We're All Booked Up

By Scott Smith in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 29, 2005 12:57PM

Chicagoist knows that singer/songwriter Kat Parsons has been kicking around Chicago for the last five years or so but we’re just getting to know her now.

Since her debut album was released on local indie label Waterdog Music in 1999, she’s spent the ensuing years gigging around the country and building up the kind of press that would have labels scrambling to get her into a studio to record a follow-up. And yet, not so much. Instead, her extremely loyal (and apparently well-heeled) fanbase started raising money through her website. She eventually raised enough money to record the album No Will Power over the last year.

While Power sports a glossier sound than we normally go for, Parson’s phrasing and musicianship (and slight resemblance to Kate Beckinsale) have us making plans to see her free Tower Records show at 2 PM on Saturday or catch her record release party at Schuba’s at 7 PM that evening. See her now before your little sister buys the album after the title track shows up on One Tree Hill.

Making it an early evening on Saturday will allow us to be fully rested for the Second Annual Rock for the Whisper show at Gunther Murphy’s this Sunday at 4 PM. A fundraiser for ovarian cancer research, the show brings together some of the best local bands like the Methadones, The Plastik Explosives, The Safes and more. If you can’t make it to the show, help the cause by picking up a teal bracelet or two; only your mom wears the yellow Lance Armstrong ones nowadays.

Finally, if you’ve got a hankering for the days when girls were girls and men were men who wore cravats then perhaps Mr. Showmanship: A Tribute to Liberace this Saturday at the Chicago Cultural Center is for you. Both the 1 and 3 PM shows are free but reservations are required though we can’t imagine why.