Chicago Reader

1 week ago | chicagoreader.com | Kerry Reid

Sickness is both the most commonplace human experience and the most surreal. We live in our bodies, but also tend to take them for granted—until they start doing things they’ve never done before, or stop doing things we rely upon without even thinking about it. Even if we’ve seen debilitating illness in other people, we seldom seem prepared for the physical or psychological dimensions when it hits close to home, particularly when we know it’s a terminal condition.

1 week ago | chicagoreader.com | Jamie Ludwig

When Lifeguard released their 2020 debut album, Dive, the Chicago trio’s raw, noisy sound breathed new life into posthardcore, no wave, and indie rock with an easy confidence that belied the members’ years. Guitarist-vocalist Kai Slater, bassist-vocalist Asher Case, and drummer Isaac Lowenstein were still in their teens, but they were already immersed in underground music. They’d met while attending live shows and music classes, and their parents supported their interest at every opportunity.

1 week ago | chicagoreader.com | Philip Montoro

Chicago quartet Third Coast Percussion continue to celebrate their 20th year with this kaleidoscopic all-day event at Epiphany Center for the Arts. Rhythm Fest consists of 17 sets in four spaces (plus three open jams and an audiovisual installation by drummer Glenn Kotche), and the lineup is thick with TCP’s current and former collaborators.

1 week ago | chicagoreader.com | Jamie Ludwig

The founding members of New Constellations, vocalist-guitarist Harlee Case and multi-instrumentalist and producer Josh Smith, are childhood pals. They met through a Christian youth group when Case was in seventh grade and Smith was in ninth, and when they were still teenagers Smith recorded her first song in his family home in southern Oregon. After high school, their lives took different paths, but they kept making music—and about seven years ago, they started doing it together again.

1 week ago | chicagoreader.com | Jamie Ludwig

Juanita & Juan is a new band of old pals. Alice Bag and Kid Congo Powers, two of the most beloved punks to emerge from Los Angeles, met on the city’s scene in 1977. That was the year Bag started the Bags, her most famous the band; after they broke up in 1981, she played in several other groups, including Alarma!, Castration Squad, and the Boneheads. In the mid-90s Bag took a break from music to raise her daughter, but about a decade ago she reemerged as a solo artist.