MUSIC

found meditation on the cataclysm of the pandemic. But it’s well worth joining them on the ride. Skov unfurls stunning solos on “Respire” and “When the World Is Young,” opening the latter with a brooding, eloquent guitar soliloquy. Cortiñas’s de touch reaffirms his status as one of the great drummers in the city’s new guard. And throughout the album, Kuhn plays with the charm of a wizened storyteller, persuasively bringing it home on “Home,” the album’s closing ballad. —HANNAH

EDGAR

Rotundos Division Point, Minivan, and Aisle Five, open. 9 PM, Beat Kitchen, 2100 W. Belmont, $12. 17+

Rising Chicago four-piece Rotundos make lo-fi rock with the kind of freewheeling glee that feeds any good DIY scene. They’ve released a handful of singles and demos, and they’re headlining Beat Kitchen to celebrate their new debut EP, Ya Nos Conocen (Sawyer), which corrals bubblegum-sweet power- pop hooks and rough-and-tumble punk grit into six lean bilingual songs. (Rotundos sing in English and Spanish.) The band sneak bits of melodic flair and instrumental complexity into this charmingly scrappy material, despite its straightforward simplicity. They transform the stormy, morose punk of “When I’m Awake” into an all-out thrash spectacle whose blazing guitar riff feels like it could outrun the rhythm section. Rotundos like to play as fast as they can, if not faster, as if they’re in a rush to get their ideas out before they forget them. I get a jolt of energy when I listen to this EP—I can only imagine what it feels like to see the band play live.

—LEOR GALIL

Sunday2

Pandelis Karayorgis See Thu 6/29. Karayorgis begins the night in a trio with trombonist Jeb Bishop and vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz; for the second set, the pianist will play in a quintet with saxophonists Dave Rempis and Sarah Clausen and drummers Tyler Damon and Lily Glick Finnegan. 9 PM, Hungry Brain, 2319 W. Belmont, $15. 21+

Friday7

Square Roots See also Sat 7/8 and Sun 7/9. On the North Stage, Momma headlines and Aunt Kelly opens (X have canceled). On the South Stage, Mucca Pazza headlines; Edward Carpio Salguero and Disaster Kid open. 5-10 PM, Lincoln between Montrose and Wilson, suggested donation $10 for adults, $5 for kids and seniors, $20 for families. b

Chicago’s outdoor entertainment season arrived this year amid more questions than usual: Why NASCAR, and why here? Why did the Chicago Park District extend the C3 Presents Lollapalooza contract in Grant Park for another ten years, when residents in Pilsen, North Lawndale, Belmont Cragin, and other neighborhoods are still duking it out with independent promoters over community resources and access to public parks? This makes me especially grateful for the 2023 installments of some of Chicago’s longest-running and least problematic summer events—business as usual is sometimes actually a positive thing. And at Square Roots in Lincoln Square, business is good.

Established in 1998 as the Folk & Roots Festival, Square Roots features a mix of rock, roots, and traditional music from around the globe. It includes one indoor and three outdoor stages of music, dance, and family-oriented programming, and proceeds from admission (technically a suggested donation) benefit the Lincoln Square Ravenswood Chamber of Commerce and the Old Town School of Folk Music. This year’s lineup features some familiar faces, including Jon Langford & Sally Timms, Eleventh Dream Day, Split Single, and Superchunk, as well as a couple buzzed-about local up-and-comers. Nineties-influenced alt-rockers Slow Pulp (who just announced their second album, Yard, due on Antiin September) and indie-rock outfit Brigitte Calls Me Baby (whose vocalist, Wes Leavins, could hold his own next to Elvis or Morrissey) are the kind of acts you’ll want to catch now to lock in those “I saw them back when” bragging rights. You’ll find plenty of reasons to come early and stay late, whether your tastes run toward the serene and tranquil (hazy dream-pop band Divino Niño, angel-voiced folk singer Sabine McCalla, country artist Angela James) or whether you crave theatrics and spectacle (you can see not one but two outsider marching bands—Mucca Pazza and Clamor & Lace Noise Brigade—plus tap-dancing indie-pop outfit Them Queers).

Square Roots also shines when it comes to highlighting diverse sounds from outside the predominantly white musical cultures associated with “roots” music in America. Local acts performing this year include Chicago-based Mongolian folk trio Tuvergen Band; renowned multi- instrumentalist, storyteller, and AACM member Shanta Nurullah, who creates hypnotic blends of blues, jazz, and Indian classical music with her group Sitarsys; and Latine rock royalty Los Vicios de Papá, who deliver their fusion of cumbia, reggae, ska, and more with a socially conscious point of view. For a few of the festival’s acts, Lincoln Square is more than a few Brown Line stops away: Nigerien family band Etran de L’Aïr take a pan-African approach to joyful psychedelic rock, and they’re not to be missed.

—JAMIE LUDWIG

Saturday8

Chosen Few Picnic & Festival With the Chosen Few DJs, Kenny Dope, John Morales, Jamie 3:26, Stan Zeff, BeBe Winans, Lidell Townsell, and Lori Branch. 9 AM, Jackson Park, 63rd St. at Hayes Drive, $60 general admission, $160 for two GA tickets and a parking pass, kids under 12 free. b

Chicagoans rarely suffer from a shortage of music festivals, but few such events make me feel like I’m participating in the city’s cultural fabric like the Chosen Few Picnic. The long-running house-music celebration began informally in 1990, and its roots extend even further back. Wayne Williams founded the Chosen Few DJ collective in 1977 as a high