Best concerts this weekend | Jan 18-20

There's a full list of so many great concerts coming up that we had to start our weekend early. Everything from the Tomorrow Never Knows winter fest to orchestral pieces and dance parties. If you can bear the cold, these shows are worth seeing. 

Friday January 18

Geoff Farina
6pm, The Whistler, Free
The former Karate frontman brings his signature guitarwork to the Logan Square cocktail lounge.

Baroque Band with Piers Adams
7:30pm, Music Institute of Chicago (Nichols Concert Hall), $35; seniors $30; students $15
Early music legend Piers Adams, a top-notch recorder player and member of British baroque crew Red Priest, joins Baroque Band in its continuing series inspired by classic movies. Gone with the Wind features some of the recorder repertoire's most dazzling and stormy pieces: Telemann's Recorder Concerto in C, Sammartini's Recorder Concerto in F and Vivaldi's Recorder Concertos in C major and C minor.

Grace Potter & The Nocturnals + Langhorne Slim
7:30pm, Riviera Theatre, $29
Only a few years ago, smoky-voiced Vermonter Grace Potter was a rootsy singer-songwriter who sounded like Bonnie Raitt and looked like a farmer’s daughter. But she’s sexed up her sound—and herself—to make a play for the big time. She'll be rocking out behind last year's The Lion the Beast the Beat, and if her appearance at Lollapalooza is anything to go by, writhing around in a rather saucy manner. Neofolkie Langhorne Slim brings a meaty moan and bold presence to the stage. The artist once mined old-timey roots sounds, but recent work has taken a slicker, poppier tack. He plays behind his 2012 LP,The Way We Move.

Tomorrow Never Knows 2013: The Walkmen + Father John Misty
8pm, Vic Theatre
Long-running New York alt-rock institution the Walkmen hit TKN behind Heaven, their seventh album. As on their last disc, Lisbon, the new LP proves that growing older gracefully is not beyond the capacity of a band endowed with this much attitude, ability and perceptiveness. The buzzy aura surrounding Father John Misty extends beyond his past life as a Fleet Foxes member under his given name, J. Tillman, to the music he is now releasing as a solo artist. It's soaring, soulful folk-rock that's spiked with an energy and cleverness that's absent from the Seattle group's milky work, as heard on his Sub Pop debut, Fear Fun.

Landmarks + Coffin Ships + Sundance Kids
9pm, The Burlington, donation $7
Chicago's Landmarks are a promising low-fi pop act featuring members of locals Color Radio. If you like '60s-meets-'90s indie in the vein of Saturday Looks Good to Me, you will like this.

Panic!
9pm, Beauty Bar, Free
This long-running monthly may be called Panic!, but don't expect a lot of disco here. DJs Pogo and Arturo have been holding it down with their to-die-for collections of Britpop, new wave, ’90s alternative and oldies for years at darkroom—before it shuttered this summer—and Smart Bar before that. The duo finally settled into a new slot at Beauty Bar, where their alterna-dance party picks up right where it left off.

DJ LA* Jesus
9pm, 694 Wine & Spirits, Free
Never one to half-ass it, 694 Wine Co. (formerly Juicy Wine Co.) pays a weekly homage to the '80s with holier-than-thou DJ LA*Jesus, mixing up everything from forgotten and legitimately fantastic gems to, well, Jem. Yes, guilty pleasures will abound.

Tomorrow Never Knows 2013: Niki & The Dove + SSION + Onuinu + Vacationer + Moon Boots
9pm, Lincoln Hall, $15
Swedish electro-pop group Niki & The Dove released its debut, Instinct, in 2012 on Sub Pop, of all labels—in the U.S. at least; abroad it's a major-label act. Think Lykke Li, but more funky and less tortured. Over the course of the last decade, Cody Critcheloe—the multi-talented mastermind behind SSION (pronounced “shun”)—has established himself through a series of decadent live shows, self-released CD-Rs and fanciful music videos for Peaches, Liars and Santigold, not to mention the gloriously ragged cover art for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ 2003 benchmark, Fever to Tell. With the release of a new LP, Bent, the Kansas City Art Institute grad proves himself not only a visual stylist, but a competent songwriter in his own right. Electro acts Onuinu, Vacationer and Moon Boots open.

