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.
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
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