This Weekend We're Doing Division
By Veronica Murtagh in Arts & Entertainment on May 29, 2009 8:40PM
This weekend marks the return of one of our favorite music-centered Chicago streetfests, Do Division, held in Wicker Park at the Damen and Division intersection. For a five buck donation, the annual streetfest and sidewalk sale gives you access to specials from local vendors and retailers, fare from neighborhood restaurants and bars and an amazing lineup of live music from near and far curated by the Empty Bottle. Here are some of our top picks.
Last month's Eccentric Soul Revue at Park West easily topped our list of unique Chicago shows for 2009. If you were in attendance you were likely equally enamored with the emcee, local soul crooner JC Brooks. A true entertainer, Brooks wowed the crowd with his slick tunes and ease on the mic. JC Brooks and his backing band, the Uptown Sound brings a little bit of a bygone era to Do Division on Saturday at 4 p.m.
The Empty Bottle makes full use of their weekend show roster, pairing up Portland rockers Viva Voce (who play the Bottle tonight) for a second Chicago appearance at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday. The married couple have a knack for crafting music that is simultaneously heart-wrenching and uplifting, drawing influence from a vast library of genres including psych, country and classic rock. Viva Voce are a band full of surprises and will catch you pleasantly off guard with a range that shifts from the soft-spoken and dreamy to the noisy and guitar-driven.
Canadian duo Handsome Furs segue day in to evening with a 7 p.m. Saturday performance. You may know Dan Boeckner, one half of married duo Handsome Furs, from his other project, the much-loved Wolf Parade. As the Handsome Furs, Broeckner and wife Alexei Perry create the kind of rock that has proven a recipe for success for bands like The Faint and Metric—indie rock vocals and instrumentation backed by a healthy heaping of synths and drum machines. We wouldn't be at all surprised to see the band's 2009 album Face Control round out some Best Of lists comes year's end.
You'll want to get an early start on Sunday to check out local trio The Jai-Alai Savant at 2:30 p.m. Channeling roots and dub, The Jai-Alai Savant mingle rock with beats for a unique signature sound that has not gone unnoticed. If you're still clueless to the trio's tunes, perhaps you will remember them as the opening act for TV on the Radio's last show at the Riv.
Sunday evening features two acts we can't help but call co-headliners, White Rabbits and Menomena. NYC six-piece the White Rabbits are widely know for their energetic live shows. Their show at 2008's SXSW was named one of the festival's top three performances by NME. A sneer and a kickdrum is all these boys need to show us a good time. A quietier, but no less musically satisfying set follows White Rabbits as Portland's Menomena headlines Sunday night with lush, jazz-heavy experimental rock sure to provide the perfect soundtrack to the cover of darkness.
The weekend's lineup has much to offer rock fans, but electronic fans are not forgotten. The Wicker Wash (yes, the car wash) will again be transformed into a DJ party aptly titled Bubbles and Beats all weekend long. Make sure you hang out long enough Saturday to catch everyone's favorite party boys, Flosstradamus, as they close the evening beginning at 8:30 p.m. In Wicker Park there's always an afterparty somewhere and Young Josh of Flosstradamus will continue the music Saturday night from 9pm-3am with DJ A-Cup of Rocktapussy and Jordan Z at Division Done Right at Fuel.
You can get all the official details, full line-ups and show times for the weekend here.