Tomorrow Never Knows 2013: Free Energy + The Orwells + Boats + Wedding Dress
9pm, Schubas, $15
DFA-signed Philly vintage rockers Free Energy play day three of TNK in support of a sophomore LP, Love Sign, which just dropped Jan 15. If it's anything like debut Stuck on Nothing, it'll brim with bluesy classic-rock licks and youthful lyrics. Support comes from Elmhurst punks the Orwells, who've in the last year opened for Father John Misty and Nashville's Turbo Fruits. Canadian Kill Rock Stars artist Boats and chill, local indie rockers Wedding Dress support.

Ingebrigt Haker Flaten's BEAO + Haker Flaten, Adasiewicz Duo
9pm, Heaven Gallery, donation
Nordic bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten takes two turns tonight, first with vibrapone wizard Jason Adasiewicz, and then with an ensemble featuring Dave Rempis, Mars Williams, Adasiewicz, Paul Giallorenzo, Jim Baker, Fred Lonberg-Holm and Tim Daisy. This is his last Chicago stop, following two shows last week at the Hideout and Strobe Studios.

Buddy Guy + Scott Holt
9pm, Buddy Guy's Legends, $65
For Buddy Guy, see Thu 17. Scott Holt is a former Guy sideman who went solo in 1999 and has been crafting blues-rock with his own band ever since.

Joel Paterson & The Modern Sounds
10pm, Katerina's, $10
Joel Paterson kinda defines who the ideal session guy should be: selfless, musical (i.e., not a technique monger) and born with impeccably good taste. The Madison-born guitarist plays in a variety of settings around town, and each time his sympathetic hollowbody makes the rock, jazz, country, rockabilly or swing he's backing come alive.

Saturday January 19

Leave it to Ludwig
10am, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, $20; kids $15
Chicago Chamber Musicians and Chicago Shakespeare Theater collaborate on their 11th annual family concert. Bruce Adolphe's hour-long Leave it to Ludwig tells the story of Beethoven (played by Adolphe himself) helping a young musician learn the ropes of piano playing.

Meek Mill + Pha'tal P.K.A. +Bag Muzik
7pm, Congress Theater, $50-100
Philly rapper Meek Mill’s studio debut, Dreams and Nightmares, dropped Oct 30. This show was rescheduled from Dec 24.

Too Hot to Handel 
7:30pm, Auditorium Theatre, $30-72
Roosevelt's Auditorium Theatre will be filled with the joyous sounds and exuberance of this jazz and gospel reinvention of Handel's classic Messiah. "Too Hot to Handel" shapes the composer's masterpiece into an active listening experience featuring soloists, 200 additional musicians and a 50-piece symphony orchestra and a jazz ensemble under the baton of conductor Suzanne Mallare Acton.

Junior Brown
8pm, Old Town School of Folk Music (Maurer Hall), $36-38
You can talk genre or songwriting, but with Junior Brown it really all comes down to his ace guitar playing. That he’s a great writer, too, and neo-traditional country exemplar to boot, is an awesome bonus. Volume 10, from 2012, was his first release in seven years.

Dolly Varden + Jenny Bienemann
8pm, City Winery, $15-20

Dolly Varden's Steve Dawson, who teaches songwriting at the Old Town School of Folk Music, often tells his students to be specific. Don’t write vague lyrics about some nebulous town; make it a real town that means something to you. “Specific images will light up your brain more than generalizations,” he says. “Even if a listener doesn’t know those places, they still light up the brain more.”

