Moritat and Pezz!

It's not all the time when music that plays in the mind all the time. Bands that only seem to share space in your head, in a dream you half remember suddenly scheduled to play a venue...in real life is awesome. This text can easy come off like a dream, only we are removing the characters from the Magical-Realist/Expressionist film sets of my mind and on the stage at Double Door. Pezzettino and Moritat in the same night. With Julie Meckler in the audience. I always see Julie at a Moritat show. She is friends with Venus the singer/keyboardist. When you know the musicians in the room you see the potential for cross-influencing. I'm a civilian. The most out of me is I'll buy merch when I can afford it. Which is enough for me. Margaret Stutt is originally from Milwaukee. She plays accordion. I've known of her since...at least 2008. I've been to many of her shows. Her lyrics are direct like dialogue to a play, they paint a picture with what is left unsaid like in Walk From Here from the CD Lion. She expresses her righteous anger and then pulls over and dumps the guy out. What is left unsaid, that she maybe driving a car. Pezzettino turns around what can be awkward situations into your most articulate moments. Her finesse is in counter-punching. A common arch is the point of view of one who is wronged somehow and so when live her flashes of anger, sadness, seem raw and unrehearsed. These flashes the blues it took to write her songs. The tax to her heart. When Pezz visits these powerful moments, she does not seem to shield herself with an articulated, polished front. Lyrics hit her and you see it, and you feel what ever she tells you to feel, because now you are included in the moment. She played a lot of new unrecorded material. I don't recall much from Lion. Some old songs were retouched. Pezzettino...Margaret also plays keyboard and for some shows I've seen her play a xylophone. Not for this night, but it's worthy to mention her capacity. I'll post on Moritat Next.

The Rosen Association

Ah, how different the world was to me when I first saw them at Mutiny two years ago. So I saw this band again during Scary Lady Sarah's midweek shoegaze fest. Darkroom is no stranger to The Rosen Association. Any chance I get to see these guys in a small venue I take it. They are scheduled next to play The Whistler in July, another tight squeeze. You see a band under a certain tag like shoegaze and you perhaps filter out those that are repulsed by the description or even just the term. But you concentrate the fans that you have. And I saw a lot of people for Rosen. There is a certain bunch of goths that will go to industrial, goth, shoegaze, dark, indy stuff. They see the same big picture that I have, I believe. The thing about the name shoegaze is that it does not attract goths alone. It gets the people that don't normally go to a goth/industrial/deathrock event. And thats cool. Friends of mine from Panda Riot were there. I've been running into them a lot as of late. They've been busy too. Oh yeah, we are on Rosen Association. The big difference is that now I have the merch, the shirt, the download. The familiarity you get when you can take the music with you makes seeing them live a different experience. More pictures, less video. I tend to soak up the experience more than documenting them with video. I must have seen them at Darkroom three times. So what can I say on them? This band had support from the crowd. We goths love to dance, and we love to support our bands. So we danced as they played the songs we anticipated and a new song. "Emergency Broadcast", and "Drones" are great to dance to. Rosen is more on the electronic end of the shoegaze continuum. Well, maybe I'm just thinking that because Erin plays keyboard........wait, her name is Rachel? Since when? I've been calling her the wrong fucking name? How embarrassing!

GA'AN

These pictures are from the Ga'an show at Empty Bottle. "No, that's Fielded, I mean she's wearing the same shorts". Well yes, and that's because it's all Lindsey. I'm not taking the piss. I just notice these things when I see a band with some frequency. I've seen Rebecca Scott from Panda Riot in three different outfits 6 different times. Angela from Sybris has this butchy flannel shirt that she looks amazing in. She's worn it with Coins and Sybris. So I was looking for these pictures of the Ga'an performance. I guess I will review the songs I downloaded later. Right now I want to document the performance, the dim memory of it will be refreshed with frequent listening of the downloaded songs. The biggest departure between Fielded/Ga'an is that in Ga'an there is another musician. Right away I can't see many other departures as with Coins/Sybris. This is more like Panda Riot/Architecture. I mean it's still the same lead singer with a vehicle that allows for the same intensity from this lead singer. And it's all awesome. In the immediate future I shall be more familiar with this project of Ms Lindsey. I bought the shirt and downloaded the songs but it's a live performance that crashed the walls and into the interior castle.

Staring Problem

The Staring Problem post will be stuck way back in April, but I want to post the one other picture to bring more attention to that original post. And it's the only other picture I got of them. If bands and their music are the vehicles that help us explore the interior castle of the mind. This three-piece band is quite the muscle car. I know the bands that we consider iconic get that way over years. As I feel for every band that I post something of, I want Staring Problem to have that same kind of subcultural status. I want for them to be able to quite their jobs over this.

