Best concerts this weekend | Feb 8-10

There are plenty of awesome concerts this weekend, so choose wisely. Retribution Gospel Choir is at Schubas and Coheed and Cambria is at the Congress Theater with their two-part concept album—but those are just a few that caught our eye. 

Friday February 8

Madame Butterfly
7pm, Chicago Temple, $30-$50; seniors and students $20
American Chamber Opera transposes the action of Puccini's classic opera from Japan to Mombasa, Kenya, in this thought-provoking production. Tenor and Verismo Opera Club founder Bradley Schuller stars as an American navel officer, Lt. Pinkerton, who betrays his faithful wife, Butterfly. Proceeds from the event will be donated to Aid for Africa, which supports the education of women and children in Kenya.

Blockbusters
7:30pm, Harris Theater, $15-$30
Chamber-music blockbusters are on the cards this evening. Strauss's lyrical and technically demanding Violin Sonata in E-flat major, Op. 18, shares the bill with Ned Rorem's punch-packing Aftermath for piano and voice trio. César Franck's ultra-expressive Piano Quintet in F minor, allegedly written while he was infatuated with one of his students, brings the evening to a close. Baritone Randall Scarlata is joined by a first-class crew including pianist Gil Kalish and violinist Ani Kavafian.

University of Chicago Folk Festival 2013
8pm, Mandel Hall, $25; seniors $20; students $10
The University of Chicago kicks off its annual Folk Festival, now in its 53rd year, with performances by acclaimed Irish music duo James Kelly (fiddle) & Daithi Sproule (guitar, vocals), old-timey duo Kirk Sutphin & Bertram Levy, bluesman Elmore James Jr., Irish music practitioners Brian Miller & Randy Gosa, and Sheryl Cormier & Family. A weekend pass is available for $55, or $45 for seniors. For more information, visit uofcfolk.org.

Wane's World: A History of "Things"
8pm-11pm, Soccer Club Club, Free
Local racketmaker Running performs at the opening of Becca Mann's solo exhibition at the Northwest Side gallery run by Drag City. The L.A.-based artist is perhaps best known for her work on album covers, most notably Joanna Newsom's Have One on Me.

Wild Jesus & the Devil's Lettuce + Cruciforms +Post Honeymoon
9pm, Township, $6
You’d never guess it from the name, but Wild Jesus & the Devil's Lettuce Family Party Band can get pretty out there. It’s true! Downright psychedelic, we tell you. The chamber-rock Cruciforms open, along with fellow local act Post Honeymoon, a rockin' goth-tinged drum and keyboard duo featuring members of the New Black.

H.R. + The Scotch Bonnets + The Drastics
9pm, Cobra Lounge, $10
Bad Brains singer H.R. is an inscrutable dervish, able to shift from furious hardcore to harmonious reggae…when he feels like it. Alas, lately the legend’s infamy stems as much from his personal instability and unpredictability as it does from his music, though when he’s in the zone he possesses an undeniable if creepy charisma. The skanking Scotch Bonnets and Drastics support.

Donny McCaslin Group
9pm, Green Mill, $15
Saxophonist Donny McCaslin is one of the most versatile and responsive team players, whether he's supporting another leader or working with colleagues in his own bands. This weekend he's dealing a handful of aces in keyboardist Jason Lindner, bassist Tim Lefebvre and drummer Mark Guiliana.

Shimmer
9pm, Chris's Northland Tavern, $5; free before 10pm
DJ Peroxide spins the goth-friendly monthly, which now calls the Northland home. Joined by Scary Lady Sarah, he spins the most ethereal side of rock music, touching on chill-wave, dream pop, shoegaze, psych and other things cosmic and trippy. Expect sparkly left-field indie dancing and fashion risk-taking.

Ghostface Killah + Sheek Louch + DJ Timbuck2
9pm, The Shrine, $32-$45
Prolific Wu-Tang mainstay Ghostface Killah is an incredibly reliable performer, splicing in classic Wu cuts with classics of his own warped, often lol-inducing, tunes. His new record,Twelve Reasons to Die, which names RZA as executive producer, was reportedly set to drop along with a comic book last November, but has apparently been delayed. He's also been working on a record with MF DOOM—the pair call themselves DOOMSTARKS—titledSwift and Changeable, which is due this year.

