the WHISTLER

About John Bellows: In transcendent moments of performance, I give back the energy that the audience gives to me in the flavor of rasberry truffle Godiva ice cream, and everyone in the room eats it up. Except for the people the don’t like ice cream, which is rare.

About Big Kitty: The recordings of Clark Williams, AKA Big Kitty are both winsome and thoughtful. He has found a way to seamlessly connect the American folk song with sweeping images of the otherworlds. He travels from green pastures to alien heavens in the breadth of just a few hard-lipped lines. His ballads go from traditional structures and timing to moments where the tracks seem to disintegrate and back again. He sings of loneliness, long lost cultures, abductions, and the loneliness of being abducted by long lost cultures.

w/ Isaac Pierce (related: Ten-Speed) and DJs Joe Proulx and Alex Valentine

Glad Cloud celebrates the rich landscape of Chicago musicians working with ambient music, be it acoustic, electric, or both. Curated by Benjamin Mjolsness, the series provides an opportunity for ambient artists to colour the air, walls, and liquids of the Whistler in a deliberately non-intrusive manner. Visitors enjoy their cocktails and companions while the music envelops the room around them; performing artists are able to work on new approaches to their music. 8-10pm.

“Most of the time when I see a band handing out CDs on the sidewalk in front of a show they didn’t play, I take one—mostly because I respect the hustle of musicians who are hungry enough to buttonhole a stranger to get their demos heard, and only secondarily because I’m curious if the music is actually worth hearing. But when I ran into two-thirds of Killer Moon slinging CD-Rs in front of a Shrinebuilder show last November, right off the bat I figured they had potential. First, that’s an excellent choice of show for a self-promotional push, and second, the discs’ cardboard slipcases were slathered in bright orange tempera and decorated with glued-on pictures—on my copy, a brilliantly colorful devotional image of Brahma, the Hindu god of creation. One listen to the two tracks, “Azul” and “From the Jaws of the Vision Serpent,” and my suspicions were borne out: Killer Moon’s meandering, muscular psych-metal instrumentals manage to be both shit-tight and dreamily expansive, showing the influence of the hard-prog theatrics of Hawkwind and the desert-rock riffscaping of Kyuss. This stuff is just begging for an occult-obsessed hippie exploitation movie to soundtrack.” —Miles Raymer, Chicago Reader “Local Release Roundup”

Based out of Kansas City, Antennas Up is touring this spring fresh off of song placement in the best selling iPhone app ‘Tap Tap Revenge 3’ and an official showcase at South By Southwest.

Antennas Up tour with an entire multimedia production that includes an interactive light and music show. Their tech-centered show started with a slight obsession with guitar effects pedals and morphed into a mini-mountain of effects and lights connected by over 1000 feet of cable. The band controls audio backing tracks, lights and video through one central box. Not only do they manipulate light and images during their shows, they have audio tricks in their sleeves as well, transforming bassist and lead singer Kyle Akers’ bass into a synth/guitar using pedals. With the ability to switch to a bass line in the computer, he can free himself to play harmonic leads with a wild guitar tone, pushing his instrument beyond its intended purpose.

Akers explains, “Of course the live show’s cornerstone is the music. But to us, the show is about
more than just what songs we perform. We want to set our show apart from what you would typically expect to see going to a club on a random Friday night. When people walk in and see a band with full stage production, it makes an impact. And what’s great is, we bring our entire setup with us, and are able to duplicate it in every room across the country.”

Friday night dance party throw-down featuring a rotating cast of DJs from the greatest radio station in Chicago: CHIRP (Chicago Independent Radio Project). Expect to hear a mix of everything from Soul to Hip Hop to Indie Rock bangers to Pop classics and beyond. It’s that Wooo Woooooooo!!! And we’re bringing it every time.

Movieoke: (verb) To perform a classic movie scene for an audience, karaoke-style. Ex: “Did you see Karen movieoke? She totally acted the shit out of that Big Lebowski scene.” Movieoke is literally karaoke with movie scenes instead of music. Performers don costumes, take the mic and act out the movie scenes playing on the big screen behind them. Think there won’t be something that suits your liking??? Think again. There are over 200 scenes to choose from. So, put on a costume and Movieoke! Presented by the Vintage Theater Collective; created and hosted by Katy Collins. 1st Monday of every month.

links: VERMA, Catacombz, Possible Fathers