#SOS Band -Take your time - Live Performance - the Tom Joyner Fest

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SOS Band -Take your time - Live Performance - the Tom Joyner Fest

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Live Picks: 6/8-6/11

Hop Along; Photo by Tonje Thilesen

BY JORDAN MAINZER

The weekend’s got plenty of music and a couple more festivals. Check out what to see.

6/8: Bill Frisell Trio, Old Town School of Folk Music

Bill Frisell has long been one of the most innovative jazz guitarists, injecting influences from Americana/country (see Blues Dream), Malian guitar music (see his excellent The Intercontinentals), and even ambient/experimental music. To see him play in any capacity is a treat. This trio performances features bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Rudy Royston.

6/8: The Black Dahlia Murder, House of Blues

Tonight, Michigan death metal band The Black Dahlia Murder plays last year’s Nightbringers in its entirety, their best album since Ritual and certainly one of their best records yet. We previously covered a show of theirs in Joliet to support 2015′s Abysmal, and if that was anything to go by, they’re experts at combining melody and power on stage as well as in the studio.

Knoxville deathcore band Whitechapel (playing This Is Exile in its entirety) co-headlines. Italian death metal band Fleshgod Apocalypse and blackened death metal bands Aversions Crown and Shadow of Intent open.

6/8: Young Widows, Subterranean

Tonight, Young Widows celebrates the 10-year anniversary of their album Old Wounds by playing it in its entirety as well as playing some never-before-played tracks from their just-released compilation DECAYED: Ten Years of Cities, Wounds, Lightness, and Pain. Earlier this week, we spoke with front-man Evan Patterson about the new album and the upcoming show.

Singer-songwriter Emma Ruth Rundle and local post-hardcore heroes Sweet Cobra open.

6/8: The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die, Lincoln Hall

There’s a reason that this band has made it to our top albums of both 2015 and 2017 and that their show three years ago at Subterranean was one of the best we’ve reviewed. The band’s trademark mix of post-rock, post-hardcore, and truly tender emo makes their sound unmistakable. Their stories, filled with tales of sexual violence, feminist revenge, and experiences with xenophobia have hit hard for many. Yet, their most successful songs remain as vaguely relatable as their music is expansive. Their live show is becoming increasingly ambient, as well, a refreshing shift for a band not content to stay within any one scene.

Baltimore Indie post-hardcore band Pianos Become The Teeth co-headline. LA garage rock trio Teenage Wrist opens.

6/8-6/10: Chicago Blues Festival, Millennium Park

Headlining performances take place in the Jay Pritzker Pavilion and include tributes to founder and owner of Delmark Records Bob Koester and legendary blues musician Little Walter, as well as a performance by a living legend, Mavis Staples.

We previewed Mavis Staples’ headlining show at the Vic Theatre back in February:

“Since 2010′s stunning You Are Not Alone, Chicago legend Mavis Staples has fostered a fruitful musical relationship with another beloved Chicagoan: Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy. Three out of the past four albums feature production and/or songwriting from Tweedy, and his minimalism is the perfect complement to Staples’ deep soul. Her most recent offering is If All I Was Was Black, an outward and explicit political statement. Live, Staples tends to cherry pick from her recent discography but also play Staples Singers classics and covers of The Band and Buffalo Springfield.”

Vieux Farka Toure plays the Budweiser Crossroads Stage (at South Chase Promenade) on Saturday at 2:45 P.M. The Malian singer and guitarist is more than just the son of the legendary Ali Farka Toure; he’s put out some great albums in his own right, namely his self-titled debut and 2011′s wide-ranging The Secret (I see you, Dave Matthews feature). His most recent album is last year’s Samba, which features the limber and joyous “Bonheur”.

Fantastic Negrito opens for Mavis Staples on Sunday at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion. His subversive, hilarious blues punk broke out in 2016 with The Last Days of Oakland, and he’s got a new album out next Friday with Please Don’t Be Dead. So far, he’s released two songs from it: the blistering “Plastic Hamburgers” and funky “The Duffler”.

6/8-6/10: Ribfest Chcago, Lincoln Avenue from Irving Park to Berteau

You can even be a vegetarian and enjoy Ribfest because it usually books pretty good bands. This year, headliners include Southern rockers The Weeks and country punks The Waco Brothers tonight, SILY favorite Algiers and indie folk act Yoke Lore tomorrow night, and 2000′s hype kings Ra Ra Riot and Americana duo Striking Matches on Sunday.

Algiers’ The Underside of Power was one of our top albums of last year. They’re a stellar live band, lead singer Franklin James Fisher equal parts soulful and angry, the band behind him delving into everything from ramshackle post-punk to ragtime and blues.