Jaill + Slushy + The Bingers
9:30pm, Beat Kitchen, $10
One of Sub Pop's only Midwest signees, Jaill is a punky garage-pop band from Milwaukee that's a fitting soundtrack for any raucous house party featuring its hometown's working-class suds. Though they come off as super laid-back dudes, they deliver scraggly tunes that might float over to cheerful beach bop, if not for driving guitar anchors and killer lyrical narratives. Their latest, Traps, was released last summer.

Pharez Whitted Sextet
9:30pm and 11pm, Andy's, $15
Local trumpet talent Pharez Whitted, who serves as director of jazz studies at Chicago State University, enlisted a lineup of impressive players including guitarist Bobby Broom for his funky hard-bop jammer, For the People, the 2012 follow-up to 2010's elegant Transient Journey. He plays from the new disc at this two-night stand in River North.

K-Holes + Call of the Wild + Nones
9:30pm, Empty Bottle, $8
With their arty garage skronk, New York’s K-Holes do that city’s storied scuzz history proud on their latest, Dismania. Openers include Brooklyn’s Call of the Wild, whose Leave Your Leather On is a relentless blast of pure rock, and Chicago’s unrepentantly noisy Nones.

Cody ChesnuTT + Whysowhite
9:30pm, Martyrs', $15
About a decade ago, singer/guitarist Cody ChesnuTT appeared on the Roots' Phrenologyto belt the insanely catchy (and, upon close listen, mildly uncomfortable) "The Seed 2.0," and released the groovy, lo-fi The Headphone Masterpiece. After a long run off the radar, ChesnuTT finally released his sophomore album, Landing on a Hundred, last fall. Tonight we'll find out if he's still got the funk.

Sugar Blue
10pm, Rosa's Lounge, $10-$20
We suspect that in some quarters this blues veteran is still touted as the Guy Who Played Harmonica on "Miss You" by the Rolling Stones, but in blues circles he's known as the man who took Little Walter's innovations on that same instrument clear into the stratosphere. Here he begins a five-date run at Rosa's behind his 2012 live disc, Raw Sugar. The shows promise an "unplugged" acoustic side of the harp man, showcasing his diverse repertoire—from blues-rock originals to jazz standards.

Wax Tailor & the Dusty Rainbow Experience
10pm, Bottom Lounge, $15
One of the downsides to having an artistic pseudonym is anonymity. When downtempo hip-hop producer Wax Tailor started gaining some traction in France, fans would stop him after shows and thank him for flying over from the U.S. There was no need, he’d say; after all, he was French himself.
Read more

Chris Liebing + Tommy Four Seven + Shiva
10pm, Smart Bar, $20; before midnight $15
Held up alongside techno highlights like Richie Hawtin, Jeff Mills and Sven Vath, Germany's Chris Liebing has been at the forefront of the international dance-music scene since the mid-'90s. As is always the way with techno artists, Liebing keeps a close eye on state-of-the-art equipment and techniques, helping him maintain his perch at the cutting edge of dance music. Tommy Four Seven and Shiva represent the new guard on the decks.

Buke and Gase + Ahleuchatistas + Hemminbirds
10pm, Lincoln Hall, $14
To say that Buke and Gase’s Arone Dyer and Aron Sanchez are ambitious is an understatement. Not only do the New York musicians outright dismiss standard pop-song constructs for perplexing time signatures and anomalous vocal stylings, but they also make their own instruments. Together they craft some of the most captivating and cerebral art-pop in recent memory, as heard on the new General Dome, a 13-song collection that lays waste to the term derivative. North Carolina’s Ahleuchatistas, another duo, is fitting support with its instrumental, postpunk concoctions steeped in jazz, Eastern and classical influences.

Just Blaze + Baauer
10pm, The Mid, advance $18, day of show $20
Conscious of the fact that hip-hop and EDM feed off one another, Brooklyn-based bass-music young ’un Baauer (born Harry Rodrigues) has joined forces with the learned studio hand of Just Blaze for a two-week tour that succeeds on one level—making a bigger bang than either would make on his own.
Read more

Angel Olsen + Water Liars
10pm, Hideout, $7
Bonnie "Prince" Billy pal Angel Olsen has a ridiculous voice—in the best way possible. Sometimes it flutters with the delicacy of Vashti Bunyan. Other times it warbles, Edith Piaf–style, teeming with raw emotion. She plays in support of her debut LP, Half Way Home. Justin Kinkel-Schuster, one half of the duo Water Liars, performs a solo gig under the moniker. The band's set to release its second record, Wyoming, in March, so expect to hear some (even more) stripped-down tracks from the LP.

