Halloween is a week away, which means plenty of locals will be donning costumes that vaguely resemble beloved (and perhaps bygone) bands to cover said bands—it’s the one time a year a small local bar can put together a bill with the names Faith No More and Stone Temple Pilots even though the original groups won’t actually be on hand to play.
If holiday cover sets aren’t your thing there are plenty of noteworthy live shows happening all weekend long that won’t require you to watch someone mimic Scott Weiland. (Or should I say mimic Chester Bennington filling in for Scott Weiland?) Tonight Oozing Wound celebrates its debut album, Retrash, at the Empty Bottle, and doomy, sludgy metal duo the Body opens. Tomorrow Into It. Over It. plays a record release show at Schubas while Desaparecidos hit the Metro. On Saturday the International Contemporary Ensemble performs John Zorn at the MCA, and Sunday night Actress plays the Empty Bottle.
There are plenty more shows happening this weekend—head to Soundboard to get a peek at all the show offerings for the weekend and read on for recommended picks from Reader critics.
Thu 10/24: Disclosure at House of Blues
“Brothers Guy and Howard Lawrence were born in Surrey, England, in the early 90s, but their hearts are in 1980s Chicago. As the duo Disclosure they’re at the forefront of a recent large-scale revival of the UK’s fascination with vintage house; that fascination goes all the way back to when the stuff was still contemporary, but it’s only intermittently been such a mass phenomenon,” writes Miles Raymer. “Their debut album, Settle (Island), draws inspiration from every subcell of house’s first few waves, whether melodically soulful or harshly jacking, and though Disclosure imitate the sounds of a scene that could be staunchly anticommercial (when it wasn’t busy chasing paper), they’ve become full-blown pop stars at home (after getting their start on fashionable indie labels such as Greco-Roman).”
Fri 10/25: Michael Formanek at Constellation
“Bassist Michael Formanek is a forceful player, but his music has an unassuming grace and generosity—even at its thorniest and most tightly wound, the clarity of its lines gives it room to breathe, and Formanek happily yields the spotlight to his bandmates,” writes Peter Margasak. “Since 2010 Formanek has made two terrific quartet albums for ECM with saxophonist Tim Berne, pianist Craig Taborn, and drummer Gerald Cleaver. The most recent, Small Places, captures the strong rapport the group achieved after several years together—doubtless bolstered by his relationship with Berne, which goes back to the 90s.”
Sat 10/26: Those Darlins at Schubas
“The two women in Nashville four-piece Those Darlins have built a reputation as the kind of ladies with just enough white trash in them to scrape their knees, swig hard from a bottle of whiskey, and spit the liquor on their wounds by way of first aid,” writes Kevin Warwick. “Those Darlins’ newest album, Blur the Line (on Oh Wow Dang, the band’s label), softens the snarling and the reckless abandon, instead journeying toward the fabled land where musicians start to sound like grown-ups who’ve been a bit scarred from one too many escapades—the album cover, picturing the band embracing naked with their heads and shoulders cropped out, could be taken to signify a new vulnerability, that’s for sure.”
Sun 10/27: Melt-Banana at Double Door
“It’s been six years since irrepressible Japanese noise-pop-skronkcore band Melt-Banana released a new studio album—Bambi’s Dilemma, which came out in 2007, was their most accessible yet, surprising some fans with its sugary sweetness,” writes Monica Kendrick. The return to town with a brand new album, Fetch (A-Zap). “Fetch is a dazzling return to form, though, even without a live drummer or longtime bassist Rika Hamamoto—it’s got so much technical wizardry and shrieking pop savvy scrunched sideways and upside-down into its 33 minutes, you’d never guess Melt-Banana had been away.”