Burn Out w/Sybris

  So this last Friday was my first time seeing Sybris live.  After reading about them, knowing about them, from a distance for some time now.   I'd be at Reckless Records and run into the name by seeing a poster or running into the CD while looking for something else.   I remember looking them up on Youtube.  There was always keeping me from seeing them live, or buying the CD.  A good distance was always between me and this band....lack  of money, time off from work, something.  But it was a matter of resisting the temptation to buy, to seek out the time.  You mislead yourself into believing that resistance builds character like Seinfeld trying not to piss in the parking lot of a mall.  So last Friday I finally took a piss.....and I felt better for it.  Fuck character, and then I seized the night and went ahead and I saw two shows in two different venues.  The second was Sybris at Schubas.  We walked in just in time, they were in their first or second song.  The lead singer Angela plays with such infectious enthusiasm.  I felt it all the way in the back of the room, as my own.  The back of the room was as close as I could be without being an asshole and weaving past people.  These few pictures are evidence of that.  It was a packed house....well, enough to restrict some movement.  If you needed a drink and got it yourself, you can find your way back in the front, but it would take some effort.  Angela has this beautiful completely unguarded smile when she plays.  I can see it even when I play the CD "Into The Trees".  Angela's voice works for me because she sounds....weathered, not too girly, or young.  On their myspace page, they describe themselves as "indy/shoegaze/metal".   I would still not know how that is put together until hearing some of their songs.  I found the shoegaze, found the indy, the metal is somewhere in the room, but I'm always too lazy to find that.  Still, I loved what I heard.  "Burnout Babies" is on their myspace page, and it's indicative of how massive the rest of the CD is.  Remember when you first heard Placebo or Strokes and they felt resonant but not pop?  Every song imprinted, but not because the songs sounded alike.  It was just the signature of the bands themselves.  I mention Placebo especially but only as a starting point.  Comparisons are subjective.   I would not call Placebo shoegaze, and yet I use them to describe Sybris.  

  Here in Chicago, there is sometimes a club night dedicated to shoegaze, and it's called "Shimmer".    It's an awesome way of putting together the fans of this music as well as the musicians that do shoegaze.  Thank you Scary Lady Sarah.  It don't surprise me to see a goth making this effort.  I've been to many shoegaze concerts and some don't get to be as packed as with Sybris, and in part it's because they don't know the kind of audience they can have with the goth crowd.   This Wednesday is Alla at Darkroom, and School of Seven Bells at Bottom Lounge.

Zig