Hit up the beach for the first time in 2007. As you can tell it was pretty crowded. The weather has finally seemed to level out around here and I even waded into the freezing waters of Lake Michigan to snap this photo. Scored an old bike today from CJ so I’m planning on hitting the beach quite often this summer.
Went to Schuba’s Tuesday night to see Richard Swift perform with his band The Sons of National Freedom. Opening the show was All Smiles (local musician Jim Fairchild formerly of ‘Grandaddy’) and White Rabbits – a new NYC band that has often been compared to The Walkmen – and for good reason seeing as they have a very similar style and sound.
I had been wanting to see All Smiles since he held the Monday Practice Space at Schuba’s for the month of March but never followed through so I was glad to hear he was opening for Swift. He played solo acoustic and, although was I unfamiliar with most of the material, I enjoyed what I heard. He played a song of his I dig called ‘A Pile of Burnings Leaves’ towards the end of his 45 minute set.
After that was White Rabbits who have gotten some decent reviews from the local press as a new ‘indie darling’. I would say they lack originality – especially for a NYC band. They floss so many of the NYC rock cliches both stylistically (sweater w/ collared shirt, sport coats, stylish cuts) and sound-wise (two guitars often played with heavy distortion at double time [see: Walkmen], half singing-half yelling vocals) that I was indifferent to their performance.
Richard Swift, on the other hand, was great – as was his band The Sons of National Freedom. I have rarely seen a band at Schuba’s play as tightly as they did Tuesday. Swift’s voice sounded great – just as great as it does on his albums and his repertoire came almost entirely from his new record Dressed Up For the Letdown. I would have liked to have heard a few from other albums such as ‘As I Go’ from The Novelist and ‘Paisley Park’ from the Beautiful Heart single but I dig much of his new album and thought Schuba’s was a great fit for his brand of music.
All Smiles
White Rabbits
Richard Swift
Richard Swift
This show might just go into my Top 5 of all time. Modest and Johnny Marr put on an absolutely GREAT show. They kicked it off loud and fast with ‘Paper Thin Walls’ – ‘Ocean Breathes Salty’ – ‘Dashboard’ – 3 Fantastic opening songs…
Some people (Bennie) were bitching that they played too few old songs but forget that – the last two albums are great and the material sounds even better live than on the record. From the latest album they played: ‘Fire It Up’, ‘Missed the Boat’, ‘We’ve Got Everything’, ‘Education’, ‘Spitting Venom’, ‘Invisible’ and ‘People as Places as People’ (from what I can remember) – missing only ‘Steam Engenius’ and ‘Little Motel’ to please me entirely.
I was thrilled to get the chance to see Modest with Johnny Marr in tow… who knows how long this combination will last but I’m just glad I got the rare opportunity to see it live. It’s funny to see Marr on stage with Modest because his stage demeanor is so old-school punk – super-low hanging strap, wide stance, head nodding the whole time… you see where so many of these MTV faux bands get their steez.
Isaac sounded great and didn’t pull any crazy shit like he did in South Dakota. Some chicks jumped up on stage during the encore and Isaac just kept playing – not even seeming to notice. The show was a bit short but seeing as it was Sunday and (for whatever reason) there were 2 opening bands – I can’t really blame them for calling it… Rule #8: Leave ‘em wanting more.
Caught the Andrew Bird show at the Riviera Theatre this weekend here in Chicago. I was surprised to find that it had sold out – a big step up from playing the Logan Square Auditorium about 18 months back… I guess that’s what happens when you play Lollapalooza (and it doesn’t hurt to make an appearance on Letterman as well).
Seeing as the show was sold out, the place was packed – making it difficult to get any worthwhile photos (as you’ll notice). He played a ton of stuff from his stellar new album Armchair Apocrypha including ‘Heretics’, ‘Simple X’, ‘Imitosis’ and ‘Fiery Crash’. The one song from the album that he unfortunately did not play was ‘Darkmatter’ – my personal fav. Oh well, he sounded great and the crowd loved him.
