Lightfoils

As I write this I still feel the sting of missing some shows. They are almost harder to forget for not seeing them. Yeah, I've seen Eliza Rickman a good number of times. There is something about that one elusive time. I think that was this one chance to buy the CD or something like that, the one chance to catch that asteroid on time. The night before that I missed Angel Olsen. That one hurt, 'cause you don't know when she'll be back. So this last Wednesday night 2 May 2012 I boo-hooed my ass all the way to Subt's on time to see Lightfoils. And I finally got the CD to take home, and explore. Now I can kind of go on about this song and that. I missed more of their shows than I've seen. There's always something thwarting the effort. That makes you hungrier for the next time you see them. The show that eludes always feels like the best one, and on that pain comes another pulse for having a friend on the band. You feel twice as bad, like when I went to go see the Panda Riot/Magic Key/Kodacrome show at Hideout instead of Ligtfoils for free at Double Door.  Anyway so there I finally am to see them and whether it is apparent or not what plays before me is a band with some milage to them. They all are well traveled as individuals and now as a band they got here with SXSW in their rear-view. I believe this is my first time since their tour. Most of the times that I've seem them it was in the context of a shoegaze related event. Not this time, and not next time since they will play Hideout next month with My Gold Mask. So they can be Lightfoils without needing the shoegaze tent even as its part of their sound. I think it's great to be something without....depending on it.  I say that about a lot of the music I listen to yes, divorcing music from the scene.  Which ever one it is at the moment. I spend like half a paragraph writing this divorce clause....in case the subculture .....fads out or something. It's my primitive way of finding the difference. In case the ship sinks, here's your life raft, right? In the end we all want to stand out from our contemporaries as timeless. At the same time it's always the subcultures or enthusiasts of those subcultures that support a band with that full sincere faith from the humble beginnings until the bitter theatrical divorce. We like something, we support it. I don't know if it's just me but shoegaze is a great goth ambassador. At the very least I consider the two linked. In Chicago its goths that put shoegaze related nights up, promote the bands because it's part of what we like. So if I have not gave that away already, this is how I came to know Lightfoils, but it is not what shackles the band down.
  Ah, yes the Remix LP as it is called. It has 4 original songs with 8 remixes from Unicycle Loves You, New Canyons, Bloody Knives, oh yeah Panda Riot among others. The remixes I want to take my time on but their appearance is significant for me because it shows support among the various bands. Into Deep Sea had me with the bass, and I'm not just saying that because I know Cory the bass player. Bass is just...the muscle behind the sweetness. That is probably a sentiment that can echo across all the music that I listen to. Bass keeps me from turning diabetic. Deep Sea is the first to imprint During that live show it was apparent how much fun Cory was having playing. I listen to Sympathy Lies and I fondly get hints of New Order. Yeah so it's that dance-worthy type of shoegaze. All the songs are actually. How It Is..I gotta tell it the long way. I used to play Sonic The Hedgehog. I always liked the background music of that game. Very colorful was that music. That song brings me back to that. Perhaps that is too subjective a description. How It Is can take you to a familiar if ill defined place. It's easier to write about the music in greater detail with the actual CD in hand. Lightfoils were at Subt's as a support band. My focus was not on the headliner. The audience was indeed attentive to all the bands that played. Lightfoils had a good solid crowd for them. I noticed all my friends that know Lightfoils also went to see the headliners but I was oblivious, but not willfully so. I was just glad I got to see who I went there for.
Zig