Everybody’s favorite quasi-homosexual, glam-rock dance-rockers, indie veterans Of Montreal (of Athens, Georgia) roll into town for what seems like the two-hundreth time. Kevin Barnes and company have been an endless fountain of productivity and unpronounceable song titles, as “Skeletal Lamping,” their follow-up to last year’s “Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?” has just hit the shelves, the band’s fourth record in five years. And boy, if you thought Of Montreal and Barnes’ alter-ego Georgie Fruit were comfortable with their sexuality before (Barnes, by the way, has joined the elite fraternity of those who have performed in the nude), get ready for lines like, “We can do it softcore if you want, but you should know I take it both ways.” Sexuality aside, “Skeletal Lamping” mostly grabs by breaking traditional pop structures; originally planned as a hundred thirty-to-forty-five-second tracks, multiple songs feature eight or nine different succinctly different sections, creating a demented, groovy symphony of sexual fantasies. (Andy Seifert)
October 27 at Riviera Theatre, Broadway and Lawrence, (773)275-6800. 7pm.
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.
Cooling It: A Preview of Colleen Green at Cole’s Bar When Green strums power chords or chiming notes on top of her backing track, you might think you’re at Ramones karaoke night and Madonna is taking her turn.
Brutal Finesse: A Preview of King Crimson at Ravinia There have been few new compositions from King Crimson these past two decades, but the live arrangements of songs from its catalog are often strikingly different than the recorded versions.
Can’t-Miss Music Events (Fall Arts Preview 2023) This fall we get new albums and tours from iconic acts like Wilco and Kurt Elling, plus a Corrine Bailey Rae project inspired by Theaster Gates' Stony Island Arts Bank.
