The new year means resolutions. One you might consider adding to your list: Frequenting some of the city’s smaller concert venues that help Chicago thrive as a live-music mecca. Since most large-scale tours don’t begin until late spring or summer, now is an ideal time to see artists who might not have household-name recognition.
Of course, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention a few notable heavy-hitters passing through in the next few months. Brandi Carlile appears on her first-ever arena trek Feb. 20 at Allstate Arena. The ever-dependable Jason Isbell drops by with the 400 Unit on March 6-7 at Salt Shed. Cardi B makes her long-awaited local headlining debut on March 21 at the United Center.
All options whose appeal dovetails with that of these featured shows. The main differences? Each of the 10 following choices offers intimate sightlines and tickets from $61 or less, pricing that speaks to post-holiday budgets.
Cate Le Bon
Reeling from a breakup and bodily ailments, Cate Le Bon poured the hurt into “Michelangelo Dying.” As much a mood piece as a meditative art-pop album, it bathes melancholic lyrics in a thick soup of liquid synthesizers, underwater bass and distant percussion that give the impression time isn’t linear. Using baroque textures and gauzy layers, she cultivates a beautiful, strange language for loss and lamentation whose meanings extend beyond fractured human relationships. At its softest, Le Bon’s sedate echo-chamber fare threatens to vaporize and disappear. Not unlike the key principles of the country she mourns when she sings: “I pledged my love to America / Then I ran so far.” In our current environment, Le Bon’s rejection and isolation beget feelings of collective consolation and warm comfort. Snuggle up.
8 p.m. Jan. 22 at Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport St.; tickets (ages 17+) from $37.68 at ticketweb.com
Perfume Genius
Delicate-voiced singer-songwriter Michael Alden Hadreas has been performing as Perfume Genius for more than 15 years, creating a catalog as sharp, serious and soul-searching as any in the indie-pop canon. The uncertainty, grief and compassion at the crux of many of his frank narratives seemingly reflect the trauma of his adolescence — and, by extension, the stresses of navigating today’s sociopolitical landscape as a gay man. Healing and haunting, Perfume Genius’ wide-ranging oeuvre mines beauty from pain and finds hope in the desolate. His elegantly understated “Glory” (2025) extends his adventurous streak and penchant for fragile, guarded romance. He’ll play here in a duo configuration.
8 p.m. Jan. 22 at Lincoln Hall 2424 N. Lincoln Ave.; 18+; tickets from $60.75 at lh-st.com
Sprints
Glance at the list of finalists for major awards or spend an hour enduring the stale programming on non-college radio, and you wouldn’t be wrong to think rock has sunk to its lowest point since the end of the 20th century. Though in need of resuscitation, the genre still has a healthy pulse. It just primarily beats underground. Exhibit A: Sprints. The Irish quartet’s arresting “All That Is Over” builds on the promise of its debut album. With the post-punk-leaning group allowing more room for nuance and strain, vocalist Karla Chubb rages against a world she’d prefer not to recognize and, in the process, uncovers reasons to believe. “We have love, and we have art,” she attests. Doubt her and her band if you dare.
8 p.m. Jan. 29 at Lincoln Hall, 2424 N. Lincoln Ave.; tickets (ages 18+) from $33.25 at lh-st.com
Sudan Archives
What comes to mind when you hear “violinist”? Probably not the sounds of Brittney Denise Parks, aka Sudan Archives. Having learned the instrument by ear, the Ohio native re-imagines it for modern Western music by seizing the energy, abandon and soulfulness with which it’s associated in African settings. Her cutting-edge incorporation of Black traditions, other string-based forms and polyrhythmic loops into hybrid R&B arrangements informs three innovative LPs. The most recent of which, the conceptual “The BPM,” pulses with dancefloor physicality, hip-hop assertiveness and kinetic personality. Intended by Parks to be disruptive, it’s that and more — analog folk and digital futurism bound to blow up on a widespread level.
8 p.m. Feb. 5 at Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport St.; tickets (ages 17+) from $39.96 at ticketweb.com
Shemekia Copeland
Timing can be everything. Decades ago, when blues reigned supreme, Shemekia Copeland would’ve likely been a celebrity. As it stands, Copeland will settle for her role as the blues’ leading under-50 ambassador. Her 2018-2022 album trilogy ranks among the most fearless, smartest state-of-the-union statements recorded in any genre this century. “Blame It on Eve,” her latest effort for local imprint Alligator Records, dials down social commentary in favor of expanding into country, jazz, funk and more. Graced with a big voice and commanding presence, Copeland shrinks the size of any space she plays.
