Panda Riot at the Whistler!

This was a nice thing to come back home to from traveling to my cousins wedding in New York. The Whistler is such a small intimate place. You can feel like you're on top of the stage as soon as you walk in. Panda Riot on a Sunday night felt like a welcome home. And as one changes from seeing loved ones marry off, so does this band as one was away. They played new music. And I have the CD. It's awesome. Wait, first the performance. So I left the house late I thought. I was fully expecting to miss the show, but something was making me follow through with driving to The Whistler. When I walk in and sit down it was not clear if some band just finished playing or is about to begin. Damn, I just realized this is the same fucking narrative as always.....anyway, the euphoria of seeing Panda Riot play when you thought you missed them, white washes the bitterness of the ride. They played new music and they added a second vocal. I did not expect this pleasant discovery. The place often seemed packed, not to capacity, but a good modest sized crowd. It was not clear how many went specifically for Panda Riot. And so they play the familiar songs from "She Dares All Things", more people. There was this white couple at some point dancing salsa like they were ordered by their Mexican kidnappers. And now my gringos it is time to dance. I mean they were really into it. It sounds like I'm taking the piss out of them, but I remember them fondly, as part of the spontaneous appreciation of the band that played in front of them. It was nice to see them like Panda Riot. I go see these guys a lot, just like Alla. There are some things that are best appreciated in the long term. Like the transition into having another singer, who apparently will play a drum as well.

Even as I have that CD, I constantly rediscover songs by hearing them play out live. This is a band that plays in my head all the time, in the car, ipod. It's giddy shoegaze that wakes you to a morning in a happy mood. Thats the intangible feel I always get from Panda Riot without reading lyrics, none of that. They are the sound of early morning wonder. The new songs from the EP "Far and Near" are no departure of that sentiment, they just have a faster cardio, well on one song. And yet they are still casual in their quicker step. In the goth club this is the sort of sound that brings that early morning splash feel to the blood stream. You don't move faster, just with more enthusiasm. The second song on "Far and Near" has this fast trip-hop thing that the vocals still ride casually. I like every song in the new EP. Even as they are new they remind me of why I liked the band to begin with.

Catch a Tiger, at Reggies

This was an awesome and full Wednesday night for me. I came to Reggies to see The Start, not expecting this local band Catch A Tiger to impress, and yet they did. I was fully expecting The Start to keep me broke but it was this band that I eventually liked. I walked in as Catch A Tiger was playing. I liked what I was hearing from probably the end of the second song I heard. Ms Andrea stood out from the crowd precisely because of her plain gray and blue, well at least to me. There was something sweet and understated about it. She didn't throw herself around like Katie Jane. Didn't need to. The music was not plain, it got my attention, and I was fascinated by her understated presentation of it. A calm in the midst of the storm of guitars and drums. The demo CD they have grows on me. Some songs sound to me like Placebo only with a female voice. I got it. Auf Der Maur.

I took pictures and video as this appreciation of the band formed. I didn't see any CDs of the band at the merch table so with more urgency I took video. These early performances of any band, before they are signed are the fleeting moments that I like to record. For me it's not just the performance the videos record, but you know, the things that happened around it. What was going on in the world around it. Sure there is the escapist quality in going out to see these shows, but I know these events do not create themselves in a vacuum. Indeed they are reactions to the world around. Anyway, uhm, I like how these guys react to the world. I am a fan.

Chinese Stars, Tinsel Teeth

I was anticipating this Free Monday night at the Empty Bottle. I looked up Tinsel Teeth after reading about them at the 'Bottle website. The Chinese Stars I read on some death rock/gothic magazine review on them that I recall. This is something to go on time for. Upon arriving I noticed how they were setting up the stage on the floor where the crowd would be. As I was processing the fascination of this, everyone was taking their places as close to the band as possible. Tinsel Teeth from Providence, Rhode Island were about to begin. This already felt like the kind of performance that shatters the fourth wall with the audience by setting up in their very space. I find a good spot to sit down on. The female lead had this blond wig on, and a skinny black dress with black cowboy boots on. The crowd gathers not to party but to witness. It's like they're gonna see an accident. If they are setting up on the floor it's for a reason. And so the reason started, or uhm, was set off like a short fuse.

