SVIIB

Last week I saw School Of Seven Bells.  I was fortunate enough to run into some friends from the goth scene.  It's actually not surprising that they go see this fabulous shoegaze band from Brooklyn, New York.   It's nice when this concert is shared among others like minded, rather than horded by one set of eyes.  It's the second time I see them, but it's only this time that I was able to stay broke by getting the shirt and CD.   Before I couldn't even do that much more than get myself passed the door.  The band members are Alejandra Deheza, Claudia Deheza, and Benjamin Curtis.  Even as I only took pictures of Claudia and Alejandra, it was fun watching Benjamin have at the guitar.  He was just having the most infectious fun.  It just projected.  The girls are as lovely as their music.  They are just beautiful to behold the eyes and ears.  The crowd at Bottom Lounge last Wednesday was heavy enough to restrict some movement, but I managed to reach the same spot as the last time, on the right side near the guitarist.  At times I felt close enough to reach out and touch the guitar...I'm not saying I was wanting to do that.  I was just so close.   It is note worthy to mention the goth friends I ran into are themselves in a band.  Bliss.City.East I have mentioned before in this blog.  As we waited in line to the merch table we talked about when do you stop giving a shit about music.  When does it cease to matter?  When do you stop wanting to go see them live?   When does the want stop.  Profound questions indeed.     Among us one said that perhaps when you have kids.  But that cannot be it for all, since I know the guitarist from Swoon Method.  Gustavo has four children and he plays guitar like a rock star.  I suppose the filling point is within us all.  For me it would have to be when all music ceases to be something that I can identify with.  I can put it into these words yet the possibility seems remote, impossible.   And then the conversation drifted into Pat Sajack.  If I misspelled that, I'm sorry.  I didn't know he went to Columbia College in Chicago.   I can deal with having the weirdest celebrities if the music that comes our way is still the coolest.  

Zig

FFM

At first glance, it seemed odd of me to go see a band that so blatantly identifies with house music, but FFM brings with it a sophistication to a form of music that I have shunned for a long time.  FFM played Double Door last Friday 22 May.  In a way upon entering the venue I was entering a culture that was foreign to me, a goth.  The dancing was different as were the clothes.  Yet I did not feel that much out of place.  This house music crowd seemed to me more like that which I've seen in places like Sonotheque  on Chicago Ave, urban and sophisticated and not the thuggish ghetto house I grew up around.   And the dancing is....well I wish more of them would go to Neo.  In thuggish house venues it's mostly people grinding on each other.  OK, on to the band FFM.   

I barely found out about them early last week.  They are local and I believe they are well traveled.   The band members are Michaela, Adam and Lindsay, the lead singer.   I was hooked with the video "Time Bomb", and it was what made me want to go see them live.  If one for an instant would drop the artificial barriers between the genres then I believe I can sell this to people that listen to Ayria.  Ms Lindsay is the sexy electro house answer to Jennifer Parkin.   I think I can sell this to industrial-goth people.  Imagine if they knew of this band FFM.  It should not be just me who likes this.  Patrons of Neo can like this the way they like I:Scintilla. 

We have these artificial barriers that we can see right through, and cross pollinate between them.  It's happened before.   I have seen people dance at Neo the way they do at this night at Double Door to see FFM.   Actually, this isn't far different than industrial.  It's  completely compatible with that scene.  And this band FFM is local.  I'm so happy about that.  I can safely say that many of my favorite bands, indeed most are all local midwestern bands.  We got all kinds of sophistication, diversity is wide, but you got to go after it.   Well, that whole rant was in defense of the bands I see that I believe deserve wide subcultural recognition.  That sounds a bit big headed, but I say that in all humility.  Well, this band FFM did not have that problem.  Double Door seemed to have a heavy yet permeable crowd.  I'll post again about the CD.  It's awesome.  I'm so sold on it.

