23 July, Friday I saw Sabrina Chap. I liked what I heard on her Myspace page a lot and looked forward to seeing her and she did not disappoint. I would say this girl falls within the company of Ditty Bops, Amanda Palmer, Ami Saraiya. Playful to the last song Sabrina Chap has the same willful period edges that don't seem to drift past the '30's. Ami has her dark 40's swagger. Sabrina's giddy and playful in her Roaring 20's sound. Which sounds about right, I have heard her being described as a ragtime pianist. Another steampunk darling that dresses a lot of thoughtfulness in costume. Playful the songs may sound but serious they also are. I say steampunk because of how well Sabrina evokes these periods and bringing them forward seamlessly. Yet I feel I only know marginally the times and the periods she evokes. Post-rock 50's modernity is the great divide Steampunk does not cross am I right? Indeed, the 40's are kind of pushing it.
Steampunk in terms of fashion and music takes all of the costumes from the 40's and backwards at least 100 years, and through that lens then looks forward, right? Did I get that right? Imagine if a rip in time/space drops off Emily Dickenson in late 70's Manchester, or get her baked and take her to see The Pretenders. Hell yeah she's special. Sorry, back to Ms Sabrina.
I went to the Hideout expecting her and the Harry Connick Jr Orchestra that I heard briefly on her Myspace. It was her and the in-house piano, but I was sold. She bantered with the crowd, and talked in between songs. Failed Waitress/Failed Astronaut was one song that stuck and further convinced me to buy the CD. Sabrina had the crowd with her with this one, and channeled their participation in it. There's much for one like me to identify with in that one song. If ever you are working a job that feels like it's not what you went to school for, that you fell into and never left. You feel two things; a failure for not reaching the intended career even with all the education, and a failure at what you crash landed on,.....alright I'm loading the song too much.
When she sings live you notice all the little comic punch lines in her songs. This girl has the sharp wit that can take out a heckler and put him in his place. There was no remote need for that this night at Hideout. Everyone loved her. She's in a burlesque troop called Shlapentickle and she's performing with them Sunday 22 August at Lincoln Tap Room at 3010 N Lincoln, at 9pm. The cover is 5$.
