If you haven’t already heard, Heather Gabel of HIDE is the dark demoness dominating the stages of Chicago’s underground. In a very short time, HIDE has become the best goth-tinged, industrial-inspired act around, winning the heavy hearts of all the doom-and-gloom-loving noise freaks of this fine city. Gabel, an accomplished visual artist and vocalist, is also sort of a big name on the local art scene. Not only does she make exquisite prints, involving aggressive and lyrical explorations of gender fluidity and personal autonomy in our surveillance society, she helps run the well-known Palace Film Festival, an experimental video, film and music-oriented event. I know…she does it all. It’s no wonder she secured tour support for Marilyn Manson shortly after her debut with HIDE, and was doing DJ sets for the drone devils of The Soft Moon just last year. It helps that she’s got the expert hands of Seth Sher leading the heaving sub-bass and haunting synths in this demoniacal duo. These two are the perfect melding of aesthetic prowess, technical mastery and poetic politics. If you haven’t seen them perform, you’re in for a haunting and hard-hitting night of blinding strobe lights and murky fog machines clouding up your soul (if you still have one). Also on the bill: Magas (aka James Marlon Magas, notorious for recently scoring Asia Argento’s exceptional film “Incompresa”), promising the full gamut of ruckus electro rock. (Jose Luis Benavides)
April 2 at The Empty Bottle, 1035 North Western, (773)276-3600, 9pm. $5.
Music Top 5: May 2020 Steve Dawson’s new album features highly sophisticated songwriting gilded with dazzling orchestral colors—plus of course that gorgeously evocative voice.
Drop and Go: A Review of Chris Greene Quartet’s “PlaySPACE” Chris Greene Quartet isn’t the first music act to drop a surprise album; over the past several year’s we’ve seen out-of-nowhere releases from everyone from Beyoncé to Wilco. As a marketing gimmick, it’s got something to recommend it; you can’t really listen to “PlaySPACE,” for instance, without ending up wanting to go see CGQ …, well, play SPACE.
Heavy Meta: Daniel Knox Goes Beyond the Concept Album Knox is charting an emotional and aesthetic landscape across his recorded output. He’s playing a very long game, one that—with this new album—has begun to pay off.
