Month: February 2008

I’ve been a fan of Dengue Fever since seeing them at SXSW a few years back, and the band seems to be getting more attention these days, even including an interview on NPR’s “Fresh Air.” I have a pretty high tolerance for listening to music sung in languages other than English, so I don’t really tire of listening to the incomprehensible Cambodian words to Dengue Fever’s lively songs, but I could see why Dengue Fever might be too, well, unrelentingly exotic for some people. The surf-rock guitar and serpentine vocal melodies keep it fun for me, and the band was in fine form last night (Feb. 27) at the Empty Bottle. Singer Chhom Nimol was a marvel, and bassist Senon Williams was a towering maniac, hopping around the stage all night. Nimol brought a fan onto stage to sing an old Cambodian song. I have no clue what they were singing about, but I liked hearing it.

The first band of the night was a new Chicago outfit called Alla, which features someone I know – taper extraordinaire Aadam Jacobs on percussion. This was the first time I’d heard a note of their music, and it struck me as promising, with some cool psychedelic touches. Second was Cordero, the Spanish-language band on the Bloodshot label led by Brooklyn singer-songwriter Ani Cordero. She and her band played a lively set, a nice complement to the Dengue Fever music coming later in the night.

See my photos of Dengue Fever, Alla and Cordero.

The last (and only) time I saw Shannon Wright in concert was when she opened for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds at the Chicago Theatre. I still vividly remember the odd way she stalked around on the stage with her legs in a posture resembling a crab. Wright’s put out a good number of records, but she doesn’t seem to get quite as much attention as she deserves. She played a riveting, if short, set Friday (Feb. 22) at Schubas. She played the first three or four songs on piano, showing an idiosyncratic sense of tempo and melody. I liked the slightly peculiar tinge of her piano compositions. Then she switched to guitar for the rest of the night. Her guitar songs sound quite different from the piano ones, but there’s a similar eccentricity to the chords and tempos. She really let loose by the end of her set, pouncing on the stage as she riffed (although she didn’t do that crab walk this time) and loudly singing way off-mike on the last tune.

Wright’s backing band consisted of the drummer and bassist from the opening act, King’s Daughters and Sons. Not to be confused with Sons and Daughters, this is a group from Louisville. I’d never heard of them before, but they impressed me quite a bit. Their songs start off mellow, a bit like Iron & Wine folk rock, and then build into long epics. The three-song CDR the band is selling at shows is well worth picking up if you can find it. I’m eager to hear more.

See my photos of Shannon Wright and King’s Daughters and Sons.

Seeing the Dirtbombs again confirmed my memory that this is a great band – and it also made me wonder why I don’t listen to their records more often. Maybe the live Dirtbombs experience is better than the recorded one, but the key thing is that this band has some terrific songs. I picked up their new album, the aptly titled We Have You Surrounded, at the merch table, and so far it’s sounding pretty strong.

Unlike their show a few years back at the Double Door, this Dirtbombs set did not begin with the big dramatic buildup with one musician at a time. Without any fuss, they all trotted out onto stage and launched right into some ripping Motown-y garage rock. I love the way Mick Collins acts a bit like a guitar hero, while at the same time, he’s using a little amp, dwarfed by the typical guitarist’s gear. The two-drummer setup was as cool as ever, with the two playing not exactly in synch but constantly keeping all of the songs in motion. The Dirtbombs are apparently not doing the two-bass thing anymore; one of the bass players, Ko Shih, played guitar all night this time, though I caught her doing some bassist-style fingering on the lower strings. And she’s still playing with her mouth agape and hair strewn across her face, as if she’s in a constant state of shock. The Dirtbombs sounded especially good whenever the three singers all joined together and the crowd got wild in front of the stage. Oddly, they played two INXS covers for their second and final encore. I have to say I always hated INXS, but I could appreciate the spirit of the songs when the Dirtbombs were playing them.

See my photos of the Dirtbombs.

The first band of the night, Coldcock Jones and the Shithawks, was just as vile and stupid as you would guess from the name. The singer ended up practically yelling at audience members who didn’t appreciate his band’s subpar Ted Nugent wankery. Maybe it was all a joke, but even if you looked at ironically as some sort of performance art, it was a painful experience. The second band, Lee Marvin’s Computer Arm, was considerably better, doing some lively garage-punk, but man, those silent pauses in between the songs were awkward.

