Stage Buzz: Sound & Gravity Festival, Rob Zombie, North Coast Music Fest, Danny Elfman, Babymetal

Brassneck | August 31, 2026

Danny Elfman

What do you get when metal, Japanese Idol culture, and J-pop collide? You get BABYMETAL, who are celebrating 16 years of “kawaii metal.” The group brings their vivid, highly choreographed, and kick-ass show to Chicago this weekend with special guests Halestorm and Violent Vira. It all goes down at Huntington Bank Pavilion on Northerly Island this Friday, September 4. Grab tickets here.

Ride out the last days of summer at North Coast Music Festival this weekend. This year, catch sets from FISHER, Porter Robinson, Holy Priest, GRiZ, Illenium, SLANDER, ALLEYCVT, Chris Lorenzo, Tape B, and more. The three-day festival takes place at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview from September 4th to September 6th. Get details here.

It’s time to get your spook on! Rob Zombie is pulling up to Chicago in his Dragula for yet another edition of his “Freaks on Parade” tour. Zombie will deliver a night of cuts from his latest album, The Great Satan, along with fan favorites like “Living Dead Girl,” “Superbeast,” and “More Human than Human.” It all goes down Saturday, September 5th at Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre in Tinley Park. You can still get tickets here.

Danny Elfman has spent the past five decades creating movie scores that are whimsical, frightening, eclectic, and downright iconic. Before that, he was making offbeat, funky music with his band Oingo Boingo. Now, the maestro composer is hitting the road in support of his yet-to-be-announced new album. The trek kicks off in Chicago at the Aragon Ballroom on Monday, September 7th. Tickets are available here.

Constellation Performing Arts presents the second Sound & Gravity festival running this Thursday through Sunday (August 3-6). The artist-curated festival focuses on experimental music, free jazz, and contemporary classical. A number of enticing ambient and post-rock acts are on the bill as well. Three Bucktown/Avondale event spaces on Thursday and six venues from Friday through Sunday will host lineups of two or three bands per night, with music beginning at 6:30 PM. Most of the locations are an easy walk from one to another. The longest stretch is between Rockwell on the River and the Beat Kitchen, which is still under a mile.

Among a lineup of more than 50 worthy acts, Thursday’s programming includes guitarist Mick Turner of Australian instrumental post-rock trio Dirty Three at Constellation. Chicago-based alternative-Latin quintet Dos Santos will play songs including singles “Money Gun” and the title track from their new album Es Amor on the Rockwell Patio. Friday features Natural Information Society & Bitchin Bajas ahead of Woods’ dreamy psych-folk at Rockwell on the River, Kalia Vandever at Hungry Brain, and the Eastern European and Balkan-influenced A Hawk and a Hacksaw at Beat Kitchen. On Saturday, the Tomeka Reid Quartet performs improvisational chamber jazz at Judson & Moore. The festival’s best-known names appear this night, when Constellation hosts the boundary-pushing Contre Jour (Sonic Youth co-founder Lee Ranaldo and Canadian multimedia artist Leah Singer) and avant garde/jazz guitarist Marc Ribot. Cinematic art-pop trio Son Lux and indie rockers The American Analog Set will appear at the Athenaeum Center. The festival’s final day will feature instrumental post-rock act Black Duck (with Doug McBride of Tortoise, etc., joined by fellow local luminaries Charles Rumback and Bill MacKay) at Judson & Moore. Folk-based singer-songwriter Joan Shelley will perform at Constellation, accompanied by Chicago music mainstay Jim Elkington. Lucrecia Dalt and Grouper will appear at Athenaeum Center, and Yellow Swans will be Beat Kitchen’s final festival performer.

Festival passes, day passes, and a limited number of single-venue tickets are available at soundandgravity.org. – Jeff Elbel

– Ashley Perez-Hollingsworth

Tags: Ashley Perez Hollingsworth Stage Buzz Illinois Entertainer, Danny Elfman, North Coast Music Festival, Rob Zombie