thursday18
Thursday18
Lionel LouekeWild Beasts
Friday19
CougarsFour TetMathew JohnsonLionel LouekeRetribution Gospel ChoirWild Beasts
Saturday20
Chicago Underground DuoLionel LouekePatti Smith
Sunday21
Bela Fleck: The Africa ProjectMerle Haggard & Kris KristoffersonLionel LouekeMars
Monday22
Taken by Trees
Tuesday23
Masters of Persian Music
Wednesday24
In the Country
WILD BEASTS When I first heard Wild Beasts‘ 2008 debut, Limbo, Panto, I dismissed them as overdramatic Morrissey enthusiasts, trying and failing to wed theatrical vocals to minimalist indie pop the way Antony & the Johnsons can. Consequently last year’s Two Dancers (Domino) gathered dust on my desk for months before I felt prepared to brave once again the falsetto of singer Hayden Thorpe, who handles a bit more than half of the band’s lead vocals. This time the band’s debonair English swagger, which I initially found obnoxious, won me over—I think Thorpe’s fascinating, meandering singing must have burrowed into my subconscious and flipped a switch. Brooding and dark, Two Dancers works hard to create its strangely seductive pull: the most dynamic song, “All the King’s Men,” juxtaposes ominous chants with shrill yelps, and the tenor vocals of Tom Fleming have an undercurrent of hothouse salaciousness a la Nick Cave. Wild Beasts are an acquired taste, but that second spoonful is worth the trouble. Still Life Still opens; see also Friday. 9 PM, Schubas, 3159 N. Southport, 773-525-2508, $15, $13 in advance, 18+. —Kevin Warwick
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COUGARS What does it take to lure Cougars out of their den in this kind of winter? (I mean the local band—if I were talking about horny older ladies, I wouldn’t have used a capital C.) Their appearances have been few and far between lately, but it seems that a highly pimped night of wrestling is enough to make one happen. The Rock and Wrestling Supershow, organized by EGO Pro Wrestling, features a hefty slate of midwestern wrestlers, and the main event is “Mr. EGO” himself, Cody Hawk, against Colt “Boom Boom” Cabana. Further down the card are Benjamin Kimera versus “Hardcore” Craig and Tarek the Legend versus “Relentless” Ron Mathis; there will also be a “triple threat” match with Ala Hussein, Steve Stone, and Devon Maximus, plus a tag-team bout with Utterly Fabulous and Punk Rock Rebellion (which sounds to me like a rumble that might’ve happened on Belmont in the 80s). It takes a furious barrage of mean-ass rock ‘n’ roll to properly soundtrack this kind of spectacle—the customary nu-metal just makes it feel like you’re watching an energy-drink commercial. Cougars play so hard it sometimes seems like they’re parodying hard rock, which to my mind makes them a perfect match for a sport that can’t decide if it’s parodying itself. Boots With Spurs open. 7 PM, Bottom Lounge, 1375 W. Lake, 312-666-6775 or 866-468-3401, $15. —Monica Kendrick
FOUR TET There Is Love in You (Domino), Four Tet‘s first proper full-length (not remixes, not a collaboration) in more than four years, is being derided in some quarters as a straight-ahead dance album, which tells you a lot about the kind of fans Kieran Hebden has attracted with this project. It’s admittedly a straight-ahead album in that it’s fairly linear, without so much of the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink incongruity that you might expect if you’ve heard the rest of Hebden’s work. “She Just Likes to Fight” is lazily sweet, and clacking samples—stereo-panned triangles, what could be a lock opening—comprise parts of the beat; it sounds like a remix of an old Tortoise song. But to call There Is Love in You a dance album is a bit of a misnomer, since you’d have a hard time luring anyone onto the floor with any of it, except for maybe two tracks—the middle of “Love Cry” is midnight-cold house, and “Plastic People” might work at the dubtech monthly you’ve got going in your basement. Nathan Fake opens. 8 and 11 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, 773-276-3600 or 866-468-3401, both shows sold out. —Jessica Hopper
PATTI SMITH While researching the bootleg record industry I discovered that Patti Smith, despite lacking the gigantic rock-star status of frequently bootlegged acts like the Stones and Led Zeppelin, was nonetheless a favorite of concert recordists. Several illegal albums of her performances did well enough to be reissued, also illegally, by other bootleg labels—the surest sign of success in the business. Listening to Teenage Perversity, an unauthorized recording of a 1976 Patti Smith Group concert in LA, I can easily see why bootleggers loved her and why she didn’t seem to mind their attention. In a live setting she and her band crackle with an energy you can pick up on even through the shittiest speakers. Though age has mellowed Smith a bit—she no longer traffics in quite the same brand of unhinged mania she could use to turn Them’s “Gloria” into a shamanistic punk ritual—in concert she still pours on the heavy, hair-raising vibes. This performance is part of the 18th annual Hopefest, a benefit for the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless; Troubled Identity opens. Sunday at 2 PM at the Harold Washington Library Center (400 S. State), Smith will give a free reading from Just Kids, a memoir of her life in New York with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in the late 60s and 70s; see Critic’s Choice in Lit & Lectures. 8 PM, Park West, 322 W. Armitage, 773-929-5959 or 312-435-4548, sold out. —Miles Raymer
