Ferraby Lionheart returned to Schubas to play a short set of mostly new material from his forthcoming album The Jack of Hearts due out in August. Unlike the last time I saw him when he played solo acoustic, Ferraby was backed by The Badgers, a trio of musicians from the supporting act Leslie & The Badgers (all but Leslie). With The Badgers backing him, Ferraby was able to rock out (relatively) and highlight his song composition. I couldn’t help but draw a connection to much-beloved Vetiver as well. Aside from a slew of solid new material, Ferraby also played a couple of his better numbers including ‘Small Planet’ and ‘Put Me in Your Play’.

Ferraby Lionheart with The Badgers backing him up.

Ferraby kind of looks like a young Levon Helm

While the show was short–45 minutes all told–I was able to purchase an advance copy of his forthcoming able The Jack of Hearts. From the first few listens I’m impressed and hope it gets some play. It’s a shame it’s taken him so long (just shy of 3 years) to produce a follow up to Catch the Brass Ring.

The Walkmen returned to Schubas for a Wednesday night show before moving over to Lincoln Hall for a two night run on Thursday and Friday. While this show could have played out as a low key warm up for the following two shows, it didn’t. Hamilton came out with more of his trademark howl then I’d ever seen, perhaps even too much. Used selectively it really helps to emphasize and empower certain material or lyrics but when overused it quickly fades into hairband wailing.

That being said, it was another great outing from the Walkmen. They played at least four new songs that will hopefully show up on their forthcoming (and untitled) album which is slated for release in the Spring of 2010.

White Rabbits opened up for The Walkmen

Hamilton Leithauser belting out some vocals

Fanfarlo finally rolled through Chicago for first time on Monday and put on a great show before a sold out crowd at Schubas. They had just arrived stateside from France to kickoff their first full US tour and although they were a bit jet lagged, the performance suffered none. They pulled most of the material from their recent album Reservoir which was released back in the spring. They move westward now out to California and if you have the opportunity to see them I recommend it.

Vocalist Simon Balthazar

Cathy Lucas on the violin

The crowd at a very packed Schubas

Some gear on the stage post performance

Two shows in one night… a rarity even for me.  After seeing Calexico perform at Millenium Park, I biked my way back to the house, made some grilled cheese (I’ll get by this second Great Depression just fine) and set out for Schuba’s to see Damien Jurado.  I had never seen Jurado before, although I’ve been a fan of his stuff since I was first passed Rehearsals for Departure a few years back.  Not unlike Calexico, Jurado has a new album out which the majority of the show focused on.  Aside from the aforementioned Rehearsals I feel confident in declaring his new album – Caught in the Trees – his best work in a while.  If you’re undecided on the album I highly recommend listening to #1, #2 and #7.  If those don’t grow on you I doubt the rest ever will.

Jurado performed with two additional musicians who jumped between drums, keyboards and guitar over the course of the show.  Jurado is a soft and subtle performer so I recommend getting up close if you get a chance to check him out.

My new favorite line after seeing a show at Schuba’s is: “They need a producer”. My brother used it originally when we saw Elvis Perkins play a while back and I find it’s true for most of the acts that come through Schuba’s. Figurines and Dappled Cities were no exception to this statement.

Dappled Cities were (surprisingly) the more impressive of the two bands. They mentioned that the night before they played 7th Street Entry in Minneapolis and got booed to shit. I told one of the band members afterwards not to concern themselves with Minneapolis – it’s a shit-hole town anyway. The set hit a lull in the middle but they closed it with their two strongest songs, ‘Fire Fire Fire’ and ‘Holy Chord’.  [Dappled Cities has four songs for free download at Daytrotter.com]

Dappled Cities

Figurines were less impressive but still enjoyable. Christian Hjelm has a really cool voice and it held up live but the material from the new album is less than stellar and they seem to think they’re talented enough to play funk (which they’re not) and that lame guitar solos are what we came to see (which I didn’t). No ‘Race You’ but they did play ‘The Wonder’, ‘Ambush’, and ‘Silver Ponds’.

Figurines

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.

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.

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

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.

The Walkmen played a sold out show at Schuba’s on Sunday night and you better believe I had gotten my tickets way in advance. From what I heard the show sold out 2 months back, which shouldn’t be all that surprising since they packed The Metro (which I would estimate at 3 times the size of Schuba’s) not all that long ago.

The show sold out so quickly in fact that Schuba’s decided to schedule a 7pm and 10pm show, which sounded like a noble gesture until I found out that the opening act I was hoping to see (Ferraby Lionheart) would only be playing the 7pm show and that The Broken West would open the 10pm show. I knew nothing about The Broken West and I gather for good reason since their material was about as interesting and original as that of a band you might find playing a sports bar Sioux Falls, SD. With that I will move on to The Walkmen performance.

I’m guessing Hamilton Leithauser (lead singer) likes to hit the sauce before he takes the stage – which is all well and good when you play one show but when you take a 3 hour break and return for a second performance well… let’s just say he seemed pretty wooden. He made a few introductions between songs but I’ll be damned if I could understand one word coming out of his mouth. Fortunately, once a song began everything seemed to fall into place… minus perhaps a few guitar miscues on ‘Another One Goes By’.

The most pleasant (and surprising) element of the show was the number of new songs they rolled out. I was caught off guard because they’ve released two albums in the last year and have plenty of stuff to work with. Not only was the new stuff solid, but they also had two guys on horns who played on almost all the new material. If you’re a fan of ‘Louisana’ then you’ll most likely dig their new direction. I admire them for their willingness to venture into new territory. Some of the more memorable standards included ‘The Rat’, ‘Louisana’, ‘We’ve Been Had’, and the aforementioned ‘Another One Goes By’.