Kap Bambino

Hi,

So I just saw Kap Bambino last Friday, 20th March.   There was no preparation for this.  I saw them on youtube and still that did not prepare me for the nuclear powered frenzy that was coming.   I wrote it down some time ago their name with an exclamation point to remind myself of what I'd see.  Still, I had no idea of what's to come.  It's not until the night before when I really did my research.  That's when the anticipation slowed down the waiting.  The venue in Chicago (Schubas) is small.  Crystal Castles when they played Chicago the one time I saw them was at Abbey Pub, bigger and with a balcony.  Months later they would sell-out the much bigger Double Door.  I worried that Schubas would sell out fast for Kap Bambino, since they seemed far crazier than CC.   To my surprise, the crowd for Kap Bambino seemed smaller than say Sybris a month before.  Dare I say about half or less than Sybris.   For KB if you went to the back of the room to get a drink you can still make it to the front if you survived the mosh pit in the middle-front of the room.  Yeah, shoegaze bands don't usually inspire mosh pits.   They inspire a type of contemplation of the moment.    You get to enjoy the cruise if you are listening to shoegaze in the car....live you want to stand and dance casually, and just lose yourself into the haze of the fuzzy guitars.  

  With Kap Bambino, you don't want to relax.     This is Bacchus trapped  inside a little french girl whipping the crowd to a frenzy from start to finish.....wait.  No one took their clothes off.  It wasn't like that.  But it was intense, it was violent.   The mosh pit was so crazy, it sometimes devolved into girls getting into personal shoving matches.   I was right in the front of the stage inches away from the mosh pit.  The lead singer of KB threw herself into it like 3 or 4 times, at completely random times.   The crowd loved her for this, and seemed to collectively keep her from any real harm.   When she decided to climb back on stage, the people gently helped her up.  The singer never seemed to miss a beat.  In the midst of this spontaneous mosh pit, I can still hear her warble about.  It takes an intangible level of comfort to be able to do that in a show.  You have to know you got the crowd completely won over.  There are some performers that really need that fourth wall that cannot be crossed.  And there are those that shatter it and go straight for you.   In the mosh pit the KB singer bounced herself from people.  I felt her sweat in my hands.  In that tiny stage, she convulsed like an electro Katie Jane.  She drank from a bottle of what appeared to be Jack Daniels...so Katie Jane.  People from the crowd would hand her a soda bottle and she'd take a swig from that.  I even saw a little Ian Curtis in her movements.  In the midst of this a girl next to me took a quick hit of weed from her glass pipe.  The spark of the lighter drew my attention momentarily.  Inhibitions were lowered, the manic energy was in everyone and spilling all over the place.   We have to know that these moments will never be repeated ever again.   

  Lets for a moment step out of this craziness.   I can think of venues that would kill the buzz  by separating the performer from the crowd.   Some places don't even allow for cameras.  I won't go to those venues.  They allow for those moments to slip past them.   I really cherish the one performance I saw of Crystal Castles.  Abbey Pub is not that big, but I don't think they can contain CC again.  Yet the bigger venues that can contain CC or Kap Bambino may actually delude the experience.  For those that went to this Kap Bambino show, I think we feel fortunate and privileged to have been there.  I'll put more pictures up later.  

Zig