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Claychella 2010
Sat., March 13, 12 p.m.Dance
For the past few years Clayton Hauck—the guy behind the nightlife photography site Everyone Is Famous and a contributor to the Reader's new Photo Pit feature—has thrown himself a public birthday party that doubles pretty effectively as a survey of Chicago hipster club culture. Pretty much everyone on the schedule for this dance-music marathon has spun with, collaborated with, or remixed everyone else on the list. Being that this is a party above all, the roster is packed with DJs that favor ass-shaking over head-nodding. Nick Catchdubs, the lone out-of-towner on the bill, is best known as cofounder of the dance-heavy Fool's Gold label—home to Kid Sister and Flosstradamus—but his DJ sets include everything from radio rap to 90s alt-rock. The Dark Wave Disco team keeps things goth-friendly with mixes that pull together electro, house, and stuff like EBM and industrial. Kid Color and Black Holes have been drawing attention from the nightlife crowd recently, the former with a concentration on retro-inspired disco and the latter with work like a housed-up remix of Hollywood Holt's "Caked Up." Also on the bill: Flosstradamus, the Hood Internet, Matt Roan, Willy Joy, Million Dollar Mano, Mic Terror, Hollywood Holt, Bald E, Frankie Banks, Moneypenny, Skyler, Major Taylor, Marco Morales, Just Desserts, Team Bayside High, Capcom, and many more. 18+ —Miles Raymer Free before 10 PM and $5 after (ages 21 and up) or free before 5 PM and $10 after (ages 18-20).
Joe Henry
Sat., March 13, 7 p.m.Rock, Pop, Etc
In recent years Joe Henry has earned more acclaim as a producer—he's worked with American roots and soul greats like Allen Toussaint, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, and Bettye LaVette—than he has as an artist in his own right. Though his albums have long drawn inspiration from vintage Americana, he transforms it into something a bit less accessible with his quasi-poetic lyrics and clouds of murky ambience. On his latest, Blood From Stars (Anti-), he drinks heavily from the blues, but the thick, moody atmosphere he creates as producer provides the dominant flavor. Longtime Henry drummer Jay Bellerose defines the edges of the record's huge sonic space with a cavernously booming bass drum at one end and featherlight snare at the other; filling in the middle are stabbing, stinging guitar (and occasional cornet) from Marc Ribot, billowy organ and stuttering piano from Patrick Warren, and swells of bass from David Piltch. The core instruments stick together but never quite lock down, giving their ensemble work the beautifully disheveled feel of Howlin' Wolf's Sun sides—and the way Henry plays with overdubs and postproduction effects makes some of his arrangements sound like an old radio tuned halfway between two different versions of the same song. Henry is an elegant singer, and because his melodies aren't especially assertive his slightly nasal voice sometimes works like just another instrumental layer. If there's a problem with Blood From Stars, it's that some of Henry's lyrics are too arty—they sound great in his mouth, but they don't always make much sense. When he's more direct—like in "The Man I Keep Hid," where he mercilessly indicts his own double life—he's a lot more effective. —Peter Margasak $22, $20 members, $18 seniors and children
Ted Leo + Pharmacists, Title Tracks, Chicago Stone Lightning Band
Sat., March 13, 7 p.m.Rock, Pop, Etc
When Ted Leo's killer college band, Chisel, were graduating from Notre Dame in 1990, they were torn between Chicago and D.C. They picked D.C., which is smart—their foppish, mannered mod pop might have not found a good home amid the macho din that swelled from our city back then. Twenty years later, Ted's mod soul has endured, and it's incandescent. His latest solo jawn, The Brutalist Bricks—his first for Matador—is his most energized, confident, and best articulated album since 2001's Tyranny of Distance. He moves easily among all the things he can do: the soft soulfulness of "One Polaroid a Day," where his voice is sweet and husky; the piano-driven power-pop polemics of "Woke Up Near Chelsea"; the Damned-esque punk hooks of "Where Was My Brain." Put together they make as pure a Ted Leo record as you could wish for. Title Tracks and the Chicago Stone Lightning Band open. —Jessica Hopper $15
