Guitarist Bruce Gilbert is no longer touring with the band, but the legendary British art-punk band Wire remains one of the most potent live groups the genre has ever produced, and its recent album “Object 47” is every bit as propulsive as the last disc Gilbert made with the band, “Send” (2003). New touring member Margaret Fiedler McGinnis, a Chicago native who’s also played with Moonshake, Laika, Ultra Vivid Scene and PJ Harvey, joins veterans Colin Newman, Graham Lewis and Robert Gotobed after openers Disappears starting at 8 p.m. Saturday at Metro, 3730 N. Clark. Tickets are $20; call (773) 549-4140 or visit www.metrochicago.com.
Laurie Lindeen, former leader of ’90s punk heroines Zuzu’s Petals (subject of the recent best-of compilation “Kicking Our Own Asses”), MS survivor, significant other to Paul Westerberg and author of the recent memoir Petal Pusher will read from that book recounting her adventures with her Minneapolis trio at Quimby’s, 1854 W. North, at 7 p.m. Friday. Admission is free; for more information, call (773) 342-0910.
Christmas in October? It may seem like the wrong holiday to celebrate this month, but really, every day is Christmas for the famed psychedelic-pop collective Elephant 6, and several key members of that collective are bringing their Holiday Surprise Tour to the Bottom Lounge, 1375 W Lake St, on Tuesday, Oct. 21, to celebrate their forthcoming album “The Singing Saw at Christmastime.” Expect performances by Julian Koster of The Music Tapes and William Cullen Hart of the Olivia Tremor Control, a showing of the film “Major Organ and the Adding Machine” and what participants promise will be “a big orchestra, variety show, silly happy thing.” Tickets are $12; for more information, call (312) 929-2022 or visit www.bottomlounge.com.
