My friend Shannon has split from Chicago for the greener pastures of upstate New York and then on to Africa working for the ‘Doctors without Borders’ program. We went out to celebrate her final night out on the town, hitting up a few of her favs including the patio at Melvin B’s and Stanley’s in LP (not exactly my normal stomping grounds but enjoyable all the same).
Vaya con dios.
Went with my brother to see The Flatlanders perform at the Old Town School of Folk on Saturday night. I didn’t snap any photos because, one, they don’t allow any photography at the School and two, Curl-the-Head took his camera with him to San Diego this weekend (I don’t have a camera of my own – it’s high on my list).
The Flatlanders are Jimmie Dale Gilmore (left), Joe Ely (middle) and Butch Hancock (right). Each brings a unique vocal element to the band – my favorite being Jimmie Dale with his high, nasal and utterly unique voice. The tickets were steep (around $50) but the opportunity to hear Jimmie sing is well worth the money.
They performed for about an hour and a half, covering a slew of material ranging as far back as their first album More a Legend Than a Band [1972] (which happens to be my fav). From that album they played ‘One More Road’, ‘Keeper of the Mountain’ and ‘Dallas’. They played ‘Dallas’ as a blues number which was a bit of a disappointment seeing as the original version was a standard country number and needed no changes whatsoever but I guess playing it for some 30+ years you feel compelled to change it up.
For the encore the boys all came out with acoustic guitars and took turns playing solo while the other two watched. This was a special treat that you get with a performance at the Old Town School… I saw the Flatlanders years back at dive bar in LA and they certainly were not afforded the attention required to pull something as intimate as that off.
Went to check out the band ‘Illinois’ at Schuba’s on Tuesday night. All in all it was a solid (albeit short) performance. They’re a lively bunch which seems to show in their music. They played both songs from their lone EP that I really dig – ‘Headphones’ and ‘Screendoor’ – but also played the songs from the album I personally think are a bit obnoxious, namely ‘Bad Day’, although I must admit it was kind of funny when the singer started improvising about the irksome photographer up front who took an excessive number of photos over the course of the show (and no – for the record – it was not me).
These guys were pegged to play Lollapalooza this summer so they must be doing something right. I’m guessing their first full-length album will be a good one.
Saw the sold-out Arcade Fire show on Friday at the Chicago Theatre. It was my second time seeing them, the first being at the Hollywood Bowl when they opened for David Byrne in the summer of 2005. It would be difficult to top that show seeing as David Byrne is one of my fav’s and he brought Arcade Fire out on stage with him to do “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)”, but I will say the Chicago show was pretty fantastic.
I managed to get a box for the show which was nice, I was hoping for floor seats when I originally tried to get tickets but to no avail. While the view and access was great, I have to admit, sitting in a box sets you a slight bit apart from the performance and makes it all seem a bit less momentous. I’ll always find something to bitch about…
The material covered by the band came almost entirely from their two extraordinary full-length albums Funeral [2004] and Neon Bible [2007]. They opened the show by walking in from the back of the theater right down the main aisle and onto the stage. Win kicked things off with ‘Black Mirror’ but seemed displeased with the bass he was playing and threw to the ground before he finished the song. With a total of 10 band members on stage – most changing instruments between songs, I have to imagine being a roadie for Arcade Fire would have to be a terrible job.
After ‘Black Mirror’ they played almost everything from both albums including: ‘(Antichrist Television Blues)’, ‘Keep the Car Running’, ‘Intervention’, ‘No Cars Go’, ‘Haiti’ and my favorite part of the show – ‘Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)’ into ‘Rebellion (Lies)’. They played two encores, the second one consisted of solely ‘In the Backseat’ which featured Régine Chassagne on lead vocals and is (in my humble opinion) one of their weakest numbers, which made it bit of an odd choice to end the show with but all in all I loved the performance. My only regret is that I never got the opportunity to see these guys perform at a small venue, and something tells me that opportunity won’t come again.
