When I saw Chicago singer-songwriter-guitarist Haley Fohr open for Bill Callahan in 2013, she played solo. At the time, I noted that her set “set built from droning folk songs to ear-shattering primal screams.” Then as now, Fohr performs under the name Circuit Des Yeux. But when she played Friday, Aug. 28, at the Hideout, Circuit Des Yeux was an actual band, with bass, violin and drums adding to the already-potent strength of Fohr’s music. The focus was still on Fohr’s vocals and her moody, sometimes transcendent songs, but the other musicians added more texture. Circuit Des Yeux’s latest album, In Plain Speech (Thrill Jockey), is well worth hearing. (Read the Chicago Reader’s story from May 18, 2015, about Circuit Des Yeux.)
The Hideout show also featured an engaging set of instrumental guitar music by Marisa Anderson — an idiosyncratic mix of blues and folk — as well as a strong performance by a new Chicago group called Slow Planes, whose atmospheric folk rock was a perfect complement to the rest of the night.
Marisa Anderson
Slow Planes
