thursday24
Thursday24
Eddy Current Suppression RingBert JanschShane PerlowinSleepy SunOmar Souleyman
Friday25
Eddy Current Suppression RingJohn Lee Hooker Jr.Melvins
Saturday26
Burger Records Caravan of StarsFang IslandBert JanschShane PerlowinShellshagWoven Bones
Sunday27
Fang IslandShane Perlowin
Monday28
Huntsville, On Fillmore with Nels ClineShane Perlowin
Tuesday29
Huntsville
Wednesday30
Grant Park Orchestra with Krzysztof Jablonski
BERT JANSCH Don’t let anyone tell you getting older is easy; since Bert Jansch turned 60, life has dealt him a travail to go along with every triumph. On the one hand, the Scottish singer-guitarist has enjoyed the successful reunion of his old folk-jazz band Pentangle and a warm reassessment of his 70s recordings for Charisma, occasioned by their reissue last year on Drag City—which also released 2006’s The Black Swan, an excellent encounter with younger artists who credit Jansch as an influence, like Beth Orton and Helena Espvall. On the other, he’s suffered through serious bouts with heart disease and lung cancer. But at age 66 he’s back on the road, coming to Chicago for a club gig and a festival date after a well-received tour with Neil Young. Jansch was in superb form when he last played here in 2006. He sang songs from throughout his career in a voice that sounded deeper and more weathered than it did on his self-titled 1965 debut, with much more character; his acoustic guitar technique, which uses intricate but unflashy fingerpicking and augmented chords to send little eddies of melodic filigree swirling through the main tune, was unassailable. Labelmate Meg Baird opens. See also Saturday. 8 PM, Martyrs’, 3855 N. Lincoln, 773-404-9494 or 800-594-8499, $15. —Bill Meyer
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SHANE PERLOWIN Best-known as the guitarist in Ahleuchatistas, last year Shane Perlowin stepped out with The Vacancy in Every Verse, a self-released, largely improvised solo record that reflects his main band’s recent transition away from mathy precision and toward a sound with a little more breathing room. Though four of the ten tracks were cut with a rhythm section—drummer Ryan Oslance, now the only other member of Ahleuchatistas, and bassist Joseph Burkett—overall the album’s feel is loose and spacious. On three pieces Perlowin plays tempo-shifting acoustic fingerstyle guitar, but otherwise he sticks to electric, occasionally complementing his spindly solos with delay-pedal loops whose heavily processed post-Bill Frisell curlicues provide the fertile soil for his fleet, squiggling lines and abstract, acidic sound puddles. Breakway headlines. Perlowin will play solo tonight; see also Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. 10 PM, Elastic, 2830 N. Milwaukee, second floor, 773-772-3616, $8 suggested donation. —Peter Margasak
saturday26
BERT JANSCH See Thursday. Jansch’s set today is part of Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival; doors open at 10 AM and music begins at noon. 2 PM, Toyota Park, 7000 S. Harlem, Bridgeview, 866-448-7849, sold out.