One of the things I recall quite clearly about the show that the Super Furry Animals played a few year ago at the Abbey Pub (when Rings Around the World had just come out) was the lack of an encore. It was a superb show and the crowd clearly wanted to hear more, but the band seemed to have worked out just how to end the performance on the perfect note, and they weren’t coming back. It was one of a few shows I saw around that time without encores, which would have been unheard of in the years before that. A few artists, at least, finally seemed to recognize the emptiness of this ritual if it is allowed to happen at EVERY concert.

The Super Furry Animals were back on Saturday, playing this time at Metro. I’ve missed all SFA shows since that stop at the Abbey Pub, but once again, the band took a “no encore” stance. This time, in fact, lead singer Gruff Rhys, held up a sign reading “RESIST PHONY ENCORES” before leaving the stage. And sure enough, there was no encore, even though just about everyone in attendance would have been happy to hear another song or two.

It was a top-notch set, with a good selection of songs from various SFA records, ranging from oldies (well, relative oldies) like “Golden Retriever” and “Rings Around the World” to songs off the group’s fine new pop album Hey Venus!. Thanks to those Welsh-accented vocals, it all sounded pretty consistent, even when the styles of music shifted from straightforward indie pop to psychedelia. The show lacked the constant stream of films that appeared in the last SFA concert I saw, but it still had a few elements of absurd spectacle. Rhys performed the first song and one later song with his head encased in a large mask/helmet, resembling some sort of alien racecar driver. He also chomped on carrots during one song and spat the remnants onto the stage.

The first act was Jeffrey Lewis, who was pretty amusing with his comical songs (including one describing a conversation with Will Oldham) and “movies” – stories he told with illustrated books. Next up was Times New Viking, a guitar-drums-keyboard trio doing lo-fi rock with the vocals buried under all the noise. I liked some of what I could make out in all that din, though it got a little tiresome by the end. (And for what it’s worth, the comments I heard from others at the Metro about Times New Viking ranged from, “Hey, they were pretty good” to “Worst show of the year.”)

See my photos of Super Furry Animals and Times New Viking.

Two of my favorite unsung Chicago bands (well, mostly unsung) were at the Empty Bottle Saturday night (Feb. 9): Big Buildings and Palliard. The night started out with the only non-Chicago act on the bill, Dreadful Yawns from Cleveland. I’ve heard of these guys but never heard them – maybe that awful name never inspired me to seek them out – but I liked what I heard Saturday night, some real organic-sounding rock. Worth checking out for sure.

Palliard played second, and I was happy to hear songs from the group’s fine 2006 album Won’t Heal Alone. I just wish I had a new Palliard album to enjoy right now. They play a really nice brand of melancholy roots rock. Their set included a Gillian Welch song that she herself hasn’t released yet. After hearing her play it in concert, one of the Palliard members got her to write down the words on a napkin. (Speaking of records I’m desperately dreaming of… when is Welch ever going to release another one?!?)

The third band was The Thin Man. You’ll notice I didn’t mention them at the top of this blog entry when I said two of my favorite Chicago bands were playing. It’s not that I don’t like the Thin Man, but the vocals just wear a little, um, thin on me after a few songs. Saturday, though, the band was pretty lively and I ended up liking it better than previous shows I’ve seen.

Big Buildings headlined the night, a record release part for their new album, Wampum, which is an actual record in the old sense of the term – a vinyl long-player. Not available as a CD, it comes with a code for downloading a digital version. So far, I’ve just listened to it on the old turntable and it sounds excellent, even with the occasional phonograph pop and crackle. The group played a very energetic set, and their songs showed a lot of range, everything from garage rock and Wilco folk rock to Velvet Underground and ’60s pop.

See my photos of Big Buildings, the Thin Man, Palliard and Dreadful Yawns.

All three of the musical acts Friday night (Feb. 8) at the Empty Bottle were interested in exploring what they could do with guitar, stretching out notes or finding patterns that would gain in richness as they repeated on loops. First up was Scott Tuma, who has played with Souled American and Good Stuff House. His songs (or was that just one song?) were achingly slow as the notes reverberated. Notes that sounded wrong at first started to seem right as he repeated them. He occasionally stepped up to the mike and let his soft voice drift above the rumbling.

