Helen Money and Jon Mueller w/ Cages and Group of the Altos

Although cellos aren’t completely foreign to rock music, they’re rarely played like rock instruments. Helen Money, the nom de plume of Chicago musician Alison Chesley, offers an exception. She filters her cello through an amplifier and distorts it with pedals; when she wants to, she can make the instrument sound as powerful as a Jimi Hendrix guitar solo, though she’s just as apt to keep the volume low and explore the intricacies and textures her cello offers. She performs tonight with Milwaukee’s restless percussionist/composer Jon Mueller. The bill also includes Cages, an experimental New York duo whose singer, Nola Ranallo, sings with the soaring, quivering expressiveness of Bjork, and Group of the Altos, a 12-piece post-rock orchestra that’s emerging as one of Milwaukee’s most exciting bands.