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Live Picks: 1/24 - 1/30

From left to right: Joey Burns (Calexico), Sam Beam (Iron & Wine), & John Coventino (Calexico); Photo by Piper Ferguson

BY JORDAN MAINZER

This time, I’ve got your itinerary for a week!

1/24: DJ Maseo (De La Soul), Empty Bottle

De La Soul MC Vincent Mason, also known as Maseo, does a DJ set at the Empty Bottle tomorrow night. He’s currently working on his “DJ-Conductor” concept album, whatever that entails, so don’t be surprised if he spins album cuts and potentially spits over them, too.

Boogie Munster and Cutz on Cuts collective member Shazam Bangles opens with a DJ set.

1/24: Junius Paul, Constellation

The most recent album for upright and electric bassist Junius Paul was December’s excellent ISM, yet another in a strong line of releases on local jazz label International Anthem. Tomorrow night, he plays as part of a quartet with some of the record’s most prominent contributors: Corey Wilkes on trumpet, Justin Dilliard on piano, and Vincent Davis on drums.

CHAI

1/24-1/25: Tedeschi Trucks Band, Chicago Theatre

Tedeschi Trucks Band returns to the Chicago Theatre for their annual residency, which took place last weekend and continues tomorrow night and Saturday. Their most recent record was last year’s Signs, which we described as “definitely a band showcase,” highlighting the horns of “Walk Through This Life” and Susan Tedeschi’s blues guitar picking on “The Ending”. A year removed from Signs, expect to hear from all over their discography and a smattering of covers, especially if their recent sets have been any indication.

1/24-1/26: Benjamin Gibbard & Tara Jane O’Neil, Thalia Hall

Death Cab For Cutie leader Benjamin Gibbard comes to Thalia Hall for a three-night stint. Though he’s released one studio solo album (not counting his cover of Teenage Fanclub’s Bandwagonesque), most of his performed material should be DCFC with a couple Postal Service classics thrown in for good measure.

Opening is LA-based multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Tara Jane O’Neil, whose last studio album was her excellent 2017 self-titled release. Over the past couple years, she’s dropped various compilation, reissue, live, soundtrack, benefit, and singles records. With a catalog that spans two decades, who knows what she’ll perform?

1/25: Dave Burrell with Joshua Abrams and Hamid Drake, Constellation

Saturday’s trio at Constellation juxtaposes a piano legend with two of Chicago’s finest bassists and drummers--respectively, Dave Burrell with Joshua Abrams and Hamid Drake.

Benjamin Gibbard

1/25: Dave Alvin and the Guilty Ones and Kevin Gordon Band, FitzGerald’s

At this point, Blasters founding member Dave Alvin has had a longer career as a solo artist than as a member of various classic cowpunk acts. While one of those bands, The Flesh Eaters, released an album last year, Alvin’s last record billed to his name was Downey to Lubbock, a collaboration with country singer Jimmie Dale Gilmore. He has, however, got a new band called The Third Mind, who are releasing a 6-song self-titled debut with 5 covers and 1 original on Valentine’s Day. Saturday, look forward to a mix of solo material, band material, and covers.

Louisiana singer-songwriter Kevin Gordon’s last record was 2018′s Tilt and Shine. In previewing a set a couple years ago at SPACE, we wrote that it was “an album about his vision of Louisiana through and through. The tracks are musically referential to the region; take the blues stomp of 'Fire at the End of the World' or the buzzing, organ-fueled country of 'Saint on a Chain'. And in lieu of fetishizing a Southern mythology, Gordon’s stories are rooted in everyday life or people’s perceptions of it, from prisoner rodeos to deals with the Devil.”

1/25: CHAI, Empty Bottle

We covered Japanese quartet CHAI’s set at Pitchfork Music Festival last year (they’re still touring their excellent 2019 album PUNK):

“CHAI believes you can be Kawaii while still subverting standard definitions of beauty and femininity. Or really, they argue that there’s no such thing as the 'standard.' They exist somewhere between individualism–arguing that you’re a 'Fashionista' as long as you’re dressing the way you dress–and collectivism, donning a band uniform of an orange top and pink pants with white stripes, tightly harmonizing and chanting with equal pitch. That dichotomy in and of itself is unique, especially in Japanese culture. They call it PUNK, their terrific second album. From freedom anthem 'CHOOSE GO!' to the propulsive beats of 'THIS IS CHAI', the band’s instrumental variation (the funk of 'FAMILY MEMBER', banging dance of “Curly Adventure”) is always tied together by the four women and the spirit each of them brings to the performance combined with the sum of parts that the band CHAI represents. And their radicalism is present in songs like 'GREAT JOB', a reclamation of housework as therapeutic, but it’s never so strong as when they shout their simple proclamation: ‘We are CHAI!'”

Bunny, the dream pop/bedroom rock project led by local musician Jessica Viscius and Sports Boyfriend, the indie pop project of local musician Eileen Peltier, open.

1/25: GZA, Concord Music Hall

Wu-Tang clan member GZA performs his classic sophomore album Liquid Swords with a live band. Any non-Liquid Swords tracks he might perform include other solo material, Wu-Tang clan verses, or even snippets from other Wu-Tang members.

Wu-Tang Clan affiliate Killah Priest, local rapper Femdot, and local remix masters Altered Tapes open.

Dave Alvin

1/26: John Cale, Art Institute of Chicago

Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground are forever entwined, and because of that, I can’t think of someone more appropriate to celebrate the Art Institute’s current major Warhol retrospective than Velvets member John Cale. Expect, however, to hear mostly solo material.

1/28: Whitney, SPACE

Though not quite as strong as 2016′s Light Upon The Lake, Whitney’s most recent album Forever Turned Around does manage to reflect inward and distinguish itself that way from the band’s breakout debut, as we wrote in our preview of their Thalia Hall show last month. Here’s your chance to see them in a venue as small as SPACE while they continue to ascend.

Japanese quartet CHAI (mentioned above) opens.

1/29-1/30: Calexico & Iron & Wine, Thalia Hall

In 2005, Calexico & Iron & Wine were hot shit. The former, prolific as ever, were 2 years removed from their most acclaimed album yet, Feast of Wire, whereas Iron & Wine had released two beloved LPs and an EP. The prospect of a collaborative EP between the two was something to behold, and they lived up to the hype with In the Reins. Fifteen years later, neither act is as trendy, and they aren’t necessarily the critical darlings they once were, but they’re finally touring together to celebrate the unlikely release of their first collaborative LP, last year’s Years to Burn. They should play collaborative songs, and perhaps more excitingly, drawn-out highlights from their respective careers, plus some covers.

Local singer-songwriter Gia Margaret opens Wednesday. Singer-songwriter Madison Cunningham opens Thursday.

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