Saturday February 9

Coheed and Cambria + Between the Buried and Me + Russian Circles
6:30pm, Congress Theater, $29.98
In the decade since its first release, prog-punk outfit Coheed and Cambria has wisely refined a successful formula, sounding properly bombastic and effortlessly hooky. The New York combo's latest is a grandiose two-part concept album, The Afterman: Ascension and The Afterman: Descension, that puts visceral lyrics and epic instrumentation in a sci-fi realm (like all of the group's past albums). North Carolina's Between the Buried and Me supports with its powerful if occasionally wanky mix of extreme-metal shred and hardcore angst. Local instrumental-metal experimentalists Russian Circles are sort of like an adrenaline-fueled jam band for Mastodon fans. The group's latest, Empros, offers an excellent blend of bottom-end burliness and epic psych-metal guitar textures, while its live show promises plenty of haunting up lights and fog machines.

Ken Stringfellow
7pm, Schubas, advance $12; day of show $14
Ken Stringfellow’s little black book of former bandmates reads like an A-to-Z of alt-rock royalty. He fronted power-pop group the Posies, toured with old-school R.E.M. and played bass with Big Star. On his website, Stringfellow calls his new, fourth album, the somewhat cringingly titled Danzig in the Moonlight, “a culmination of all I have learned and experienced in over 30 years of performing, producing, writing and conceptualizing music.”

Ty Segall + Ex Cult + Trin Tran
7pm, Empty Bottle, $14
Ty Segall's been recording and performing for a little less than a decade, but already he’s left behind a cluttered trail of albums, singles, cassettes, collaborations and other detritus that perhaps makes diving into his little world a little more daunting than it should be. So let us suggest beginning with 2012's Hair, a typically shambling, no-frills but plenty of fun indie-psych collaboration with members of White Fence. He tours here in support of Twins, another 2012 release under his name alone (see, the man's busy), which gives off a glammy vibe compared to the garage of his earlier work.

Encuentros Music Series
7pm, National Museum of Mexican Art, $10; students $5
Chicago Sinfonietta's Percussion Ensemble buddies up with the Chiara Mangiameli Ensemble at the Pilsen museum in a continuing effort to make classical music more accessible to Chicago's Latino community.

Iris DeMent + Jason Wilbur
8pm and 10:30pm, City Winery, $32-$40
Veteran country-folk singer-songwriter Iris DeMent has a shrill, strong voice and sings with stirring conviction. She's also a regular on Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companionshow and has duetted with John Prine, Emmylou Harris and Steve Earle. She plays City Winery in support of Sing the Delta, her first album in 16 years. The show at 8pm is sold out. Tickets are still available for the performance at 10:30pm, which has no opener.

Hong Chulki & Choi Joonyong
8pm, Graham Foundation
Two leaders in Seoul's experimental/noise music community make a stop stateside with their cartridgeless turntables to kick of the Lampo series' 2013 season.

The Grascals + Sunnyside Up
8pm, Old Town School of Folk Music (Maurer Hall), $21-$23
Hank Williams Jr.–approved bluegrass sextet the Grascals hits Lincoln Square behind its newest, Life Finds a Way, which scooped up a Grammy nom in 2012 for Best Bluegrass Album. This is its last show before the ceremony, so fans, keep your fiddles crossed.

Donny McCaslin Group
9pm, Green Mill, $15
Saxophonist Donny McCaslin is one of the most versatile and responsive team players, whether he's supporting another leader or working with colleagues in his own bands. This weekend he's dealing a handful of aces in keyboardist Jason Lindner, bassist Tim Lefebvre and drummer Mark Guiliana.

Joachim Badinhurst + Gregorio, Labycz & Roebke
9pm, Heaven Gallery, donation
Reedist Joachim Badinhurst opens with a solo performance followed by reedist Guillermo Gregorio who plays as part of an electro-acoustic trio with Brian Labycz on modular synth and bassist Jason Roebke.