Mick Turner, best known as a member of the Dirty Three, played second, offering a surprisingly long set of his instrumental music accompanied by a “movie” including slides of his artwork (naive stuff, charming in its own way, a little like pictures from a children’s book except for the fact that there were naked ladies). Turner’s music was peaceful and pretty, building to some impressive peaks.

Six Organs of Admittance was the headliner, although I think they played a shorter set than Turner. Six Organs is essentially Ben Chasny, who also plays in the heavy psychedelic band Comets on Fire. In this guise, he tends more toward acoustic and meditative music, but it rocks in its own way. He opened the set by himself, playing an acoustic guitar with incredible speed and dexterity. (I noticed his guitar is an Alvarez, the same brand as mine, although I have a different model. This was just about the only time I’ve ever seen anyone playing one during a concert. I love mine.) The show went electric when Elisa Ambrogio, who plays on the most recent Six Organs record, Shelter from the Ash, joined him onstage, as well as drummer Ian Wadley (who’d played earlier with Turner). They sounded great together.

See my photos of Six Organs of Admittance, Mick Turner and Scott Tuma.

Catching up here on a few concerts I’ve seen over the last week. Last Thursday (Feb. 7) was one of my rare (too rare) visits to Orchestra Hall for a Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert. The CSO was performing an “opera” – sort of – by one of my favorite living composers, Osvaldo Golijov, who is the CSO’s composer in residence. And one of my favorite classical singers, Dawn Upshaw, was performing. (I’ve been a big fan of hers ever since hearing that classical best-seller, Gorecki’s Symphony No. 3.) I put opera in quote marks because this piece, “Aindamar: Fountain of Tears,” felt almost more like an oratorio, or some cross between opera and symphony. As far as the story goes, it’s more impressionistic and poetic than plot-driven. The piece was notable for its use of prerecorded sounds, including gun shots, which transform into a percussion pattern. At moments, “Ainadamar” almost sounded like an opera with touches of laptronica. Upshaw and the other singers (Jessica Rivera and Kelly O’Connor, who sang the male role of Lorca with her rich voice) sounded magnificent. It was great to see Golijov walk up onto the stage from a seat in the audience during the applause at the end.

I’m never sure which concerts will sell out. Sometimes I sniff some hype in the air, and a show fills up with fans eager to hear the next big thing. Sometimes I think the music’s great, and then almost no one shows up. On Friday at Schubas, at least two of the three bands, Ra Ra Riot and the Virgins, seemed to have some buzz, but both of those bands have only an EP to their credit so far. Is that enough to draw a crowd? Apparently so. It did sell out. Both bands are on the verge of releasing full-length albums. The first band of the night, Essex Chanel, also seemed to have something of a following, judging from the enthusiastic friends/fans at the front of the place, though their somewhat techno ’80s-style pop wasn’t really my cup of tea.

I’ve only heard the Virgins’ songs a few times on myspace, so I wasn’t too familiar with their music before the show. I enjoyed their set, though I’ll have to hear the songs more to decide just how worthwhile they are. The band reminded me a little bit of the Strokes, with tightly constructed pop songs containing a bit of that post-punk vibe.

See my photos of the Virgins and Essex Chanel.

Ra Ra Riot’s self-titled EP from last year is a nice, if modest, little collection of songs. The production is a little plain, but there’s a forthright quality about the singing and the arrangements that appeals to me. It just sounds honest. It also sounds to me like the sort of self-produced small-label records that indie bands put out in the mid-1980s, back when everyone was trying to become the next R.E.M. One thing that I didn’t really pick up on with Ra Ra Riot until seeing the band live was the importance of the string players. The cello and violin are almost the lead instruments, but Ra Ra Riot doesn’t really sound that much like lush orchestral pop. It’s more like a string quartet than an orchestra. And Ra Ra Riot was quite lively in concert, with the sort of stage roaming and hair flailing that you’d expect at… (OK, here comes the clichéd rock-critic comparison that you’ve been bracing for – sorry!) … an Arcade Fire concert. Ra Ra Riot played all of the EP and some new songs that sounded promising. For the first time ever, the band did two encores, closing out the night with a cool cover of Kate Bush’s “Hounds of Love.”

See my photos of Ra Ra Riot.