As the season’s wintry punishment eases (it cracked 50 in Chicago this weekend), more and more artists are getting back in their vans and braving the roads for packed and sparse crowds alike.
Here’s a list of tours on our radar, including dates from The Bad Plus, Fucked Up, Orange Tulip Conspiracy, P.O.S., Secret Chiefs 3, Young Widows, and more.
Announcements are made for new albums from Irepress, Karl Sanders, Black Moth Super Rainbow, and Staff Benda Bilili — a group of paraplegic Congolese street musicians.
Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey releases its new studio album for free; Secret Chiefs 3 announces a concert DVD; Les Claypool announces an outstanding mini festival that will be in a town near you. This and more after the jump.
Do you love the vaudevillian flair, burlesque dancers, freak-show theatrics, and circus/Gypsy/brass-band party tunes of the Yard Dogs Road Show? If so, and you live near San Francisco — and, most importantly, you have experience as a dancer/showperson — you can audition to fill in for the Black and Blue Burlesque on future Yard Dogs performances.
Being in Chicago means always having great show options, and this weekend (bleeding into early next week) is no different. If you’re around our city this weekend, you may see one or all of us at the following shows, including sBACH, the buzzing Nintendo rock project of Hella guitarist and The Advantage drummer Spencer Siem (shown left).