Dawson followed his own advice when he wrote the songs for his band Dolly Varden’s sixth album, For a While. The first song, “Del Mar, 1976,” is filled with Dawson’s memories of growing up in California near the Del Mar Racetrack, including a “pickle weed hill,” a girl whose name he can’t recall, a Buck Owens concert and the pyromaniac kid next door.

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Off the Record: The ONES + Natural Information Society
8pm, David Logan Center for the Arts, Free
"Off the Record" is a new listening series sponsored by Elastic, Saki and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs that allows fans to hear an artist's new record as well as partake in an in-depth Q&A with said artist. First up are the ONES, Yaw Aygeman and Khari Lemuel, who highlight their collaborative effort, Shift. Joshua Abrams and Lisa Alvarado also present their work as the Natural Information Society.

Grace Potter & The Nocturnals + Langhorne Slim
8:30pm, Parl West, $35
See Fri. 18

Tomorrow Never Knows 2013: Chelsea Wolfe + The Amazing + King Dude + Sabers
9pm, Schubas, $15
What gothic siren Chelsea Wolfe lacks in subtlety—track names on 2011 sophomore LP,Apokalypsis, range from "Primal/Carnal" to "Demons" and "Pale On Pale"—she makes up for with a captivating presence and good taste. Her most recent LP Unknown Rooms: A Collection of Acoustic Songs, ditches many of the atmospherics that cloak the former work for a more straightforward approach, elevating her bone-chilling trill to a front-and-center position. Supporting act the Amazing, which boasts members neo-psych act Dungen, plays behind excellent sophomore album, Gentle Stream, a more folk-forward take on what one might expect from members of that Swedish collective. King Dude does the whole spooky, post-industrial, pagan-folk thing pretty well while local openers Sabers offer lovely, minimal folk-pop.

Rempis, Lonberg-Holm Duo + Alejandro
9pm, Heaven Gallery, donation
Alejandro Acierto warms up the room with a bass clarinet performance, followed by a set from two familiar faces who are really making the rounds this week: saxophonist Dave Rempis and Fred Lonberg-Holm on cello and tenor guitar.

Tomorrow Never Knows 2013: Lucero + Matrimony + Houndmouth
9pm, Metro, $23
Memphis six-piece Lucero's rugged Americana is more of a proven crowd-pleaser than Matrimony, if not as polished. We're more excited about Houndmouth, whose organ-slathered folk-rock got the Louisville-area band signed to Rough Trade.

Tomorrow Never Knows 2013: Freelance Whales + Hundred Waters + Snowmine
9pm, Lincoln Hall, $15
Day four of TNK at Lincoln Hall stars Freelance Whales, a Queens, New York, band that plays catchy, string-based indie-folk that's buoyed by whimsical synths. The band released a Shane Stoneback–produced record, Diluvia, last October. For Hundred Waters, see Top live shows. NYC quintet Snowmine shows off its shimmering, swirling indie pop, in which solid songwriting balances out the liberally employed atmospherics.

Windy City Soul Club
9pm, Empty Bottle, $5
After discovering like-minded parties in Seattle, Ann Arbor and Milwaukee, five friends teamed for this Northern Soul–oriented monthly. They concentrate on upbeat cuts that were staples of the all-night dance parties at Wigan Casino in England well into the mid-’70s. If you don't like Motown, you won't get it. Their followers come dressed to impress, and we suggest you do the same.

Soul Summit
9pm, Double Door, Free
There's no shortage of dusty soul nights around town these days, but when they are manned by DJs like these, you won't hear us complaining. Dave Mata of Rogers Park arts space Impala Sound, Duke Grip of Spectrum and Numero Group collaborator Sloppy White preside monthly over this raw R&B, funk and soul dance party. DJ Chairman Mao of Ego Trip guests for the three-year anniversary party in January.

Buddy Guy + Billy Branch & The Sons of Blues 
9:30pm, Buddy Guy's Legends, $65
For Buddy Guy, see Thu 17. Ever since he was mentored by the likes of Willie Dixon in the '70s, Billy Branch has continued to live up to his early promise as a fine singer and harmonica player.