EULA

This is who I saw while trying to go see Architecture, Rebecca Scott's other band besides Panda Riot. This was at Subterranean 22 April, a Friday I think. I was too late from them as Brian from Panda Riot told me as he was having a smoke outside. I almost didn't walk in but he mentioned in passing EULA. I said fuck it. So this is something I almost missed. Knowing that makes you appreciate what you find and what finds you. So, EULA is indeed the find that almost didn't happen. They are from New Haven, CT. Based on some blogs I read about them, there is a scene hidden and self-contained. EULA where here promoting their latest Maurice Narcisse. It's not the only thing out, but it was the only thing I could afford. I remember a lot of bands played that night, that I liked. But you can only take home so much. EULA is something I took home and was accidentally on time for. As they were setting up nothing about them suggested how awesome and crazy they would sound to me. They were so casual setting up and so sweet and cool to talk to afterwards. I talked to lead guitarist/singer Alyse Lamb and bass player Jeff Maleri, but that's later after they made me a fan. At the moment when they were setting up, I was still angry at myself for missing Architecture. The drummer from Panda Riot next to me knew who he was about to see and so I trusted this. Loyalty, or frequent observation of your local bands pays off in what they discover along their tours, and what they bring back. If I recall correctly, EULA came because of their relationship with members of Panda Riot. It's been taking me forever trying to describe the music. Where do I start aside from saying I'm a rabid if new fan. There is nothing formulaic about them, nothing that sounded too familiar, which is the case with most of what I dislike. When they telegraph what they say, or how they say before they say it and it sounds like a vague trend unaware of itself. EULA tripped no such wire in my head. This band with it's aggression in the bass, guitar and drums just imprinted a parking spot onto my memory. EULA are not relaxed, casual. They are ready and aggressive, and having fun with it. I'll post a hmm...review of Maurice Narcisse when my writing is not so blocked.

Zig.

Fielded

The venue was as fascinating as the artist performing in it. And the girl behind Fielded has all kinds of projects going. On this Wednesday night, 1st June Lindsey is Fielded. The Monday night at Empty Bottle she was playing under Ga'an. This artist has more work than I can catch up with, that I'm often too broke to catch up with.
I'm trying all day to describe her work without using the word dark. Can't do it. Her work can be a deep look into a ....wait for it....dark restless waters. Her definition of ambient are clouds of fumes waiting for that inevitable spark.

You know if you like a band...if going to concerts is your currency....the cultural capital being music, some people like going to see movies, sports. I suppose in some way we seek on the outside what is reflected inside. What you go see can clock you somehow. I see my local culture manifest in music. Our common experiences captured in it's amber. It's not frivolous escapism for me and while we are at it. Escapism isn't frivolous either. We seek our troubadours to play the soundtrack of our lives. The better to help us write our own narratives. And so their existence is noteworthy. As are the places they lead us into.

So I heard of this place named Mortville. It's in Little Village. 2106 S Kedzie. Wednesday night I go there to see Fielded. It will be my third time under that name. Why this third time. The place always changes the context of the performance. Mortville seemed to be a factory once. The area around it still seems dangerous and thuggish, gang infested. This building does nothing to call attention to itself, its right near a viaduct. I think the pink line is right there. The only clues are the lights flashing from the windows at night during a show, and the faint music that you can hear from the viaduct. So they are not hiding. I park my car in a well lit street. It's emptiness erie, like I'm expecting more people walking outside. It's near 26th street. Places like Empty Bottle, Hideout have their own signature cult-status. And they are establishments. Mortville is different. There is something defiant if only passively about having a band as intense as Fielded in these lonely places that ran out of their previous usefulness. I guess it's no different than holding a rave, only the people to see Ms Lindsey are far too chill. Mortville's edge is that it feels like a squat, all ages. It's in a shady south-side area. Normally all ages venues invite the type of youth normally seen in malls, the lowest common smartness. But once inside, the people are no different than Empty Bottle. In fact I saw quite a few from there.

I follow like four people up this narrow winding stairs, poorly lit and clearly made for the waistlines of generations past. I pay the cover. People are free to smoke inside. I've seen people carry in their own beer. I've seen cats and dogs walk around. They were raising chickens in one well lit side room. You can chill on the roof, and there's a view of the El stop. You get a good view of the backside of Chicago, it's functional working-class side. One can plan where they can park for next time. You get this feeling that you are redefining the use for the building by holding all these shows. In the context of a performance space you turn the mundane wondrous, like a view from the roof. Fielded is finally on. By now I'm familiar with her religious delivery. I mean I like it enough to go to a rough area. If you like bands like Telepathe, Ryat, look up Fielded. When she is described as ambient, that does not mean boring, self-indulgent. Her ambient is a thin film of tension that threatens to break just around the corner. In one of her songs the electricity shorted everything out in mid-song, but it came back within seconds. So Lindsey works herself into this state where her eyes are open but they seem to look internally. Just the same, don't lock eyes with her. Her intense stare is that of old clergy driving the demons out. Sweat observable on her face. Fielded moves with the body-language of a street preacher, her hands gripping the mic or sticking straight out. She feels it, so you feel it. Her clothes are always casual....well she did wear heels for that show in Hideout. The intensity and dramatic rises and falls in performance are in the keyboards. She loops together parts with her voice. The repetitions have this engine to them. I cannot remember specifically which songs. And so I am a fan of Fielded/Ga'an/Ms Lindsey. I had to say hi before I leaving. She remembered my name. That always feels nice.

Zig