Zig 

Pezzettino last Friday 22 May 2009

 After missing Pezzettino the last time, now it was a mission.  When you identify with the band somehow their performances matter far more than escapist entertainment.  Seeing the very performance is to witness a kind of social commentary on the culture that both artist and fan share.  To the fan the artist/performer articulates better what the fan thinks and feels.  So off I go to see crystalized in performance what is in my head, what is in my id even.  My ritual before going almost matters as much the performance itself.   I shower, get clean, get presentable.  I don't want to smell bad.  I put rose powder on the shirt.  Rose oil on me, then rose lotion.  Every thing has to be rose.  I take my hygiene seriously.  I do this ritual for everyone. I want to get presentable, even if I look the same all the time.  Oh, yeah, this was about Pezz.

  She was going to play piano at this Wicker Park shop that has all kind of things  made by independent artists.   It's on Milwaukee Ave.  There was this piano in the middle of the store and she was invited to play it for the store's opening.  When I found out that she was playing that Friday 22 May, the mission was on.  It was early at six in the evening.  I drove, I thought I was late and so added to the sense of urgency.   Sometimes, that state of mind can keep you from enjoying the ride.  The fast moving traffic took the edge of the urgency.    I've had some time to explore Pezzettino's Cd "Lion", long enough to know which songs play effortlessly in my mind.   Kind enough she was to say to pull up a chair next to her.  She remembered me from before.  At first it seemed as if I was the only one there to listen as people in this store walked around minding their own affairs.  And then she played "Walk From Here", and I noticed how the intensity of that song naturally commanded attention.   People noticed.   This song is not an isolated diamond in the rough.   And the piano is not her only weapon she wields.  She takes to the accordion like PJ Harvey discovering the piano.     

 The piano is this monster exclamation point that re-enforces the articulate poison penned lyrics.  "Walk From Here" resonates with righteous anger, and it is indicative of the rest of the CD.  Righteous anger, not reckless, and not whiny anger either.  After a while Ms Pezz was also talking with some of the colorful patrons of this store.  All that stopped and chatted with her were artists in other fields. It was real nice to just be there to witness it.    Artists/Musicians take this enormous risk in believing in their art enough to attempt to live off it.  They do it in the face of a world that tells them to be good little conformist-consumers.  There is this massive tide that influences one to not pursue the art.   Those that stand and walk against this tide, even as these artists go broke are heros to me.  Pezzettino is one of these artists/soldiers.   I could not just lay all this on Ms Pezz as I sat next to her.  Did not want to freak her out with these intense words.   After all it's all about her performance not my comments on it, but as I have said, it is important to go see these emerging artists not because one day they will be famous stars......in my world they already are rock stars.

Zig 

This is Von Iva.  They played Schubas 5 May Tuesday.   I've never seen them before, live.  Months ago I scribbled their name somewhere after reading about them, never expecting to see them.  I don't recall the specific words that made me recall them but it all sounds terribly good on paper, you know.  They just seemed so remote when you read them in Venus...was it Venus?  I don't recall where.  When you read them first they are so far away.  That was nearly the extent of my research.   Sometimes I don't do it 'cause I know I'll like it, and I should save money and not spend idle time looking up bands.   
And yet it is these same idle times that are the most memorable and meaningful, and always in the context of when they happened.  These moments enhance the good times and stand in defiance of the bad.  So there is a purpose for this escapist mechanism.   There is a subtext to these pictures, and it involves what state of mind was I when I saw them, and what state of being.   These events do not happen in a vacuum.  

  So, Von Iva came here to Schubas in support of their new CD "Girls On Film".  Jillian Iva, the lead singer is tall, and she throws herself around the room with the energy of someone more compact, like the girl from Kap Bambino.   The music was so disco, and decadent sounding to me.  I think it would have an appeal to fans of Golden Filter, Long Blondes, and The Dials.  I would place this band along that continuum.  I took pictures and video, but I so wanted to dance.  Jillian is a dominant performer.   She was all over the stage...and on occasion climbing the walls, and one time on the floor with the audience.  Kelly Harris was furious on the drums, like sprinting the last leg of a marathon.  And it's Ms Becky's keyboard skills that are still playing in my head.    "Girls On Film" was the only CD on the merch table.  I would have bought the whole catalog.  That's how I go broke.    The next concert to see is Puerto Muerto.