This was my first time seeing Andrew Bird and I was surprised to find that he loops quite a bit of his material when performing live. I guess I’m okay with his approach since he basically plays an instrument (say the violin) to open the song and then somehow has that opening riff loop throughout the rest of the song when he picks up another instrument (say the guitar) to play another layer of song. I remember seeing The Flaming Lips years ago and they were looping stuff and I was a bit disappointed (they claimed ironically enough that it had to do with maintaining the integrity of the band) but I guess I’m a bit more lenient these days. All in all, a great show – I would’ve loved to have seen Andrew Bird back in the day when he played The Hideout.
The new National album Boxer has been leaked online. I managed to get a copy and I’m giving it my first listen – I feel no guilt since I’ve already pre-ordered the album (which doesn’t come out until 5/22). I’ll certainly let you know what my impressions are soon… For now you can check out the officially released single “Fake Empire” – amazing stuff. Don’t forget they’re coming to Chicago 6/7 to play the Metro.
A quick post… it’s nearly midnight and I gotta start ‘Twin Peaks – Season II’. I flew solo to see David Sedaris at the Chicago Theatre on Sunday. Another venue I hadn’t been to before and by far the most impressive to date (in Chicago at least). It was Easter so Sedaris read a classic story of his from ‘Me Talk Pretty One Day’ about he and his classmates trying to explain the premise of Easter to a Moroccan woman using their substandard French skills. If you haven’t read the book I highly recommend it – along with ‘Naked’.
Another great story he read was a recent one from The New Yorker about going to a trailer park to score pot with his brother Paul while home for Christmas. The vulgarities of the trailer park denizens might be a bit too harsh for the blog but if you can find the article it’s a funny one.
I was up in the balcony so the only relatively worthwhile photos I got were of the amazing theatre itself.
Went to Schuba’s on Friday to check out Elvis Perkins in Dearland. I’ve seen them once before at Schuba’s when they opened for Okkervil River back in October, but at that point they didn’t have an album out and I hadn’t heard any of their songs. This time around I was a bit more familiar with their material and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed the show.
Interesting background story to Elvis Perkins. My friend Lep had asked me a few weeks ago if I had ever heard of him and I said that I had and that I saw him play a while back. Lep said that he’s the son of the actor Anthony Perkins (most famously known for playing ‘Norman Bates’ in the classic Hitchcock film Psycho). I was surprised that I hadn’t heard this before so I checked up on it and it only gets more interesting. Turns out Elvis is the son of Anthony Perkins, and Anthony Perkins died of AIDS-related pneumonia in 1992. On top of that his mother – Berry Berenson, a noted actress-turned-photographer – was aboard one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center towers on September 11th. Saddest background story I’ve ever heard if I do say so myself.
Perkins’ material has a melancholy theme to it but fortunately doesn’t draw directly on past tragedies. His voice reminds me a bit of Colin Meloy of ‘The Decemberists’ and his musical stylings reminiscent of the late Nick Drake, utilizing acoustic instruments and strings behind eloquent lyrics. His album is titled Ash Wednesday and while it’s not for everyone, I give it my stamp of approval. A few of songs I really dig are ‘While You Were Sleeping’, ‘Sleep Sandwich’ and ‘Ash Wednesday’ – all of which he played at the show on Friday.
Went to Park West for the first time to catch the final show of a three night run by Neko Case. The performance was enjoyable and Neko’s voice was amazing to hear live. She played a lot material that I was unfamiliar with but I did recognize a few tunes from Blacklisted such as ‘Deep Red Bells’, ‘I Wish I Was the Moon’ and ‘Lady Pilot’.
I should mention that I was utterly peeved by the inane pre-show entertainment which consisted of two women, an overhead projector and some colored markers. The women placed transparencies on the overhead, colored the images, and wrote asinine comments, essentially wasting the time of everyone present. I wouldn’t mind such antics if the musicians were setting up their gear or something but this didn’t happen until after the little skit was finished. Oh well, at least no one gave them a round of applause…
I read an interview a few weeks ago where M. Ward was quoted as saying that Park West was his favorite venue in all of the U.S. so I was excited to check the place out. Unfortunately, I have to say the venue was a let down. The layout is pretty cool and the acoustics were well suited for the show but the price for drinks was outrageous and ticket prices were also obnoxiously high. I’m willing to settle for one or the other but to put up with both is asking a bit much. Not to mention you supposedly have a seat assignment on your ticket but I’d be damned if I saw a seat number anywhere in the place.
