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Photo credit: No Limit Forever Records
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Photo Credit: Daniel Topete
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Photo credit: Natalie Escobedo
Master P storms the city with a few of his fellow No Limit soldiers, on the same night that Milwaukee Americana master Hayward Williams releases his latest album.
Friday, Nov. 24
R&B Cadets @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.
The R&B Cadets may be remembered less for the music they made than the careers they launched. Formed in 1980, the group served as a launching pad for some of the city’s most prominent musicians, including John Sieger (who went on to form Semi-Twang), singer Robin Pluer and Paul Cebar of the Milwaukeeans and Tomorrow Sound fame. The band’s festive, rock-minded spin on vintage soul music made them one of the city’s most dependable live draws in the early ’80s, and since reuniting in 2015, they’ve reclaimed that honor; since they don’t perform often, each of their shows has the feel of a major event. They do two shows this weekend at Shank Hall, conveniently timed for old fans that may be back in town for Thanksgiving. (Also Saturday, Nov. 25).
Saturday, Nov. 25
Master P and Juvenile w/ Bun B., 8Ball & MJG and Mia X @ Miller High Life Theatre, 8 p.m.
These days, the self-starter mentality is so baked into rap’s ethos that many rappers take independence for granted, but in the ’90s, there was almost no way for rappers to get their music heard on a wide scale without relying on a major label. Master P bucked those trends, starting his own label, No Limit Records, which went on to become the most influential outlets for Southern rap ever, paving the way for countless independent labels and independent artists that followed in his wake. For his “Kings and Queen of the South” tour, the rap pioneer will be joined by a pair of his fellow No Limit veterans: Juvenile and Mia X (the “Queen” of the tour and one of the label’s most underrated talents), as well as UGK veteran Bun B and the Memphis duo 8Ball & MJG.
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Benefit for Rett Syndrome Awareness @ Cactus Club, 9 p.m.
Five bands running the gamut from proto-punk to glam to pop-punk have come together to raise money and awareness for a disease many of us haven’t heard of. Rett Syndrome is a genetic brain disorder almost exclusive to girls that can cause coordination problems, seizures, scoliosis and breathing difficulties, among a host of other complications, and right now there is no cure for it. The lineup for this fundraiser includes Ramma Lamma, Aluminum Knot Eye, Meatcurtains, Ornerys and Red Lodge. There will also be a raffle and silent auction featuring items from dozens of local businesses—including Odd Duck, Goodkind, Pizza Shuttle and the Vanguard. The suggested $12 donation at the door includes a free raffle ticket.
Excision w/ Eptic, Phiso, Um.. and Wooli @ The Rave, 8 p.m.
Few producers understand the importance of spectacle in contemporary EDM better than Canadian DJ Excision. Though he started in the mid-’00s with a fairly bare-bones take on contemporary dubstep and drum and bass, his sound has only grown bigger and brasher over the years, and so has his live show: He now tours with an eardrum-destroying 150,000-watt sound system, along with the requisite light display. The last time he played the Rave, tickets sold so fast the venue had to add a second night, so there’s a good chance this show will sell out.
Hayward Williams w/ Coyote Brother @ Anodyne Coffee Walker’s Point, 8 p.m.
Singer-songwriter Hayward Williams made his mark on the city’s music scene in the late ’00s with his melancholy, cabin-fevered take on Americana and his Leonard Cohen-esque way with a lyric, but on recent albums, he’s branched out. 2014’s The Reef brightened things up with festive, horn-punched arrangements modeled after Van Morrison’s Moondance and the classic Stax Records releases, and a little bit of that Memphis soul spirit carries through his latest release, Pretenders, which offsets Williams’ typically pointed prose with some irresistibly uptempo grooves. This performance will serve as his release show for the new record.
The Verve Pipe w/ AJ of Northern Room and Lauren Lee @ The Back Room at Colectivo, 8 p.m.
The Verve Pipe were one of dozens of alternative bands gobbled up by major labels in the wake of Nirvana’s success, and they made the most of their opportunity, releasing their grungy major-label debut, Villains, in 1996. It included their first hit, “Photograph,” and their signature song, “The Freshmen,” a melodramatic tale of a high schooler’s suicide. The band has released albums sporadically since but were never able to recreate that record’s success, so it makes sense that they’d return to that well for this show, where they’ll perform Villains in its entirety, with new acoustic arrangements.
Sunday, Nov. 26
King Crimson @ Riverside Theater, 7:30 p.m.
In the pantheon of progressive rock, few albums were more influential than King Crimson’s 1969 debut, In the Court of the Crimson King, an ambitious fusion of rock, classical and symphonic music that helped pave the way for some of the genre’s greatest works in the ’70s. King Crimson hasn’t released a new studio album since 2003’s The Power to Believe, a dense, psychedelic work that did justice to the band’s heyday albums, but even as they near their 50th anniversary, they’ve continued to tour heavily—still led after all these years by frontman and founder Robert Fripp. The eight-piece lineup for this tour also includes bassist Tony Levin, singer-guitarist Michael “Jakko” Jakszyk and flute and sax player Mel Collins.
Tuesday, Nov. 28
Whitney w/ NE-HI @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 8 p.m.
While frontman Cullen Omori set off on a solo career after the breakup of the late, beloved Chicago power-pop ensemble Smith Westerns, his former bandmates Max Kakacek and Julien Ehrlich started their own new group called Whitney. It didn’t take long for the indie-pop group to find an audience. Their 2016 debut album, Light Upon the Lake, thrust them into the limelight last year, thanks to irresistible summer jams like “The Falls” and “Golden Days,” which offset the group’s lush instrumentals with breezy vocals and a lighthearted, feel-good air. The record raked in rave reviews from publications like Paste and Pitchfork and earned the band a vocal fan in Sir Elton John—who was so enthusiastic about the record that he interviewed the group for a New York Times magazine feature last fall.
Wednesday, Nov. 29
Longface w/ Bad History Month and Cairns @ Cactus Club, 9 p.m.
Longface carry on Chicago’s long tradition of unorthodox Americana music that has no interest in capturing life in the city. The group’s latest record, Hillbilly Wit, alternates between buzzy rock songs, folky commentary on American woes and values and noise-drenched freak-outs that sound like the work of a band that’s snorted bath salts. The band is joined on this tour by a similarly singular opening act: Boston’s Bad History Month—a solo indie-rock project from songwriter Sean Bean who fills the band’s new album, Dead And Loving It: An Introductory Exploration of Pessimysticism, with intense and philosophically minded tales of existence and mortality. Bean has likened it to a self-help book, and while it’s a good deal more inscrutable than most anything you’d find on the shelves, it’s an album that does ultimately leave you feeling better about the world.
