Events Search – Member Picks
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The Planetary Defense Force: Rise of the Dinosaurs
Mondays, 8 p.m.Theater & Performance
Easy communication and a sharp wit may be the foundations for good improv, but if you want to see what a troupe is really made of, take a look at how they handle a shaky premise. Having watched cast members sustain this Links Hall/Chicagoland Games show while rolling around in Nerf gear to avoid a tyrannosaurus rex made of PVC pipe, I'm pretty sure they've got it. Amiable host Aaron Amendola ushers an audience member through a series of onstage challenges geared toward overcoming a megalomaniac hell-bent on ushering in a dino-apocalypse. The obstacles—which may involve brushing a Wiffle Ball off somebody's shoulder—are too slight to provide any real stakes. It's clear, though, that this crew has the crowd and stage skills to create something special. —Dan Jakes $5
Beer Brain
Tue., Jan. 22, 11 a.m.-8 p.m.Other Stuff
Clear some space in your makeshift beer cellar (aka coat closet), because the Beer Temple in Avondale is now open, and it's stocking the kind of craft brews that belong in goblets and chalices and other fancy-pants stemware. Co-owner Margaret Quinn told the Reader's Julia Thiel that the beer-dork haven carries beer from more than a dozen countries and will likely specialize in sours, mainly of the Belgian variety. Everyone has a record collection, am I right? Why not impress (or confound) friends with a sour-beer collection instead?
Cross Record, Great Life, Nat Brooke
Thu., Jan. 24, 9 p.m.Rock, Pop, Etc
As Cross Record, Chicagoan Emily Cross tiptoes along the line between experimental ambient drone and soft-spoken acoustic indie folk—assuming there’s a line there in the first place. Though the south Florida transplant has a delicate, soulful voice that most singer-songwriters would sell their Martin guitars for, her ambition makes her much more than just another ignorable cafe strummer: she often contorts and layers her singing to create a dark, tense atmosphere that’s more likely to elicit a chill down the spine than a gentle sway of the hips. On last year’s Be Good (Lay Flat), she seamlessly shifts from the fluttering, mostly acoustic “Maybe I’m Crazy” to the gloomy, trudging “Dirt Nap,” a goth-touched epic that would turn Michael Gira’s head. The album’s nine haunting songs are more expansive than much of her earlier work, perhaps because she recruited a host of other players to help build her labyrinths of hard-to-identify creaks and galunks. Whatever comes next is going to be good, I promise. Cross performs with a backing band tonight. —Kevin Warwick Great Life and Nat Brooke open.
$6
From the Rooftops
Through 1/24:Galleries
Screenprints by Ethan D'Ercole, who's created album covers for White Rabbits and Brendan Benson. Reception Fri 12/14, 6-9 PM.
Circuit des Yeux, Rabid Rabbit, These Wonderful Evils, Nad Navillus
Fri., Jan. 25, 8 p.m.Rock, Pop, Etc
When Robert Fripp broke up King Crimson in 1974 (for neither the first nor the last time), he explained that he didn’t want to work in an unwieldy, dinosaur-dimensioned formation but rather operate as a “small, mobile, independent, and intelligent unit.” Fripp may not have foreseen what four decades would do to the price of gas (and thus the feasibility of touring in a group with a big pile of gear), but he looks like a soothsayer when you consider the current wave of performers who take the stage with just one instrument and some electronic augmentation. These Wonderful Evils is Zak Boerger, an artist from Bloomington, Illinois, who like Chris Forsyth and Steve Gunn plays solo guitar music informed by eclectic influences and a rock ’n’ roll mind-set. The inexorable flow and slow-burn drone of the long pieces on his most recent LP, Little Church (Sparrows & Wires/Horror Bag), make them sound like what would’ve happened if Pete Cosey had traded licks with Davey Graham over a beat laid down by one of Brian Eno’s drum machines; on a live recording from last month that’s available on his Bandcamp page, a loop pedal provides an undulating foundation for Boerger’s lyrical fingerpicking and thoughtful, fuzz-coated extrapolations. This concert is part of a series of benefits (here and in Barcelona, Madrid, and New York City) to help musicians and artists Dan and Letha Rodman Melchior pay for Letha’s cancer treatment. —Bill Meyer Circuit des Yeux headlines; Rabid Rabbit, These Wonderful Evils, and Nad Navillus open.
$10 donation requested
Tapman: Origin
Through 1/25: Fri 7:30 PMTheater & Performance
Tapman Productions' debut musical has humor, charm, and lots of fabulous tap dancing. But, as directed and choreographed by Tristan Bruns, it comes up seriously short on storytelling. A sketchy script full of throwaway lines buries the plot points. All I know for sure is that superhero (or maybe bad guy) Tapman alternately clashes and bonds with his mighty frenemy, the MADD Tapper—and that Tapman's girlfriend should be crucial but isn't. Music director Kyle Greer supplies some expert songs and piano playing, while, as Tapman, Bruns reveals a decent voice and a knack for sand-dancing. Guest artists from the Cartier Collective and M.A.D.D. Rhythms troupes flesh out the show, if not the narrative, and Zada Cheeks's MADD Tapper joins Bruns in a truly super superhero battle. —Laura Molzahn $15
Gyroscopic: Cubist Drawings and Late Paintings
Through 1/26:Galleries
A retrospective of works by Richard Koppe, the noted painter and student of Moholy-Nagy's New Bauhaus. Reception Fri 11/30: 5-8 PM.
Rememberer
Through 1/26:Galleries
New digital prints and works on paper by local artist Ewa Bloch. Reception Fri 12/14, 6-8 PM.
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