$15 Adv + Fees | 21+ Kal Marks have never made a record as personal as Wasteland Baby. Though Carl Shane, the band’s vocalist-guitarist, has made a career off of exploring blunt, uncomfortable truths through song, with Wasteland Baby, he steered Kal Marks toward something utterly new. Shane looked inward to stare down a fear that had long plagued him: What would it look like to have a child in a world that looks like this? “The album was driven by the fears I’m having about being a father,” says Shane. “The initial spark was this fear, and I thought that maybe if I could express it, I could overcome it.”  Originally from Rochester, New York, Cusp makes ’90s-indebted indie rock that’s by turns thrashing and mesmerizing, yet always thoroughly attuned to the anxieties and paradoxes of modern life. After releasing a debut EP, 2021’s Spill, and a single with Fire Talk Records, Cusp members Jen Bender (guitar, vocals), Gaelen Bates (guitar), and Matt Manes (bass) relocated to Chicago in 2022. There, the band immediately found its place among the city’s diverse and close-knit independent music scene. With a squall of guitar and a crash of drums, two years on from the release of their exhilarating debut EP, Chicago noisemakers Babe Report finally release their debut album in 2024, in the form of the rough-and-ready Did You Get Better, released this Spring via Exploding In Sound. Presented by Sleeping Village. This is an 21+ event