Zig  

Alex and The Drummer

  It's been about a year since I first heard of Aleks and The Drummer.  As I recall they played a free Monday night at the Empty Bottle some time last year.  It was an iconic night for me.  I came out a fan of all the bands that played that night.   Walking Bicycles played "Welcome to the Future", like they're foreshadowing the recession.  And then the Dials...and then the Dials!  I could not believe they were all local.  

 Aleks and the Drummer were the opening act.   Tonight they headlined.  Their cd is an ep with five songs. So when they play live they will always play something that is not on cd yet.  On that Monday night when they were the opener Aleks played this dark-nursery-rhyme type of song.  It reminded me of Switchblade Symphony, very chilling, slower than her other songs, goth friendly.  Each time the costume was different.   I like how the songs evolve live over the course of many performances.  Aleks and the Drummer make the minimal sound muscular, as they fill the room.  They play with this urgency and intensity like Martin Hannet saying "faster but slower".    They are a sophisticated synth-pop, art rock band that can find itself be played in any goth club.   This band is what the local gothic culture can support.  Or it can all just be, all in my head.  But this is how I sing the praises by including it in the world that is already familiar with me.  Aleks has this powerful operatic voice.   One song is done in Aleks native Polish.  Hearing it takes me back to a childhood of Catholic school.  All the nuns and priests spoke Polish.   It was the old language of the Back of The Yards, and St. Joe's on Hermitage.   So hearing Polish in the context of this awesome local band is special to me, like it's from the old neighborhood.  The pictures I leave here are of two different nights.  One set is when she played New Years Eve at Subterranean, the other are of this past Saturday.  It's always a question to me what will Aleks wear for a performance.  It's always something deliberately colorful and bright.

I  have not stopped hearing the CD "May a Lightning Bolt Caress You".

There is this effortless sophistication to it that will keep the music timeless and relevant for many years.  

Kaspar-Zig

Kristeen Young

I walked in to the Empty Bottle in the middle of Ms Young's set. Aleks and The Drummer headlined and Bengal Lancer opened. I will be going on about Bengal Lancer later. I first saw them the same night as My Gold Mask and....I have to stay on point, right. It was my first time seeing Kristeen Young. She was intense. These pictures are intense. Perhaps this is only an initial impression of her music on me. Her voice reminded me of Kate Bush, with crazy keyboard skills. This girl really abuses those keys like it's own expressionist theater, you just have to see her. Her expressionism was all over the place, if not just in my head, her costume all black glam and gothic. And her manic Kate Bush voice soars, and rock-climbs mountains without a safetly harness. Kristeen Young was beautiful to behold and hear. The crowd was there for her, but kind of reserved. They stood back and away from the stage, but they were not indifferent. In my memory it's not what will be important, if only a footnote. I guess this is what is going to play in my head as her music integrates into my mind. These pictures capture for me the wonder of this performance, and seeing it for the first time. When next I post about her will be with other pictures of this night, and shall be with a deeper imprint of her CD.

When I looked at the Empty Bottle website regarding this last Saturday, and noticed this name Kristeen Young, it got me interested. Her CD is named "Music For Strippers, Hookers, and the Odd-Onlooker". Alright, I'm biting. It's not for nothing that someone names a CD like this. So this is one more person I actually want to see besides, Aleks, and Bengal Lancer. I skimmed through her website and stopped. I wanted it to hit me live. I thought of doing the responsible thing and not buy the cd because I need to save and all. These are tough times and I'm buying cds? Swine flu is keeping all my cousins in Mexico indoors, and people there are used to going out for walks in "el jardin". Writing about these bands feels almost decadent.

I suppose this is me being appreciative for having the means and the chance to go see these bands. Their performances don't just pass the time. They mark the times that we live. I will recall what went on around the shows I go see and will be glad, for these shows are what helped to see me through them.

Kaspar-Zig