Saturday, Market Street will be closed to traffic as WEFT 90.1 FM celebrates its 24th birthday. WEFTfest is an all-ages, all-day event with a free concert that begins at 2 p.m. in the Mike ‘n Molly’s beer garden.
On the bill are Electric Theory, Relenter, Ambitious Pie Party, Ear Doctor, The Bird Dogs, The Impalas, Exorna, and Prince Myshkins. For anyone who cannot attend, the entire concert will be broadcast live. Refreshments will be available, and Chef Ra will grill both hamburgers and veggie burgers at 5 p.m. (Prince Myshkins play another free show tomorrow in the main lounge of Allen Hall. Show time is 8 p.m.)
Also Saturday, Kalyx Center in Monticello hosts Up All Night with Radio Free Urbana. This is a campout and concert with Ambitious Pie Party, Black Tie Elephant, Green Light Go, Green Mountain Grass, Quadremedy, UC Hip Hop, and DJs such as DJ El Train. Gates open at 6 p.m. and music starts at 7 p.m. Entry is $10, which includes breakfast from Red Herring Vegetarian Restaurant. All proceeds go to WFRU 104.5 FM.
Emo violin duo The Lifeline has doubled its ranks with drummer Adam Zicher and guitarist Eddie Yono. Adam Zicher had filled in on drums for Queens of the Stone Age and Filter. The Lifeline formed in New York, came here for college, and now calls Chicago home. The new lineup
premieres Sept. 20 at Elbo Room in Chicago. Where there is life, there is Hope… is now available online at CD Baby.
The reincarnation of The Idle Hours at last has a name: LMNOP, a sequence not new at theidlehours.com.
The LMNOP web site will be pinkythedestroyer.com, and LMNOP will be a Chicago electronic duo made up of Mark Villalobos and Nick Spizzirri. The Idle Hours started as an Urbana garage trio.
Tonight, while Sufjan Stevens and Xiu Xiu vie for the limelight, Piper’s Hut Concert Series in association with The Society of Celtic Cultures presents Chulrua. Chulrua consists of Irishmen Paddy O’Brien (button accordion) and Pat Egan (guitar, vocals) and Frenchman Patrick Ourceau (fiddle). In 1994, O’Brien won a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts, which went toward The Paddy O’Brien Tune Collection: A Personal Treasury of Irish Jigs and Reels. The performance takes place in the University
of Illinois Music Department Building Auditorium.
at 8 p.m. and cover is $15, with reduced rates for
seniors, children, and anyone with school ID.
Wednesday, rock returns to The Highdive as Mad Science Fair issues its debut, … for a better tomorrow (Mud-CD-054). Recorded and mastered by Adam Schmitt and mixed by Schmitt and Mike Clayton, … for a better tomorrow features ten power-pop songs that pick up where Mike Clayton’s solo project The Double Standard Practice left off last Thanksgiving. To support Mad Science Fair at the release party, Elsinore joins Cameron McGill and What Army and Darling Disarm. Show time is 9:30 p.m.,
and cover is $4.
