The blood-curdling vocal howl Marissa Paternoster displays on Screaming Females’ excellent track “Bell” could be the most striking female vocal performance since Kathleen Hanna sang “Rebel girl you are the queen of my world.” Her guitar virtuosity on the song’s solo is a huge bonus. The New Jersey trio has garnered much acclaim for “Power Move,” the band’s third record, after an early career making a name for itself in various New Brunswick basements. This band is a beast—punk-rock vitriol peppered with riot-grrl flair, “Power Move” blasts off from its first note and doesn’t dream of looking back. Paternoster often draws comparisons to Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O, but the frayed edges of Screaming Females keeps the band more interesting than that. (Actually, there’s more Corin Tucker here than anything else, and as someone who misses Sleater-Kinney and those good ole days, “Power Move” makes me smile from ear to ear.) Live, Screaming Females torpedos the room. Tonight they play in support of a new compilation of early seven-inches. Work up the courage to get up close—you want to take in every bit of Paternoster’s guitar chops. (Tom Lynch)
May 22 at Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, (773)276-3600, at 10pm. $8.
Whisperin' for Some Reason: A Preview of Ian Sweet at Empty Bottle Angeleno Jilian Medford produces a lo-fi indie-rock sound that could acutely score a mid-2000s Michael Cera film but still feels postmodern. Melancholic but defiant, her lyricism coupled with simple and elegant guitar progressions provides for the addicting kind of pop to sway awkwardly to.
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.