Harvey Milk, Coalesce, Atlas Moth
Sat., March 13, 9:30 p.m.Rock, Pop, Etc
If you thought Athens, Georgia, blew its weirdness wad in the 80s with the likes of Pylon, R.E.M., and the B-52's, you haven't been paying attention to Harvey Milk. That's forgivable, I guess—not too many people did back in the day, when they had their initial run from '92 to '98. These masters of slow-motion demolition re-formed in 2006 and have been wreaking delicious havoc ever since: their 2008 comeback album, Life . . . the Best Game in Town (Hydra Head), connected with a world that had finally caught up to them, earning the band the widespread respect they've always deserved. Hydra Head will release a follow-up, A Small Turn of Human Kindness, in May, and has just reissued what would've been Harvey Milk's 1993 self-titled debut if it'd been properly released at the time, which as it happens was recorded with Bob Weston here in Chicago. It's easy to imagine this grottiest of exhumed tar-pit monsters seizing the ears and imaginations of graveyard-shift college-radio DJs in the pre-Internet era: its clanging, down-tuned, boiling-and-groaning tracks are saturated with a nasty, perverse heaviness redolent of the Melvins, the Butthole Surfers, and early Swans, and in '93 they would've foreshadowed the coming of the sludge-metal eruption. Much of this material made it onto other albums in other forms, but most of those albums aren't easy to find, even now—and here the songs are at their rawest and purest. Coalesce and the Atlas Moth open. 17+ —Monica Kendrick $15, $13 in advance
Sean Callahan
Sat., March 13Literary Events
Callahan reads from his kids' books The Leprechaun Who Lost His Rainbow and Shannon and the World's Tallest Leprechaun.
Clarence Darrow Celebration
Sat 3/13, 10 AMOther Stuff
The Clarence Darrow Commemorative Committee hosts this annual gathering to honor the memory of the famed “attorney for the damned”—defender of hard cases from privileged murderers Leopold & Loeb to evolution teacher John Scopes—who reputedly promised on his death bed in 1938 that his ghost would haunt the Jackson Park lagoon. This year’s program includes a tribute to committee cofounder Leon Despres and a symposium featuring Darrow impersonator Gary Anderson.
Drifting and Pooling
Sat 3/13, 11 AM-2 PM
773-281-0824Other Stuff
A workshop on choreographic approaches to place, presented by Jennifer Monson. $30
Drunk o' the Irish IV
Sat 3/13, 9 PMStand-Up
An all-Irish line-up with Collin Bullock, Megan Gailey, Mike Joyce, Jeanie Doogan, Matty Ryan, and Adam Burke. $12-$15
Ernie Blomquist Roast
Sun 3/14, 7 PM 847-577-2121Other Stuff
Arlington Heights Mayor Arlene J. Mulder and others will roast Blomquist, the village prosecutor. Includes hors d'oeuvres and a raffle. $50-$70
Funprov
Sat 3/13, 3-6 PM youngestchildproductions@gmail.comImprov/Sketch
Youngest Child Productions presents this improv-based workshop for beginners, taught by Amanda Rountree. $30
H.E.R. Day
Sat 3/13, 9 AM-4:15 PM 773-472-6469, ext. 441Other Stuff
This daylong program for women includes workshops on yoga, self-defense, holistic healing, and more. Complimentary breakfast and lunch.
LGBT Legal Preparedness Seminar
Sat 3/13, 1-2:30 PM 773-472-6469, ext. 160Other Stuff
Legal experts from Golan & Christie LLP, New York Life, and the Law Offices of Louis R. Fine present this workshop on issues unique to LGBT people, such as estate planning and legal separations for life partners.
Lucky Charms Party & Drag Revue
Sat 3/13, 11 PM,Theater & Performance
Dida Ritz, Saya Naomi, and others perform production numbers with choreography by Rachel Gordon. $5 after 10 PM
Neighborhood Parents Network Birthday Party
Sat 3/13, 9:30 AM-12:30 PMOther Stuff
This nonprofit organization that provides support and services for Chicago parents celebrates its 30th anniversary with birthday cake, raffle prizes, activities for kids, and more. 312-409-2233
Northwest Side Irish Parade
Sun 3/14, noon 877-244-2246Other Stuff
This parade begins at the Onahan School and ends at Harlem Ave. Participants include Irish dancers, high school bands, Gov. Pat Quinn, Secretary of State Jesse White, and U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, and labor unions.
