saturday5
Saturday5
Bryan Scary & the Shredding Tears
Dead Meadow
Polvo
Sunday6
Ahmad JamalLucky 7sThe RaceSpits
Tuesday8
Happy Mondays
Wednesday9
Chris Corsano, ThronesKing Wilkie
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POLVO Polvo‘s moment was a long time ago: their reign over the indie-rock dominion lasted maybe four years in the mid-90s, peaking with 1996’s Exploded Drawing, with all its punchy riffs and angles and meandering guitar queerness. They repurposed the archness of Sonic Youth and fused it with the languor of southern art-rock, and people loved them for it; then the moment passed and everybody got into remixes, forgetting about post-punk and moving on to post-rock. When Polvo announced their reunion shows last year, at first they seemed like just another zombified 90s band, rising from the grave to come calling, coffers out to reap the payoff of their old fans’ nostalgia. That is, until “Beggar’s Bowl,” the maniacal and deeply satisfying single off their new album, In Prism (due this week on Merge), dropped in June. There’s really only one way to say it: Polvo are back and badder than ever. The Poison Arrows and Haymarket Riot open. 9 PM, Bottom Lounge, 1375 W. Lake, 312-666-6775 or 866-468-3401, $15. —Jessica Hopper
SPITS Not only has Kalamazoo, Michigan, given the world a surprising number of abnormally large Dutch people, it’s also produced the best garage-punk band (shit, the best band, period) of the decade: the Spits. Sure, they owe an obvious creative debt to the Ramones, but the sound they’ve evolved—ultracatchy vocals that fall somewhere between a bark and a chant, frantic ticking-time-bomb hi-hat, dystopian robot-queef keyboards, and simple, thrashy guitar and bass parts that belong on the soundtrack to a post-apocalyptic skateboard video—is like nobody else’s. Not since Leave Home has a record stayed in my personal rotation the way every single Spits album has. Brothers and core members Sean and Erin Wood—they play guitar and bass, respectively, and share vocals—present a loutish cave-brah exterior, but they crank out dumb-smart, funny-serious post-juvie punk about hanging out and hanging on, making great music out of bad times as well as good. The brothers relocated to Seattle early in the decade, and then in ’04 Erin moved to LA, which slowed the band down—their fourth and latest self-titled album (released by Recess and Thriftstore, it’s usually called “School’s Out”) is their first in five years. But the winning formula stays the same—ten songs, 15 minutes, and lyrics about blowing up your teacher’s car, living in a van, and ripping up the streets on your skateboard. Woven Bones and Mother of Tears open. 9 PM, Double Door, 1572 N. Milwaukee, 773-489-3160 or 312-559-1212, $13, $10 in advance. —Brian Costello
wednesday9
