- Mick Jenkins
I’m a sucker for Halloween-themed music events (or at least the idea of them), which means I need to start making plans to get to the Portage Theater soon. Starting sunday the Silent Film Society of Chicago hosts its Silent Horror Film Festival there, which will feature organist Jay Warren providing a live score for The Phantom of the Opera, The Hands of Orlac, and The Monster. If you’re looking for more straightforward musical performances there are plenty of great opportunities for that in the coming week.
“Todd Snider must have spent a lot of stoned hours listening to Alice’s Restaurant, because his wigged-out hippie persona—part acid-tongued truth-to-power troubadour, part concussed stand-up comic—seems at times more Arlo than Arlo,” writes Noah Berlatsky. “But where Guthrie stuck mostly to folk revival with an occasional foray into easy listening, Snider’s musical reach is more ambitious. His semi-supergroup covers project, the Hard Working Americans, whose first album was released earlier this year, bangs out cheerful blues-rawk with charmingly unassuming unsubtlety. It’s a nice change, but his solo albums remain superior, mixing some of that rock energy with folk, country, and Tin Pan Alley, witty lyrics included. The clunky, clanky swing of ‘The Very Last Time’ is one of his best efforts, with his half-cracked goofiness coming across as both ironic distance and poignant befuddlement. ‘I had a dream when you came to see me / You asked if I was OK / That’s how I knew that I was dreaming / You asked me if I was OK.’”
Sun 10/12: Helado Negro at Schubas
