Saturday 25
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
DANIEL GIVENS On his second album, Dayclear & First Dark (Aesthetics), producer and ex-Chicagoan Daniel Givens uses more purely electronic settings than he has in the past for his somber, quasi-poetic musings. Fellow Chicago expat Matana Roberts plays sax on one track and Semay Wu plays cello on two more; but mostly stuttering beats, liquid synthetic bass, and spare ambient drift envelop his spoken-word meditations on the twin psychic obstacles that gay black men face in America. His phrasing is sometimes wooden and clunky, but his soundscapes are more sympathetic than the predominantly live instrumentation on Age, his 2000 debut album. It should be interesting to hear how Givens’s new material is handled at this show, which reunites him with some old collaborators: bassist Josh Abrams, guitarist Jeff Parker, and flutist Nicole Mitchell. DJs Bunny Ears and Joel Kriske (Pulseprogramming) and DJ Bob (Pal:ndrom) play opening sets. Givens also DJs January 3 at Danny’s. 9 PM, Sonotheque, 1444 W. Chicago, 312-226-7600, $5. –Peter Margasak
MUSTARD PLUG The rise and fall of fads is a natural part of pop-music ecology; it’s at low tide that you can really sort out the true believers from the dilettantes. Mustard Plug’s first album came out 12 years ago in the midst of the third-wave ska hype, and now, dogged as any Deadheads, they’re still at it, headlining the Midwest Ska Fest. They’re also still working Yellow #5 (2002), but roof-raising live shows are what it’s all about with this lot anyhow. Deal’s Gone Bad, Dan Potthast, Los Vicious de Papa, Plunket, and DJ Chuck Wren open. 6 PM, Metro, 3730 N. Clark, 773-549-0203 or 312-559-1212, $12. All ages. –Monica Kendrick
VIRGINIA COALITION These four high school buddies from Alexandria put a regional spin on the standard jam-band model: their second album, Rock and Roll Party (DCN/Koch), shows a willingness to customize their tentacled, oscillating Technicolor with a little DC go-go and some NASCAR-rally boogie. But their first allegiance is to the jam itself, in all its honky-funky, wet-noodling, group-hugging, instrument-switching, taping-encouraged glory. Pomeroy opens. 7 PM, House of Blues, 329 N. Dearborn, 312-923-2000 or 312-559-1212, $13.50 in advance, $15 at the door. All ages. –Monica Kendrick
