The Weekender | Music shows for November 3-6, 2011

Thursday 3


6pm, Chicago Cultural Center, FREE!
Young Lithuanian saxist Jan Maksimowicz opens day two of the annual European Jazz Meets Chicago summit with a bang, sharing the front line with one of Chicago's most powerful reedists, David Boykin. The rhythm team of bassist Joshua Abrams and drummer Tim Daisy ensures this set's a ripper.


8:30pm, Beat Kitchen, $10, 17 and up
The latest dispatch from Brooklyn, the sophomore album of Milagres is an artsy-yet-palatable offering that seems on the cusp of exploding into the earbuds of bearded white guys everywhere in the same manner as Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest. There’s no doubt XRT is going to be all over this shit in the next six months. So be sure to catch this gig if you want “I saw them first” bragging rights.


9pm, Metro, $23, 18 and up
This summer, the rootsy Los Angeles band Dawes released an impressive sophomore album, Nothing Is Wrong, an ode to the Laurel Canyon music scene of the early '70s. The headline slot goes to enthusiastic retro-rock sextet Blitzen Trapper, plugging its latest for Sub Pop, American Goldwing, both tonight and at a 6pm in-store at Reckless Records' Broadway location.


9:30pm, Empty Bottle, $12 day-of/$10 advance
The alias of Montreal's Laurel Sprengelmeyer, Little Scream largely sticks to ethereal folk rock, but there's an element of chaos coursing through her songs that keeps things interesting. The woozy Bobby is a bit more eccentric but no less evocative. The evening opens with the dreamy Americana of Judson Claiborne, led by Chris Salveter (formerly of Low Skies).