INDIE | A benefit for hail-battered Garfield Park Conservatory
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Mahle has made lots of connections in the Chicago music scene, both in the hard-gigging Sybris and as a sound engineer (these days most often at Subterranean and Beat Kitchen), and he’s assembled a solid lineup—Sunken Ships are playing, of course, and Bobby Conn, Del Rey, Big Science, Bare Mutants, and DJ Scary Lady Sarah fill out the bill. The show’s at 8 PM at Lincoln Hall on Thu 8/18, and it costs $20.
There’s also a raffle with prizes from dozens of independent Chicago businesses and a silent auction that includes collectibles from LCD Soundsystem, Alkaline Trio, Cap’n Jazz, the Smoking Popes, Pelican, and scene stalwarts like poster artist Jay Ryan, journalist Jim DeRogatis, and photographer Jim Newberry.
She also calls Czarny Sen “the feel-bad record of the winter,” and “Eclipse” shows why: it’s like a reflection in dark, unquiet water, and Jablonski’s incantatory Polish vocals help create an unease that crystallizes into refracted bolts of dissonant guitar. The album, which should come out around Halloween on Solotroff’s Bloodlust! label, also includes a dirgelike, minor-key cover of “Land of the Glass Pinecones” by late-70s Boston band Human Sexual Response. Rabid Rabbit’s next show is Wed 8/31 at 10 PM at Beauty Bar, with openers Alma Negra (who also open for Mr. Rudy Day at the Hideout Sat 8/13). It’s free, and there’s free pizza from Pie-Eyed.
At first Birth was a low-key project; the band had its first show in July 2009, and after that gigged only once every couple months. About a year ago they started playing out more, and since then they’ve released three cassettes and a self-titled album.
