RECOMMENDED In a swirling array or live instrumentation, digital tomfoolery and all the right influences, Chicago’s Future Rock provides that missing link from the rock show to the dance club. Their impressive sound reflects their influences of Daft Punk, Yes, Aphex Twin, Phish and Boards of Canada. Result? A knack for delivering electrified covers and original material that sounds like an instrumental Alpinestars on psychedelics. Frequent festival cohorts Orchard Lounge is also on the bill, no doubt gearing up for their DJ/live hybrid transition sets that have been truly unique. Hefty Records’ own smart-hop wave-maker Eliot Lipp is also on the bill, returning to the city where his original Prefuse/Shadow-like tracks seemed to befuddle his potential audiences, with left turns into glitchy patches, post-rock atmospherics and early electro. Lipp has always absorbed the music around him, be it hip-hop, house, or IDM-leaning fare—is should be a treat to see what influences he might’ve picked up since leaving Chicago behind. (Duke Shin) Monday, December 31 at Kinetic Playground
For “Want” of a Change: A Preview of Rufus Wainwright at Ravinia Park Rufus Wainwright isn’t the first singer-songwriter to reinterpret earlier work through an orchestral lens. And much of Wainwright’s third and fourth albums, “Want One” and “Want Two”—whose twentieth anniversaries are the prompt for this new tour—is fully scored. But when Wainwright hits the Pavilion stage at Ravinia tonight, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will be behind him.
