Doors at 7:00pm Main Room $32 Advance/$37 Day of Show Facebook RSVP All ages show. Check entry requirements at http://theslowdown.com/All-Ages About Black Country, New Road Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | SoundCloud | YouTube | Spotify There are few contemporary bands who can do musical reinvention quite as consistently as Black Country, New Road. From their Mercury Music Prize-nominated debut For the First Time, which touched upon everything from jazz to post-rock via klezmer music, to the art-rock meets chamber pop follow up Ants From Up There (both top 5 charting albums). Then when singer Isaac Wood amicably left shortly after, they wrote an entire set of new songs to tour which ended up on Live at Bush Hall, an album The Guardian claimed was a “magical resurgence” in a triumphant five-star review. Now, on studio album three, the band are once again building from the ground up in yet another miraculous musical transformation. “Bush Hall was a really fun project to find our feet in,” says Charlie Wayne. “But we toured it to death and we were done with those songs. This album is a new statement of intent for us as a six-piece.” The band have now settled into a new shape in which vocal duties – and most of the songwriting – is split between Tyler Hyde, Georgia Ellery, and May Kershaw.“It created a real through line for the album, having three girls singing," says Ellery. "It's definitely very different to Ants From Up There, because of the female perspective - and the music we've made also compliments that." The band’s ability to respond to changing circumstances is not only down to their close-knit friendship but due to their talent, adaptability and long-standing relationship together as musicians. A mix of classically trained and self-taught, the multi-instrumentalists gathered steam as a band in the late 2010s, regularly playing The Windmill in Brixton alongside friends and peers such as Squid and Black Midi, and soon found themselves being labelled "the best band in the world" by The Quietus. Despite moving swiftly on after each record, and never having conventionally toured in support of a studio album, the band’s fervent following has only grown and grown regardless. By the time they found themselves in front of an ecstatic audience to record their live album, they were singing songs that reflected on the profound friendship that had steered them this far through an unpredictable journey, as they hollered in unison: “look at what we did together / BC,NR, friends forever!” About Friko Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube | Spotify The duo of Niko Kapetan & Bailey Minzenberger - an essential addition to Chicago’s long lineage of forward-thinking indie rock. On "Where we’ve been, Where we go from here," their full-length debut release on ATO Records, the band merges elements of post-punk & chamber-pop & experimental rock, magnifying their music’s exhilarating power with a steady barrage of spirited gang vocals. Poetic, explosive, & sublimely raw in feeling, the album brings an equally visceral intensity to brutally heavy anthems & heart-on-sleeve ballads alike, creating an immediate outlet for the most unwieldy emotions. Formed in 2019, Friko soon began taking the stage at legendary Chicago venues like the Metro, Empty Bottle and Schubas Tavern, self-releasing their acclaimed debut EP "Whenever Forever" in 2022 and making their festival debut at Bonnaroo the following spring. Known for their high-energy live show, Friko aim to deliver a live experience that’s fantastically disorienting in its emotional arc. Mastered by Heba Kadry (Björk, Big Thief) and engineered by Jack Henry and Scott Tallarida, "Where we’ve been, Where we go from here" embodies a sonic complexity befitting of a band that names Romantic-era classical music and the more primal edges of art-rock among their inspirations. Friko hopes that their music’s emotional potency might have a galvanizing impact on audiences. Niko says, “I want our music to pick people up, so that they can actually go out and do something with whatever they’re feeling.”