Do This: Brilliant Corners of Popular Amusements

By Lizz Kannenberg in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 16, 2011 8:40PM

Outdoor festival season may be drawing to a close for 2011, but the organizers of Noble Square's Brilliant Corners of Popular Amusements festival want to make sure you have one last chance to get your freak on this summer. Part circus, part music festival, part community art celebration, the Brilliant Corners show opens today and runs through Sunday in Eckhart Park.

In between the rides, arts and craft offerings and farmers' market fare are sprinkled some gem opportunities to see live performances from the likes of ex-Neutral Milk Hotel drummer Jeremy Barnes' Eastern European duo A Hawk and a Hacksaw, Brooklyn shoegaze twin sisters School of Seven Bells and Minneapolis chamber folk collective Dark Dark Dark on Saturday, while Steve Albini's (Albino's?) reclusive noise purveyors Shellac and Baltimore electro-acoustic dance party starter Dan Deacon will no doubt provide the aural highlights on Sunday. These shows are ticketed, with advanced purchase recommended.

In addition to the drool-worthy ticketed show lineup, Brilliant Corners has done a nice job of featuring plenty of great Chicago music on the free Birdhouse Outdoor Stage, including alt-country quintet Dolly Varden, plucky garage pop girl group Hollows and the harmony-heavy folk pop of Cloudbirds.

If the music only serves as background noise for you, Renegade Craft Fair will be there the entire weekend with a pop-up market of arts and crafts. The Zoppé Family Circus, featuring Giovanni Zoppè as Nino the Clown, is a circus driven by a central narrative incorporating its acts as opposed to a hodgepodge of individual acts flipping around. A Taste of Zoppe will perform on both Saturday and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public.