So I did a bit of follow up work on the Daytrotter Sessions that I mentioned earlier and checked out their site (www.daytrotter.com). I gotta say it’s a pretty fantastic site, and anyone who’s into independent music really should check it out. They have a ton of free mp3’s from in-studio performances by a slew of great bands including some of my favs such as Eef Barzelay, Sunset Rubdown, Catfish Haven, French Kicks, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and some of my new found favorites such as David Vandervelde (based here in Chicago) and Elvis Perkins. If you visit the site and click on ‘Archives’ they’ve listed all the bands that have performed and each band has 3 or 4 mp3’s available for download. To accompany the free music they also have cool artwork and background stories for each band. Once again, I highly recommend checking it out.
To visit the site click here or go to www.daytrotter.com
Saw Tapes ‘n Tapes for the umpteenth time last night at the Abbey Pub. Another solid outing from the band, drawing mostly from their album ‘The Loon’, but also busting out some new stuff that I had yet to hear. Of the new stuff I’d say some of it I really liked and some of it I thought sounded a bit rough and heavy – similar to the stuff on their very first EP which I wasn’t all that impressed with (with the exception of “Icebergs” which they played at the show).
One of the best parts of the show were the two opening bands ‘Harlem Shakes’ and ‘Ladyhawk’ – both of which were solid performers. I hadn’t heard of ‘Harlem Shakes’ but was really impressed with the stuff. I spoke with one of the members afterwards and he said that it was their 3rd show of the day – having played the ‘Daytrotter Session’ radio program in Iowa Illinois earlier in the day and then the earlier show at the Abbey. I don’t know a whole lot about the ‘Daytrotter Session’ program except that the invitation is a fairly big deal considering the list of people that have been on including: Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, The Annuals, French Kicks, Elvis Perkins, Grizzly Bear, and many more.
I picked up Harlem Shakes EP ‘Burning Birthdays’ – haven’t had much time to listen to it but from what I’ve heard I dig it. I’m hoping Tapes ‘n Tapes get a new album out soon, it’s been at least 2 years since ‘The Loon’ first surfaced and with a running time of just over 40 minutes they could use some new songs.
Ladyhawk
Tapes ‘n Tapes
Tapes ‘n Tapes
Tapes ‘n Tapes
Went to see Daniel Johnston perform at the Lakeshore Theater in Chicago on Thursday. It was my first time to the Lakeshore and I really liked the venue. It reminded me of the Barrymore in Madison – small and quaint.
DJ went on around 10:45 and played for approximately 50 minutes which was about what I was expecting since he had already played a 7pm show early in the night. Most of his material was stuff I didn’t recognize but I liked it all for the most part. He began the show solo acoustic for the first few numbers and then the opening band ‘Sharks and Seals’ joined him for the second half of the set as his backing band. The only 2 numbers that I recognized were “True Will Find You in the End” and “Devil Town” which he performed alone on stage acapella as the encore.
DJ forgot to plug his guitar in for the first number of the show and then when the left he forgot to unplug it, making it just to the edge of stage before he was yanked back by his cord. Did I mention he was flossing a white T-shirt tucked into gray sweatpants and white house shoes? I took a quick video snippet from the show:
I’ll keep this one short and sweet, not unlike the show itself. I’ve been waiting to see Deadstring Brothers for a while and was really impressed with the their performance Monday. The set consisted mostly of material from their two albums Deadstring Brothers [2003] & Starving Winter Report [2005], including “Sacred Heart”, “Blindfolded”, “I’m Not a Stealer” and “Toe the Line”. They also threw in a rocking version of Dylan’s “From a Buick 6″, The Band’s “Get Up Jake” which also appears on Starving Winter Report, and a Leon Russell cover for the encore.
The Deadstring Brothers are a throwback band – reminiscent of Exile on Main St-era Stones and early electric Dylan. They’re a six piece band with Kurt Marschke on guitar vocals, a second vocalist, bassist, drummer, keys and a second guitarist switching between pedal steel and electric guitar. The pedal steel is such a wonderful stage instrument, adding a whole new layer to a song. It’s a shame so few bands still use them but I guess when you get chance to see one that does it makes you appreciate it all the more.
I got the chance to say ‘Hi’ to Kurt after the show and it sounds like The Brothers will be back in Chicago at least twice this summer, playing Ribfest and also a show at The Beat Kitchen with Jason Isbell from Drive By Truckers. They’re a tight and lively band with great material – I highly recommend checking them out this summer.
