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cLUCKY 7S See Friday. a 9 PM, Velvet Lounge, 67 E. Cermak, 312-791-9050, $10.
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THE SLOW POISONER Andrew Goldfarb of San Francisco once led a band called the Slow Poisoners, but gradually it dwindled: now Goldfarb writes his creepy-kooky-mysterious-and-spooky songs, sings, plays guitar and drums (often at the same time), and picks out his country-gothic mad-preacher outfits all by himself. Though he can’t quite match the energy level of Hasil Adkins or the easy fluency of Robyn Hitchcock, his aesthetic, as heard on last year’s Roadside Altar, finds a midpoint between the two, full of voodoo spells, surrealistic randomness, and surfabilly licks gone wrong. Goldfarb’s also an amusing comics artist and sells his own patent medicine–a bargain at $3 a bottle if it really does cure barnacles, onanism, necrosis, the fits, and “disinterested bladder.” Considering his nom de rock, of course, you might want to just keep it as a conversation piece. The Crying Shame headlines; Naked & Shameless opens. a 10 PM, Cal’s, 400 S. Wells, 312-922-6392, $5. –Monica Kendrick
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MUSHROOMHEAD Back when they were starting out in the early 90s, Mushroomhead were best known as a lite version of Gwar. A few years later, they became semifamous as the band that Slipknot supposedly stole their shtick from. After a couple records on Universal, they released their latest, Savior Sorrow, on Megaforce last year. But these Cleveland-based purveyors of the gleefully stoopid are still plugging away, and good for them: it’s inevitable that their frat-boy rage won’t always sound so buff, but when that day comes, they can at least take comfort in the knowledge that they were always better than fucking Slipknot. Mushroomhead appear as part of the Hot Topic-sponsored Sounds of the Underground tour; the entire bill, headliner first: Gwar, Shadows Fall, Chimaira, Every Time I Die, Mushroomhead, Necro, Job for a Cowboy, Amon Amarth, Darkest Hour, the Acacia Strain, Heavy Heavy Low Low, the Number Twelve Looks Like You, the Devil Wears Prada, Goatwhore, and 2 Cents. a 12:45 PM, Congress Theater, 2135 N. Milwaukee, 312-559-1212, $28. A –Monica Kendrick
cTHOMAS HAMPSON American baritone Thomas Hampson has one of the world’s great voices. Warm, rich, and velvety, it can range from a hushed quiver to the kind of ravishing high-voltage fortissimo needed for Wagner–he won a Grammy in 2003 for his recording of TannhŠuser. With the charisma of an opera star and the poetic soul of a lieder singer, he’s a riveting performer, able to fully inhabit a role and evoke its emotional depths. Hampson has long had an intense attachment to Mahler, deepened by a series of collaborations with Leonard Bernstein: together they performed and recorded many of Mahler’s vocal works during the last few years of the conductor’s life, including the early song cycle Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen (“Songs of a Wayfarer”), which Hampson will sing tonight with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. A story of unrequited love told in four poems by the composer, it shares many qualities with his First Symphony–folk-inspired melodies, descriptions of nature, and orchestration that covers a breathtaking range of moods. Christoph Eschenbach conducts. The program also includes Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony. a 8 PM, Pavilion, Ravinia Festival, Green Bay & Lake Cook Rds., Highland Park, 847-266-5100, $10-$50. A –Barbara Yaross
I’m not sure Liz Harris was thinking ichthyologically when she named her one-woman band GROUPER, but listening to her albums is like trying to catch fish with your bare hands. The nine tracks on her full-length debut, Way Their Crept (Free Porcupine Society), sound like they started out as regular songs, but they’re swimming in so much delay that you can’t grasp the words or melodies–often her voice is the only instrument that’s still identifiable. On the follow-up, Wide, you can tell she’s singing in a language, even if you can’t be sure which one, and her minimal guitar and piano lines emerge like bones showing through skin. But the mystery at the music’s heart remains–proof that it’s more than just the side effect of a signal processor. –Bill Meyer