6/9: Tech N9ne: House of Blues

Divisive and lyrically dexterous Kansas City rapper Tech N9ne comes around pretty often, but like Los Lobos, that’s reason for me to always say “I’ll catch them next time.” Eventually, you just need to bite the bullet. Albums like All 6′s and 7′s and Something Else cemented him as an ambitious rapper who can succeed when working with big concepts and other mega rappers, while recent albums like Planet and Special Effects have showed he can be a hit-maker. He’s got 20 albums to his name and a ton of other EPs. Not everything he produces is quality, but he’s pretty prolific.

Hip hop artists Krizz Kaliko, Just Juice, Joey Cool, King ISO, and Mackenzie Nicole open.

6/9: Clams Casino, East Room

We covered influential beat-maker Clams Casino’s set at Day For Night 2016, where we noted that both he and the audience seemed a bit bored. Something tells me, however, that catching him in a crowded club at night is better than catching him in a half-empty post office in the middle of the day. (I listened to Instrumentals a couple days ago, and it still bangs.) 

Producer Plu2o NASH opens.

6/9: Liz Phair, Empty Bottle

She’s got a sold out show at Empty Bottle and a major slot at this year’s Riot Fest. That’s because Matador records just released Girly-Sound to Guyville, a 25th anniversary retrospective of Liz Phair’s debut Exile in Guyville that even more notably includes remasters of her Girly Sound demo tapes. To celebrate the occasion, Phair’s set should be heavy on Guyville material, perhaps with a few highlights from Whip-Smart or Whitechocolatespaceegg. 

Indie darling Soccer Mommy opens.

6/9: The Mavericks, Thalia Hall

Tex-Mex band The Mavericks have been perhaps at their strongest since their 2010s reunion. 2013′s excellent In Time may be their best album as a whole, while 2015′s Mono (mixed in monophonic sound) appropriately emphasized production over hooks. Last year’s Brand New Day veered a bit towards Americana--just listen to those powered out fuzz riffs behind the Tex-Mex on “Damned (If You Do)”. Even if the new record wasn’t as good as the previous two, it was at least a symptom of a band unwilling to stay put.

6/9: Live from Here with Chris Thile, Ravinia

Chris Thile’s done it all: played with acclaimed bluegrass bands like Nickel Creek and Punch Brothers, won a MacArthur Genius award, and covered Bach on a solo album. Now, he takes over for Garrison Keillor, who was accused of sexual harassment, on Live from Here (formerly A Prairie Home Companion). Special guests tomorrow night include guitarist Parker Millsap (who we just previewed), acoustic instrumentalist band Hawktail, comedian Tom Papa, and duet partner Gaby Moreno.

6/10: Traschan Sinatras, SPACE

Scottish indie pop band Trashcan Sinatras embarked on an acoustic tour last year. Now, they’re on their “One Night, Two Albums” tour, in which they’ll play in full their 1990 debut Cake & 1993 follow-up I've Seen Everything as well as selections from their more recent discography. Their last album was 2016′s Wild Pendulum--but I’d hope for cuts from 2004′s Weightlifting. 

6/10: Simon Joyner, Empty Bottle

Omaha singer-songwriter Simon Joyner is the type to have laid back and made himself a steady presence in the Americana world. Those he’s influenced and collaborated with, like Beck, Conor Oberst, and John Darnielle, have sold more records than he has, but his music remains just as present. Last year’s Step Into The Earthquake followed 2015′s excellent Grass, Branch, & Bone, which we spoke to him about at length in our feature Palpable Pain.

Chicago singer-songwriter Gia Margaret and singer Angela James (joined by Jordan Martins of Quarter Mile Thunder on pedal steel) open.

6/10: Hop Along, Metro Chicago

We caught Hop Along’s intimate, energetic set at House of Vans last year after they had multiple years to iron out the songs from their great Painted Shut album. This time around, they have another excellent album to their name: Bark Your Head Off, Dog, released a couple months ago. In recording the new album, the band spent extra time in the studio, resulting in songs filled with strings, Rhodes, and complex, layered harmonies. The extent to which they’re able to replicate the album live is a selling point for seeing them just as much as lead singer Frances Quinlan’s incredible voice.

Ex Hex-offshot Bat Fangs opens.

6/10: King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Riviera

They did it. It was an ambitious promise, but Australian psych rockers King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard released 5 albums last year (including Murder of the Universe, reviewed on SILY). They were all good, but none as good as 2016′s truly nonstop Nonagon Infinity. Expect them to play from their entire recent discography minus Sketches of Brunswick East, which was released in collaboration with Mild High Club.

Melbourne rockers Amyl & The Sniffers opens.