Lasers and Fast and Shit + Speck Mountain + Weatherman
9pm, Schubas, $7
Just about truth in advertising, Lasers and Fast and Shit does not lack in gimmick, not least a band-controlled light show. However, the group kicks all sorts of ass beyond the spectacle. Speck Mountain’s Marie-Claire Balabanian and Karl Briedrick relocated here from New York nearly six years ago and haven’t looked back since. Badwater, the group’s third album, casts its spell slowly, perfecting a drifting, dream-pop mystique that maintains an impenetrable calm. Weatherman features local singer-songwriter Annie Higgins, whose infallibly pretty voice steers the material on the duo's new CD, which it celebrates tonight.

Carlos Johnson + Mike Dangerous
9:30pm, Buddy Guy's Legends, $20
A renowned local bluesman who has played behind the likes of Otis Rush, Junior Wells and Son Seals, Carlos Johnson grafts his sizzling guitar riffs to funky Albert King–style grooves.

Retribution Gospel Choir + Stagnant Pools
10pm, Schubas, advance $10; day of show $12
Recently the band Low has gotten almost too adult for its own good. While I appreciate the deeply felt, carefully rendered odes to spiritual sustenance on its latest albums, sometimes I miss the blown-out production, celebrations of deafness and pleas to be God’s hit man that made the Duluth, Minnesota, trio’s mid-’00s recordings so compelling. That’s where Retribution Gospel Choir comes in.
Read More

The Hudson Branch + Tiger Waves
10pm, The Ace Bar, $8
Local quintet the Hudson Branch's latest, World Kid, is a tasteful and tasty bit o' indie whose fussiness provides no small part of its appeal.

Sunday February 10

Rediscovering Felix Mendelssohn
9am-4:30pm, Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies, $125; students $50
Conductor Stephen Somary joins Spertus for an all-day seminar of music, discussions and lectures that explores the work of Felix Mendelssohn. Letters and artwork help illuminate the life of the German romantic composer. Tickets include a kosher continental breakfast, snack and lunch.

Off the Record: Trouble in Mind
11am, Saki
Local label Trouble in Mind (which was started in 2009 by Bill and Lisa Roe of CoCoComa) provides a preview spin of two of its upcoming releases at this listening party sponsored by the Department of Cultural Affairs. First up is Cabinet of Curiosities, the debut LP of Dutch multi-instrumentalist Jacco Gardner, followed by Shadows by Los Angeles–based artist Frank Maston. Ty Segall pal Mikal Cronin, whose 2011 solo debut was released on Trouble in Mind, is also slated to perform a short live set.

Angela Hewitt
Symphony Center, Orchestra Hall, $23-$85
Catch an afternoon of keyboard favorites with the Canadian pianist. Known for her interpretations of baroque composers, Hewitt performs Bach's short and sweet French Suites Nos. 5 and 6, along with Debussy's Pour le piano and Ravel's Le tombeau de Couperin—a tribute to his friends who died during WWI.

Lindi Ortega +Dustin Bentall & the Smokes
8pm, Schubas, $12
Listen past some of the more atmospheric production flourishes on Little Red Boots, the full-length debut album by Canadian singer Lindi Ortega, and you'll hear straight-up echoes of the country-kitten coo Dolly Parton perfected early on. A vocalist who's played second fiddle to Brandon Flowers and Kevin Costner (!), Ortega tours here in support of her 2012 release, Cigarettes & Truckstops, produced by Colin Linden, and her first release since relocating to Nashville in late 2011.

Cam'ron
8:30pm, Double Door, $22-$50
Cam’ron’s four-year hiatus from the rap game is officially over as he’s touring in support of an upcoming record, Killa Season 2. The Harlem MC fires up the crowd with faves such as “Get ’Em Girls” and “Hey Ma”—reminding Chicago that he still has it. UPDATE: This show has been rescheduled from Fri 8. All Friday tickets will be honored at the door.

Sunday Transmission Series: Birmingham-Chicago Exchange
10pm, Hungry Brain, donation $10
The South invades the North in tonight's performance of works by Birmingham pianist-composer Steve Tromans. Sitting in are Chicago strong-arms Ken Vandermark, James Falzone, Josh Berman and Dave Rempis as well as Alabama-based "exchange" players Tromans, Chris Mapp, Miles Levin and Mark Sanders.