photo: Courtesy of Lampo
While we never tire of spending the evening at our favorite Chicago music venues, some genres of experimental music are hard to come by, even at the
Empty Bottle. A handful of spots around town have made it their business to diversify the local music scene, both in terms of place and performers.
Look and listen to multidisciplinary art at Links Hall
Bubbling with multidisciplinary artistic activity every weekend, Lakeview's storefront theater hosts a smattering of musical performances by local and national acts. Original, contemporary compositions in the form of improv or jazz dominate the music roster and are frequently interwoven with dance or performance art. For about $12 you can enjoy everything from puppetry performances to breakdancing and live DJ shows. June hosts the premier of Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist/composer Jeff Chan's original compositions as well as his own performance on the Japanese bamboo flute, accompanied by Chicago's premier Japanese drum player.
Catch 'acro-cats' and art-rock at Reversible Eye Arts Space
You'll find few places in Chicago that offer stage space to 11 domestic cats, but Reversible Eye isn't your typical venue. In addition to repeatedly hosting The Amazing Acro-cats, whose talents include tight-rope-walking and piano-playing, the gallery invites a bevy of post-punk, art-rock, avant-garde jazz and eccentric folk bands to perform every Friday or Saturday night. Fork over a $5 suggested donation, and you can generally expect to see three bands and an occasional performance art interlude. The recent roster has included the gypsy-style Black Bear Combo and avant-garde folk group Spires That in the Sunset Rise. This fall you can count on seeing several hip-hop and punk bands performing in conjunction with an exhibition examining the intersection of punk and hip-hop culture.
Get eclectic at Elastic
Hosting three regular series on either a weekly or bi-weekly basis, Elastic is as prolific as it is eclectic. The weekly Thursday night jazz session, curated by local sax player Dave Rempis, is far more likely to share acts with the Hungry Brain than the Green Mill. In addition to hosting local greats like Ken Vandermark, Michael Zerang, Jeff Parker, Fred Lonbergholm and Rempis himself, the venue culls a collection of avant-garde jazz artists from across Europe. But the buck doesn't stop there. Elastic's Impetus series focuses on encouraging artistic collaboration across a variety of musical genres and often finds artists handing out CDs as party favors. The most recent addition to Elastic's series, Voices, addresses the African Diaspora and showcases everything from spoken-word poetry to hip-hop, jazz, reggae and blues.
Learn about the underexposed at Lampo
Nestled in a barren gallery space among a stretch of empty lots in Ukrainian Village, Lampo hosts about 15 concerts of experimental, electronic, electro-acoustic and improvisational music per year. Occurring during the fall, winter and spring seasons, the concerts are loosely tied thematically; for instance, the spring season hosted two concerts using site-specific sound recordings collected over extended periods of time. In the business of exposing art on the fringe, Lampo tries to mix it up geographically, instrumentally and in terms of artists' popularity. You're best off keeping an open mind when spending a night at Lampo as rhythm, melody, or really any qualities attributed to conventional music, aren't quite par for the course.
Craft, collaborate and compete at Heaven Gallery
It's only appropriate that this hotbed of art happenings—from Cody Hudson exhibits to the Movieside Film Fest and crafting parties—would host frequent music performances. After a three-year hiatus, local musician Jason Ajemian recently returned to Heaven to resume hosting zany, experimental one-offs, with a bent toward improvisational jazz and folk music. Held once a month (possibly kicked up to once a week in July and August), the series, "Protests," will showcase bands like Rob Mazurek's jazz band, Exploding Star Orchestra and Ajemian's own trio Dragons 1976, in addition to events like the recent Iron Chef of Music night, which invited participants to incorporate "unique" ingredients or audio samples. Expect to donate a $5-$7 cover for any given event.
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