Chicago Calling - March 2026

Takaat, Luke Martin, Twixx and more come to town

Feb 26, 2026

photo by Amghy Chacon and Cem Misirlioglu

Welcome back to Chicago Calling! Hooray for making self-enforced deadlines! I’ll be doing my second-ever DJ set at Rainbo Club on March 5th a week from today, then at the end of the month I’ll be heading over to Big Ears for the third year in a row, but even if that wasn’t the case this would still be an absolutely packed month of shows here in Chicago. Looking at everything I have marked down, there’s a perfect mix of heavy hitters and more overlooked people doing shows this month. Every single one of them has something unique to offer that you won’t find at your local drinking hole, and I could have written something about all of them if I had the time. But I didn’t! So here’s three in particular I’m excited about, plus a quite-lengthy list of additional shows I’m equally excited about:

Frequency Series: Luke Martin + Langdon / Kimmel / Stephenson at Constellation - 3/8, 8:30 PM

The Frequency Festival ends on March 1st, but like a beautiful new music phoenix rising from the ashes, the Frequency series will continue a week later. Luke Martin is a composer and improviser whom I first became familiar with thanks to a duo tape he recorded with former interview victim Derek Baron a couple of years ago. He’s also a member of the group Ordinary Affects, who have been responsible for many of my favorite recordings to come out of the Wandelweiser-sphere this past decade. This is the kind of ultra-minimal, sparse experimental music that doesn’t really have any of the psychoacoustic phenomena most droners use to hook you in, and it’s far more rewarding because of it. Martin’s music trusts the listener to hear what they need to hear in his poetic use of silence and engagement with the sound of his environment and collaborators. And he has some great collaborators for this performance, which (if I’m not mistaken) includes a solo performance and a quartet with Jack Langdon, Jeff Kimmel and Graham Stephenson. Chicago has a rich history of lowercase-type music, but despite that, and despite Peter Margasak’s efforts to bring Wandelweiser-adjacent people to the city, getting to see this music live still feels pretty rare, so make it to this one.

Twixx / Anti-Soul Organization / Temp. & Continuation / Sanjana Ali at Ma’s - 3/14, 9 PM

flier by Ole Mic Odd

The elusive John Daniel has recently returned to Chicago, and he’ll be performing under the name Twixx at the most prestigious basement in town, Ma’s. He’s performed and recorded under a variety of different names, and the one most familiar to all of you is probably Forest Management. I’ve probably talked a lot before about how it feels as though there’s a thin line between the transcendent and the snooze-worthy when it comes to ambient music, but Daniel’s music is well past the former side of that line. His soundscapes are genuinely transfixing, subtly dynamic, and deeply reward close listening. They also sound amazing live, for what it’s worth. He’ll be joined on this bill by electronic hardware deconstructionists Anti-Soul Organization, deep ambient techno heads and Listening Club masterminds Temp. and Continuation, and local fixture Sanjana Ali for what many experts are saying will turn out to be a “chiller.” Come hang.

TAKAAT at Constellation - 3/15, 8:30 PM

After seeing the hit rock band Phish at The Sphere, a cutting-edge Las Vegas venue allegedly modeled after Sheldon Adelson’s singular testicle, game show host and noted libertarian Drew Carey tweeted “I would give you all my money, stick my dick in a blender and swear off pussy for the rest of my life in exchange for this.” I could have easily said the same thing after seeing Mdou Moctar, one of the most ferocious bands to come out of the ever-fruitful Sahel region, for the first time at Sound & Gravity last year. Takaat is essentially the same band minus their titular guitar hero, but this is far from a Garfield Minus Garfield situation. Without the guitar pyrotechnics, the trio has more space to dig in to the trance-inducing rhythms and structures that really hits you deep in your skull. They played the legendary DIY venue Not Not last year, which I missed for what was probably a stupid reason, so I’m ever-grateful that they’re returning to Chicago, if nothing more than to allow me to show myself forgiveness for the errors of my ways. This is a rare show I’d recommend to literally anyone, regardless of musical interests. Even if you have little-to-no frame of reference for all of the incredible music that’s been coming out of Agadez (and you really should!) I can assure you that you will be impressed by this music.

Here’s some other shows I didn’t have time to cover in detail but are nonetheless worth your interest:

Unknown Rhythms

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