Skip to main content
Saturday, Feb. 21
Bitchin Bajas epitomize the vitality of Chicago’s experimental music scene. Cooper Crain’s trio is comfortable with everything from long-form drone to wigged-out psych rock, and their new album, Inland See, finds them drawing from their hometown’s long history as a free-jazz hub while cranking up the incense and the black lights. Opening is Animal Collective’s Geologist, whose new album, Can I Get a Pack of Camel Lights?, makes a surprisingly strong case for the hurdy-gurdy as the world’s greatest instrument. Polaris Hall, 635 N Killingsworth Court. 8 pm. $26.05. 21+.
Saturday, Feb. 21
Joan Shelley’s new album is called Real Warmth—a scarce commodity both amid the harsh winters of her new home in Michigan and in a world that seems to be sliding into irreversible chaos. To stave off the literal and metaphorical freeze, she’s surrounded herself with a cadre of Toronto musicians led by producer Ben Whiteley and made her richest, fullest work yet. Opening her Portland show is her husband, Nathan Salsburg, a virtuoso finger-picker with a proclivity for playing over loops of old records. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave. 8 pm. $26.05. 21+.
Wednesday–Friday, Feb. 25–27
The Sun Ra Arkestra is a living link to jazz’s past with an eye on the future. The big band formed in Chicago in the early ’50s under the auspices of Sun Ra, the pianist and Afrofuturist pioneer whose outlandish pharaonic outfits and boundary-pushing musical sensibilities belied a fluid musical vocabulary and incomparable chops. Ra left this earthly plane in 1993, but saxophonist Marshall Allen still leads the band at the age of 101 and skronks and sways with more enthusiasm than most musicians a third his age. Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd. 8 pm. $40. All ages.
