Fellowship (Verve), she switches things up again, this time trying her hand at black gospel. The record includes a five-song medley of gospel warhorses like “Up Above My Head” and “I’ve Got a Feeling,” but its sound is more like folk rock. The album is also overtly influenced by socially conscious a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock—Wright covers a tune by the group’s founder, Bernice Johnson Reagon, and Reagon’s daughter Toshi produced or coproduced five tracks. Wright sounds as strong and confident as ever, but the recording sinks into Starbucks-soundtrack ecumenicism—the music is forgettable, though it probably sounds nice beneath the hiss of a milk steamer. 8 PM, SPACE, 1245 Chicago, Evanston, 847-492-8860, $32, $28 in advance. —Peter Margasak
