Maybe it’s because of Colombia’s tumultuous social/political environment or because it serves as a gateway between North and South America, but some of the most vibrantly eclectic and colorful music in the Western Hemisphere is currently spilling from this lovely-yet-troubled nation. Singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist Andres Cabas is a major tributary in that rainbow-hued stream of sound. Cabas’ latest album, “Contacto” (EMI Latin), is a sparkling pop rain forest where traditional Colombian percussion, hard-rock guitars, electronics, cumbias, funk grooves and more sprout in luxuriant profusion, giving the dance-friendly music an exotic, enthralling charm and richness.
CABAS performs Wednesday at House of Blues, 329 N. Dearborn St. $17.50. 312-923-2000.
A LIST
KID ROCK, Friday at the Allstate Arena, 6920 Mannheim Rd., Rosemont. $35. 312-559-1212. Memo to Kid Rock: Dude, we got it already. The dingy, sleeveless T-shirt; the long, stringy hair and the sideshow stage act all made it really, really clear you’re a rebel. So hooking up with Pamela Anderson is kind of overload, isn’t it? Dude, your music is still trashy, lowbrow fun, even as you’ve dropped rap for undiluted Southern country-rock.
PAUL KELLY, Saturday at the Double Door, 1572 N. Milwaukee Ave. $12. 773-489-3160. Ever reliable Australian singer-songwriter Paul Kelly has a problem: His music is toxic to today’s rock/pop radio stations. From his smart, thoughtful lyrics to his gently chiming, inviting guitar hooks, Kelly traffics in the kind of classic craft that’s become play-list poison. Kelly’s fine new 2-CD set, “Ways and Means” (spinART), is similarly Top 40-phobic in its tuneful survey of country-rock strumming, catchy blues-rock riffing and pristine pop lyricism.
THE CHURCH, Friday at House of Blues, 329 N. Dearborn St. $20. 312-923-2000. Yep, these intrepid Aussies are still around, still playing to a cult audience and–believe it or not–they still matter. In fact, some of the Church’s most recent records are among its best, and its latest (17th!) opus, “Forget Yourself” (spinART), is another misty cauldron of languid, serpentine melody, hazily psychedelic guitar spangle and lotus-junkie singing. Torpid yet entrancing.
CHEER-ACCIDENT, Saturday at the Bottom Lounge, 3206 N. Wilton St. $10. 773-975-0505. If eating stinky, moldering cheese is a sign of good taste, so too is a tolerance for progressive rock’s rank vapor. Few current bands emit a more gloriously pungent art-rock aroma than local rotters Cheer-Accident, whose latest CD, “Introducing Lemon” (Skin Graft), imparts a distinctively heady bouquet by blending bracing, dissonant riffing and gorgeously layered melody into compositions of vigorous complexity.
OTHER CONCERTS
ELVIS COSTELLO AND STEVE NIEVE, Tuesday at the Oriental Theater, 24 W. Randolph St. $47.50-$67.50. 312-559-1212. Elvis Costello’s latest CD, “North” (Deutsche Grammophon), is his first epistle to the highbrows, and it won’t be his last. Released on a storied classical music label and arranged for all-star jazz and chamber musicians, “North” completes Costello’s makeover from rock’s Dr. Heckle into Maestro Hyde of the highfalutin’ art song.
MELISSA ETHERIDGE, Thursday and March 19, 20 and 21 at House of Blues, 329 N. Dearborn St. 312-923-2000. Sold out. So is it new love or dirty old lucre that’s behind the more upbeat, blandly mainstream sound of Melissa Etheridge’s new CD, “Lucky” (Island)? Granted, the stirring strumming and soaring choruses on “Lucky” don’t radically veer from Etheridge’s trademark, populist arena-rock, but the dearth of grit and edge in the new tunes suggest corporate attempts to make Etheridge more palatable to a multi-platinum marketplace.
EAST CURRENT, Monday at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St. 312-744-6630. Americans may not recognize the koto as a kind of Japanese zither or the shakuhachi as a Japanese flute, but many will recognize the koto’s lute-like tone and the shakuhachi’s spectral cry from movie and TV soundtracks. Surprisingly, the duo East Current–Mieko Miyazaki and Dozan Fujiwara–use those ancient tools to reinterpret Western pop, folk and classical music.
