After Tangleweed’s South Side show Saturday night, I’ll be rushing back home to Logan Square to play with my pal Bill Whitmer in the Williwaw Ensemble. Bill is the world’s foremost avant-garde ukulelist, and his ensemble shows are a trip.

The Chicago Reader’s Monica Kendrick gave Bill a nice write up in this week’s edition.

WILLIWAW ENSEMBLE Outwardly Bill Whitmer is pretty aw-shucks about his work as an improviser–he plays the electric ukulele, a choice of instrument that would seem to dictate humility, and song titles like “What Good Waffles Do” and “Pit Stop–Pissing My Life Away” are certainly not the handiwork of a Serious Artist. But if you underestimate him, it’s your loss. Over the course of many years and many self-released albums he’s nimbly piloted his unlikely vehicle into uncharted territory again and again, making pulsating, variegated, beautiful noise–and when I imagine him returning from one of those wild flights, there’s nothing self-effacing about the radiant grin he’s wearing. Like many improvising groups, the Williwaw Ensemble is more a loose collective than a regular working band; Whitmer says that this time it’ll probably be at least a six-piece, including mandolinist Kenneth “Kip” Rainey from Tangleweed and guitarist Nathaniel Braddock from the Ancient Greeks. –> 10:30 PM, Hotti Biscotti, 3545 W. Fullerton, 773-772-9970, donation requested. –Monica Kendrick