8 p.m. Feb. 27 at SPACE, 1245 Chicago Ave., Evanston; tickets from $37.69 at ticketweb.com
Margo Price
Margo Price suffers no fools and knows exactly where she stands. The singer-guitarist begins her newest salvo, the excellent “Hard Headed Woman,” with an unwavering proclamation: “I’m a hard-headed woman and I don’t owe you (expletive).” Outlaw country to the core, the Illinois native espouses an uncompromising independence and social-justice righteousness missing from the Nashville mainstream — and feigned for appearance’s sake in related circles. Price’s decision in December to play for women incarcerated in a Tennessee penitentiary underlines her feminist bond with royalty such as Loretta Lynn and June Carter Cash. Her direct storytelling, and firm grasp on gospel, blues, soul and roots styles, confirm her place as a contemporary spitfire.
7:30 p.m. Feb. 28 at Metro, 3730 N. Clark St.; tickets from $37.84 at etix.com
Medeski, Cline, Moore and Skerik
Keyboardist John Medeski, guitarist Nels Cline, drummer Stanton Moore and saxophonist Skerik haven’t released any music together. Apart from these shows, they have just one other scheduled date. No matter. The improvisational nature of a gathering that unites four versatile instrumentalists who claim hundreds of projects to their collective credit — collaborations with jazz visionaries such as John Zorn and John Scofield, stints with sludge-metal pioneers Corrosion of Conformity and Chicago veterans Wilco included — proves too enticing to ignore. The group might turn overly jammy or lose the thread, yet it won’t hurt for ambition or surprise.
8 p.m. March 13, 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. March 14 at Garcia’s Chicago, 1001 W. Washington Blvd.; tickets from $51.05 at ticketmaster.com
Matt Berninger
As his Dessner brother mates in The National make names for themselves as in-demand producers (Taylor Swift, anyone?) and composers, vocalist Matt Berninger continues to quietly establish his own identity apart from the group. Recovered from a depression that nearly sidelined his career, Berninger’s subdued aesthetic isn’t too far removed from that of the latter-era output of his main band. His signature characteristics — the murmuring baritone, the unhurried deliveries, the simmering ruminations, the deceptively bare backdrops — fill a pair of solo LPs whose wound-tight songs could benefit from the less-constrained interplay that often occurs on stage.
7:30 p.m. March 17 at Riviera Theatre 4746 N. Racine Ave.; tickets (ages 18+) from $54.86 at axs.com
Anna von Hausswolff
Though “The Phantom of the Opera” leaves in February, another pipe organist prone to eerie soundscapes and gothic overtones arrives the next month. Swedish singer-composer Anna von Hausswolff, whose cathedral melodies, intense vocals and doom-laden dirges share much in common with Nordic heavy-metal culture, specializes in mystery and grandiosity. Her opuses frequently remain shrouded in darkness before they locate splinters of light. As that tension escalates, battles — between good and evil, fantasy and reality, collapse and triumph — ensue. In viewing her shows as rituals, von Hausswolff understands the draw of drama and mayhem. This, her first area date since 2013, has all the markings for becoming one of the Empty Bottle’s “I was there when” evenings.
9 p.m. March 20 at Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western Ave.; (ages 21+) at emptybottle.com
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The Hives and the Chats
Fans of witty, hot-wired garage rock and brash, no-frills punk might not catch a stronger double bill this year. The egg timer on The Hives’ fame should’ve dinged several mayoral administrations ago. And still the Swedish rabble-rousers endure. Their recent “The Hives Forever Forever the Hives” LP contains one magnetic riff, unison-shouted chorus and sneering one-liner after another. Their irreverent humor revitalized, tongue-in-cheek arrogance intact and reputation as a blistering live act secure, it’s fair to state The Hives hate to say they told us so. The Chats take a loose, DIY approach to buzzing tunes about food, vices, anxiety and being broke. The Aussie trio’s rowdy rants, unpretentious attitudes and pub accents come across as the hyperactive equivalent of chasing a can of Red Bull with a round of Malort shots. Let it rip.
7:30 p.m. March 26 at Salt Shed, 1357 N. Elston Ave.; (ages 17+) at saltshedchicago.com
Bob Gendron is a freelance critic.
