Due to some unforeseen barbecue delays, I was a bit late getting over to the Empty Bottle the other night. It was a reasonable turnout for a Sunday night show — about a hundred metal-hipsters in all their glory. Somehow it made the place seem a bit more dangerous than usual. Anyway, I walked in somewhere near the end of the PIGS set. They sounded loud and angsty, which is pretty much what I was expecting. At least I got to hear a couple tracks.
Next up was Plague Bringer. They started setting up a rather impressive wall of speaker cabinets. Impressive enough that it almost crossed over into the realm of the comical. Anyway, their instrumentation consists of two guitarists and a vocalist. Drums and bass are handled through pre-sequenced stuff on their MacBook. One thing that impressed me is how well the show flowed through the set — having pre-recorded tracks gave it a very choreographed feel, and we were never left standing there during any awkward stage banter or extended tuning breaks. Which is good, because these guys gave a very technically proficient performance. Personally, it wasn’t my cup of tea, but that’s just me — judging from the crowd reaction and the comments overheard around me, they were a big hit.
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It had been a while since I had heard the She Wants Revenge song, “Tear You Apart.” Not until the jukebox at the bowling alley (of all places) played it a few weeks ago. I really only knew that song and was unfamiliar with the rest of the band’s catalog. A visit to the She Wants Revenge MySpace page later revealed that they were going to be in town the following week. And the other tracks had potential, or were at least palatable. So I called Justin and asked about reviewing the show, and he got back to me and said the label told me to be there before 6pm. It’s that easy.
“It feels like we just woke up”
Thats what Switches said when they took the stage. There is something distinctly odd about starting a show at 6pm to a venue that is still mostly empty. And it did feel like we did just wake up. When the music started (promptly at 6pm!) the crowd consisted primarily of 17-year-old girls. I hung out with the other four people of drinking age in the bar area.
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I wake up every morning and sigh when the realization sets in about how late this review is. Procrastination has become my mistress and I’m starting to feel guilty. This all started back around 2000 when I saw Cornelius on an HBO special. It was a pretty good performance for a tv show, so when LMB got me on the list for their latest Chicago gig, I jumped at the chance. Then inertia set in and this review became harder and harder to write, mostly because memory is a malleable device — there’s some concern that my account had become completely fictional. For the most part, I think this is accurate, though.
So I got to the Metro and the opening act seemed to fly by. Nothing terrible, but not much remembered either. Ultimately, everyone in the house was there to see Cornelius, as evidenced by this exchange during one of the tuning breaks:
heckler: Why did the stegosaurus cross the road?
band: I don’t know.
heckler: I bet that Cornelius knows!
My vote for heckle of the year. I think the genius lies in the subtlety — in this case, we’re not completely putting down the artist, but saying that the headliner is better. Still degrading, yes, but whatever.
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“We suck at banter.”
Of course, when the audience responds by laughing at your self-deprecating humor, you obviously don’t suck at banter. And what they definitely don’t suck at is putting on a good show.
I went in to What Made Milwaukee Famous’ set with no expectations – the only homework that I did was listening to the tracks on their myspace page. They didn’t disappoint, and they were totally professional — which was much appreciated on a night that seemed to be dominated by long set changes and gimmicky instrument changes. The music is immediately listenable, and I was getting into it before I recognized any tracks. By the time they launched into “Idecide,” I really wasn’t paying too much attention to my review anymore and was just enjoying a great performance.
“Chicago is in our top… one places to play. Well maybe top two.” If they dig this town that much, hopefully they’ll be back soon — I’d totally recommend that show when the time comes.
As an aside, I bought a can of beer which the bartender only partially opened — there was some foam, but most of the seal was intact. Being full from dinner, I just set it on the balcony rail. Ten minutes later, it was rolling around on the floor. I accused my friend of knocking it over, but she claims it just fell off on its own. Later we deduced that it was possible that the bass from the opening band had been slowly shaking it until it exploded. Can anyone who didn’t sleep through physics class refute this theory?