Paulinho Garcia Quartet
10pm, Katerina's, $10
An understated singer and dazzling guitar player, Chicago resident Paulinho Garcia does his native Brazil proud throughout his sparkling bossa-jazz repertoire.

Sunday January 20

Jonita Lattimore & Paul Hamilton
3pm, Fine Arts Building, $25, students $10
Chicago lyric soprano Lattimore and Savannah, Georgia–born pianist Hamilton buddy up for a recital of music by American composers, including Music in the Loft composer-in-residence, Lita Grier.

Chicago Sinfonietta
3pm, North Central College (Wentz Hall), $26-50
Opera superstar Eric Owens, who gave a smashing performance as a war-weary solider in Lyric's Hercules in 2011, makes his highly anticipated conducting debut in a tribute concert to Martin Luther King Jr. The charismatic bass-baritone makes his first mark on the podium with Barber's classic Adagio for Strings, before returning to the stage to sing Lena McLin's brand new arrangement of I'm a Soldier (Spiritual Suite). Sinfonietta music director Mei-Ann Chen also leads the orchestra in Obo Addy's Wawshishijay, Aaron Copeland's Clarinet Concerto (featuring Chicago native Anthony McGill) and Florence Price's The Oak. The evening ends with a selection of lively gospel songs, sung by the award-winning Mosaic Choir under the direction of Mark Myers.

Louis Lortie
3pm, Symphony Center (Orchestra Hall), $23-85
The French-Canadian pianist explores the CSO's ongoing theme, "The Wagner Effect," as part of the Symphony Center Presents Piano series. His inspired program of Wagner and Liszt shares more than a musical connection: Liszt's daughter, Cosmia, married Wagner in 1870. Lortie plays Liszt's piano transcriptions of selections from Wagner's operas, includingTristan and Isolde and Tannhauser.

Buddy Guy + Jimmy Burns
7:30pm, Buddy Guy's Legends, $55
For Buddy Guy, see Thu 17. Jimmy Burns is one of the most straight-ahead blues acts in the city. While he doesn't go off on the same acid-rock detours as the others, he still has a surplus of high energy to keep heads nodding and asses shaking.

Tomorrow Never Knows 2013: Geographer + Family of the Year + Royal Canoe + The Hudson Branch
9pm, Schubas, $15
Myth, released last year by San Francisco's Geographer, navigates a curious conflation of synth-pop and indie-rock to varying degrees of grandiosity. L.A.’s Family of the Year opens along with the electronic indie of Winnipeg’s Royal Canoe and Chicago’s Hudson Branch.

Tomorrow Never Knows 2013: Jessie Ware + Rochelle Jordan + Mister Lies + Kriz Baronia
9pm, Lincoln Hall, $15
Jessie Ware may carry the most buzz of any artist at TNK, and the soulful U.K. siren is well-paired with Toronto singer Rochelle Jordan, who released her second studio LP, P R E S S U R E, last year. Synthetic lullabies from Mister Lies set the stage with opening support from local DJ Kriz Baronia.

Sunday Transmission Series: Rempis, Abrams and Ra Trio
10pm, Hungry Brain, $8 donation
The man behind Elastic's improvisational weekly, saxophonist Dave Rempis, joins bassist Joshua Abrams (who last year released an excellent LP, Represencing, which features the familiar sideman on guimbri) and drummer Avreeayl Ra (who's played with the great Sun Ra) for a free-form performance.

Derrick Carter
10pm, Smart Bar, $5
As soon as Carter was old enough to drive, he was sneaking into the city to immerse himself in Chicago’s rich house-music culture. Before he knew it, he was contributing as much to it as he was taking in. An integral part of the second wave of house DJs spawned in the city, Carter is a legend in his own right, and his live sets are as potent as they've ever been. He's back at Smart Bar tonight with Michael Serafini and Garrett David for the Queen! dance party.