The girl just went ape shit like Queen Adreena. The girl growled and convulsed over the chaotic drone of the guitars. She was just throwing herself all over the place. The girl had this growl of a voice, deep.....not girly at all. At some point she strapped on a dildo, and bounced around with it, until it broke off. The wig had long since fallen to reveal this shock of black hair. The girl's dress, soaked in sweat rolled up and stayed up, and her red striped panties were there for all to see. She spat out fake blood all over the place, looked like a roller derby vet. Everyone in the band actually looked bandaged and battle scarred. The girl often would convulse herself into the crowd, and merge back out, thrashing about the whole time. It was crazy and I loved it. The black dress the singer had on, was so soaked in sweat that her top fell off....or rolled down, just like Queen Adreena. And the band played on. At the merch table the band members were real cool, this is when the girl's tattoos were more noticeable. Katie Jane Garside from Queen Adreena I would not expect at the merch table at all. I believe her to be too shy and aloof. But not this lead singer. She was cool, not aloof. She didn't even seem drunk. The craziness was put away, spent during performance. In case one notices that I don't use her name, I didn't ask......it just didn't come up, and the band's myspace page does not help.

This Monday night suddenly did not feel like one. It's so cool when that happens. You are having such a good time that your internal calender does not register the night as Monday night. The main act, Chinese Stars had yet to play at this point and I was not expecting to like them as much as I eventually did. I was ready to go home after Tinsel Teeth. I stayed around and met people that I knew from going to Veggie Bite so much. The wonder of that moment had me stay long enough to wait for the middle act to finish. I kept recalling in my mind how I read about Chinese Stars in a death rock magazine but I can also go home sooner. Tinsel Teeth already made this night memorable. I figured I can wait and hear one song, and then go home. I'm so into female vocalists that sometimes I don't know what I'm saying no to until I miss it, or almost miss it. I could have walked out before Chinese Stars, but I did not and I feel fortunate.

Monday nights at the 'Bottle can peak and then empty out fast. Well that can be any night anywhere, sometimes the main act has the least amount of people in the audience. The crowd just thins out. They saw who they wanted and then go home. On a Monday that can happen fast 'cause the next day is still Tuesday no matter how Friday-ish the Monday night felt. So when the crowd stays and actually gets bigger until the very end that is very special. Now, I did say when Tinsel Teeth played, people gathered to witness. They all knew that there was something to see. For Chinese Stars, it was the people who went apeshit. Perhaps this betrays my relatively short relationship with Empty Bottle, but I have never seen a mosh pit there, at least not before this band. I absolutely loved it. These guys just owned the joint. I took no video, because for anyone that sees it would only see a bald guy with a slight gut using the mic like he's beating off, as fans cheer him on. That and I was too busy enjoying it myself. As mosh pits go, this was relatively we behaved. It's quite something when you see girls in the pit, I assume them to be more reserved, less reckless than guys, and yet there they were pitting. I was a fan from the first song. Their blood pumps fast, their bass is bouncy and dance friendly. In a goth club this can work to wake people up. The singer has this cool pervy type of voice. I still can't get enough of the two CD's I got. They will come back to Chicago I think next year.

Walking Bicycles ?Go?

I don't know if I can call what I write here a review of the CD ?Go?, so much as it is a praise of it. This still plays in the car when I'm going to the Empty Bottle, or something. It plays at random on the ipod and I can jog just that much more longer. I was so glad to know Scary Lady Sarah likes them. I was thinking that this is something that she would like and she already knows them, and they know her. That was cool.

The lead singer Jocelyn's voice has this husk to it. It's part of the band's signature for me, and it has this casual authority to it, unafraid of the surroundings the voice describes. And once again the voice leads one into the landscape of urban decay, thwarted dreams. This grey world first visited with the self titled CD and then with "Disconnected". Here they are throwing a party all over it. This is how I see it. This world is given more details, more and different decay to describe, and the party continues. I keep saying "this world", I include in that phrase how they sound. "?Go?" is more of what I like in Walking Bicycles. "Dead Idols" is the coolest left turn in the Walking Bicycles arsenal. Like you're in this carnival, creepy and evocative of a forgotten time, an impression left when they played that song live, and follows through when you hear it later when you're driving or something. On that first of December, a free Monday at the Empty Bottle, I was bouncing away to "Welcome to the Future" as well, and "Old San Juan", . It has to be said that they don't sound like they want to scare you with what they describe. Jocelyn's voice stands casual in the surroundings. And the whole time you're bouncing around. The music has this Joy Division urgency to it. It's very dancy punk. They have a natural quick pulse. It's in the drums, it's in the bass guitar.

In so many reviews I read they are compared to or mentioned with Siouxsie and the Banshees. I do so as well, as a complement yet I see them as a separate animal. Here it is....if you like Siouxsie from "TinderBox" and back then you will like Walking Bicycles now. But there are departures, this band for me is iconic for it's own reasons, it's own signature. They are products of different times, ours.