The Dials, last week of January

The Dials were the headliners on this one free Monday night at the Empty Bottle, some time last July.  That same night I saw Alex and the Drummer, and the Walking Bicycles.  I walked out of that night a fan of all of them.   They are to me the soundtrack for the year 2008.   These pictures are from when they played The Abbey Pub.  I don't have as many pictures of the Beat Kitchen concert.  And that's because I was too busy dancing to it.  Taking the pictures takes from the impulse to dance and this time the dancing took priority.  How do I sell this band to someone....let me try.  If today you are a fan of The Long Blondes, then there is a good chance that you will like these locals the Dials.  Blondie fans should give Dials a chance.  The Bangles and Go Go's paved the road for my eventual appreciation as well.  I throw all these names out as a type of short hand.  The Dials latest CD is called Amoeba Amore it's their third.  I have all three.  There is something I like in each of them.  They have this signature sound, intangible but recognizable, and certainly not formulaic.  I saw them last week at Beat Kitchen.  I will rant more when I get around this damn writers block.  

Zig

Alla, Late December

The last time I saw this band was at Subterranean on a Thursday in late December.  It snowed like it was 1979.  When I arrived to see them the streets were clear.  When the night was done everything was covered in white.   The snow could be seen coming down as Percolator played their set.   I did like Percolator to my surprise.  Every song was a new reason to stay and brave the snow.  But I came to see Alla.  They were the reason why I chose to brave the snow to begin with.    Everyone, including the other bands were in awe of Alla.  They were feeling a bit down I believe.  This tour that they so wanted to do, they had to cancel or postpone 'cause they were broke.  And that night their bass player got sick and could not make it.  I am in awe of them still for existing against these odds.  For being broke and still being a group is victory to me.  A battle won.  The struggle makes them great.  I can't romanticize it too much.  They really were ready for this tour.  There are other towns that can't wait to see them.  Jorge, the lead songwriter of the band had to make the hard decision to not do the tour.  I know it hurt, but they got such great heart for hanging in there.    The label that they are under will take them on tour in Europe.  Yeah!!!!  

I take them to be contemporaries.  Their oldest member is the drummer.  Two years younger than me.  They are all Mexican, and from Chicago.  There is a lot of unspoken shorthand there.  A lot of what makes me, made them as well.   My mom is always disarmed and feels completely familial towards people that are straight from her home town.  I think I know how that feels now.  This band Alla how they express their Mexican roots in song is singular, and  resonant to me.  They played Schubas and at Reckless Records on a Thursday, and all I recall from that night was the cold, below zero most of the day.   Cars would not start.  It was just inhuman how cold it was.  Yet, I could not let that be a Law&Order-on-cable night.  Alla playing free at a record store was reason enough to start the car and keep it warm.  I had no idea  the night I would be claiming that this band's performance was one part of.  I didn't see them at Shubas, 'cause it was sold out.    

 
These pictures are still from the first night I saw them in 2007, I think.   I will post pictures from the very night I reference but these few have to be put up as well.  These are from when the imprint was first made.  I took so many 'cause it was about capturing the performance for later.  Enjoying it for the moment means that when you walk out the door, you only have one's fleeting memory to preserve it.  At the time of these pictures, the CD was not yet available.    

Aleks and the Drummer

   The bands I like, I want to see them again and again.  It's the same with plays, not as much with movies, but with live performances, each one will never be repeated.  The nuances of each moment are different and I like how those differences shape the individual performance.  Also, there is something you get from watching and dancing to it that is more immediate than recording it with pictures and video.  Documenting is for later, dancing is for now, now.   

   I only saw this fabulous band twice.  The other two times that I missed them still hurt.  They are that good.   The first time was the same free Monday night that put together this band with The Dials and Walking Bicycles under the Empty Bottle's roof.  It's a legendary night for me, as I hope it is for everyone else that was there.   The bands were so different from each other yet so impacting to me.  They were all local and with unique histories and origins.  They are all Chicago.  I walked out of the 'Bottle that Monday night feeling like the first night of a music festival.  I walked in thinking I was just going to see A &D and then leave.  I stayed and was awe struck by the other two.   I was also fortunate to get to know Ms Joselyn from Walking Bicycles.  

  These pictures here are of Ms Aleks when her band played on NYE at Subterranean, as well as that Monday night.   One of the things that makes her performances memorable is what she wears for each of them.  I like how Ms Aleks  dresses up.  It puts a nice visual signature for her performances.  She's colorful.  She dresses like a fashion designer, not some caricature from Janice on cable, and not so overt like in the movie "The Devil Wears Prada", but someone who knows how to accessorize clothes, extremely well.  And what she wore that night worked off stage as well. It did not look to me  like a costume strictly for the stage.  Just imagine if she was goth.  Damn I haven't even started on her music which sounds absolutely ideal for a goth club.  The CD "May a lightning bolt caress you" is intense.    It's just 5 songs but you will love every one.       


Every song on the ep has this urgent pace to it.  The keyboard sounds that are her signature remind me of a church organ, only she plays them much faster.  Like imagine if you snuck into St. Joe's Catholic Church  on 48th and Hermitage at 3 am to give that old church organ a go with mad piano skills.  Old churches like this (for Chicago over 100 years is old) are intimidating.  You're not breaking in to play what you heard at every church service.   There is darkness inherent to that church organ sound, like in Bach (is it Bach?, I hope I'm not referencing the wrong guy), and it's this darkness that is put to an urgent pace in this ep from Aleks and the Drummer.   I cannot speak to what the songs actually say in the lyrics, some of them I believe are sung in Polish.  So I can only speak to what the songs impress upon me before the language imposes it's meaning.   It's the same with English.  Before you listen and automatically interpret the meaning of the words there is the initial impression which can be it's own thing.  Right now this first impression is all that I have to go.  Another striking thing is Aleks operatic voice, her voice.  I'm hearing "Closer", and it's intense.  When she slows down the pace it still broods and seethes.  It's at the right pace for goths to slow down their movements.  It's always the slower songs that made goths dance so intricately in the mid to late 90's.  We picked up on the dramatic highs and lows and expressed it in movement.  I'm hearing "Eye to eye" and it's all there.  Remember the movie "24 Hour Party People"?  Martin Hannet tells the drummer "faster but slower".  I think I totally get that meaning.   The Joy Division songs that are slow still have this end-time urgency to them.  I get the same sense of dark urgency that commands one to the dance floor when I hear this band.
I have more pictures of the other time I saw this band.  When I find my way around this writers block, I shall post.

Kaspar-Zig