Fielded

This feels like so so long ago. My computer was slowing down already by the time I was seeing Fielded live this past September at Burlington. I don't even remember which songs I heard that specific night. I can say " I heard this song....that song." She was touring for Terrageist. The crowd was massive at the tiny Burlington. I was happy to have arrived early. A concentrated wall of eyes behind me. Yeah, I was in front. All the performances I've seen of this Chicago native at this point blend into one massive night spanning vastly different venues....and costume changes. So perhaps what I tell here may be what I saw before in them other times. Lindsey went casual for that grimy DIY venue on the shady end of Chicago's south side. I don't recall a costume for Hideout or Empty Bottle. She does very well in medium to small venues. Empty Bottle being the biggest to the smaller Burlington. It always feels like she has a loyal cult following in Chicago.
  You become familiar with the songs, her movements on stage. Lindsey sinks into her impassioned preacher character in full blind belief in every word she says. An outstretched hand free of any instrument is....you only see this passion in a Baptist church. She loops her amazing voice into an eerie chanting chorus.  Sometimes you see the process, the building of the song.  The voice is as much an instrument of sound....before even using words. Lindsey trance-casual, like an altar-girl  after they let girls reluctantly serve in Holy Cross in the old neighborhood lighting candles before the ritual. Horse got me like that. The tension between the ambient moments holds you until you are trotting along to an odd dance segment. Her voice is always clear and so it's easy to follow what she says...later when you buy the vinyl, there are lyrics to read. In the moment what is striking is how she says it.
  Live its massive. Sometimes she gets into costume as in this last time. But that translates well when you're driving to it, dancing to it. It feels deep and crazy like Katie Jane.  These aren't mindless, bassy dance tracks. It's heavy and thought provoking with dance-worthy impulses. At ease with the darkness. Red Queen I can dance to at Nocturna. I'm glad to know the performance end of her music. I imagine it's rare to play long numbers like Horse. Its a risk to play it. Perhaps one risks losing the crowd. But Fielded knows her audience and trusts us to follow anyway. I like that. I don't think she played it for Burlington but I do recall this live at some point.

   I don't know the instruments she uses. That embarrasses me into hesitating how to describe them besides saying electronic. She has a ....very organic soulful electronic sound. Her music often intensely surrounds us in Other-worldly chants, and it's no accident it gets called post-apocalyptic pop. It's music for a parallel universe. There's....regular ambient, and then there's Fielded's.
To write this I had to research, right? I marvel at the projects that have her stamp, Ga'an, Festival, and now Fielded. But I've been knowing all that and barely now am I beginning to see how funny she is as her character "Rhonda". So me as a fan as one can imagine, I am in greater awe of all this in Lindsey Powell.
Zig