TICKETS
DOORS 7 / MUSIC 8
Chicago trio FACS use minimalism and space to create abstract, modern art rock. The group evolved out of the dissolution of kranky artists Disappears & the current lineup features three former members of the group.

The duality of “man” is a subject that has been explored in art for centuries, from writings of the Bible to Descartes, all the way up to filmmakers like Lynch, Cronenberg, & Carpenter. Who is your “true self” & what do they want? With their sixth studio album Wish Defense (again for longtime home Trouble In Mind Records), Chicago trio FACS take a good, long look in the mirror to face themselves.

The return of original member Jonathan Van Herik – who stepped away from the group just before their debut album Negative Houses was released in 2018 – replacing longtime bassist Alianna Kalaba, brings renewed vigor & a marked angularity from the band’s more recent output. The songs still hit hard, but the approach is sideways – the roles have changed since Van Herik’s original tenure & his previous time with Case & powerhouse drummer Noah Leger in Disappears; now on bass, Van Herik was originally the group’s guitar player and features on the debut, while current guitarist Brian Case played bass. This role reversal has helped the band’s dynamic, offering up a different musical perspective than before, now revisiting the trio’s long-going collaboration with some distance and time.

Open Head - a four-piece experimental ensemble - has a taste for the angular. They assemble sprawling sonic tones into turns, cuts, and jabs as a means of exploration. Pulling from the vein of New York no-wave and the avant-garde touched history of punk and rock, jagged textures intertwine into unafraid formats. The tracks on What Is Success, their second LP released on Wharf Cat in January 2025, are heavy, rhythmically complex, and feature intricate two-guitar interplay. The result is expansive, stratospheric in volume, and brutally material in its punctuation and delivery.