What genre could you fit these serial-festival-participants into? Simply calling them an instrumental jam band wouldn’t do, as they do keep a tight structure to their music while allowing a lot of improvisation to happen during their packed live sets (which, by the way, fans are free to record, trade and post online as long as no money changes hands). Are they an electronic band? Maybe, unless you notice their strong jazz-funk tendencies. Regardless if you can place them in a niche or not, the fact is that they are highly eclectic artists—their music could easily be played in a dance club (an example of this is “Bellwether,” a tune played around a vocoder and plenty of guitar), a trendy lounge or even a more upscale jazz club. But the real thrill is to catch them live—especially if you are lucky enough to catch one of their “thematic gigs,” like the time they dressed up to resemble rock stars who died at 27 (Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain) for a show called “The 27 Conspiracy,” which featured reworked covers of Nirvana, The Doors and The Jimi Hendrix Experience. (Ernest Barteldes)
November 27 at The Vic Theatre, 3145 N. Sheffield, (773)472-0366. $21-$24
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.
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.
