Moritat

During the month of September I saw bands that I could not write about because my computer crashed, and had to get that sorted out. So some of these gigs that I write about are long ago but write about them I must. Please bear with. One of them bands was the local Moritat playing Lilly's on Lincoln Ave a short walk away from the Biograph Theater. They were playing songs from the new Clill Blanzin ....I gotta make sure I don't spell that wrong. I swear that "n" was not there when I bought the damn thing. I arrived too late to see Ami Saraiya And The Outcome.  Damn it! At some point the Lilly's audience seemed to grow a little impatient and were expecting to be wowed by Moritat, as if to say "I dare you to impress". That suggests to me that perhaps they were not familiar with them. The crowds from other venues they've played for don't act like they are entitled to a speedy transition from one band to another. Maybe it's a Lincoln Park thing where the audience thinks they are the rocks stars, and the band is just the help. This was the same attitude I saw Laura Meyer get at Uncommon Ground. But at least the crowd seemed big for a place of it's size and in the end I believe they were indeed impressed. Since it was my second time there I could not tell if this was a group of regulars or what. Lilly's is small but makes the most out of its confined space. Like in Subt's you can climb the stairs and see the band from the balcony. I guess it's like having two Whistlers stacked on top of each other. When the windows are open you can see whoever is playing as you are walking down the sidewalk. I didn't really ask anyone but the crowd seemed appreciative and impressed by Moritat by the end of the night.

  Since I think early 2009 I've known the band. I called the trip hop at the time as a knee jerk reaction from hearing Venus on keyboard on Yellow House, a song on their first CD. They kept my attention with the EP One Minute Fade and now I'm still going on about them over Clill. Trip hop, I said....now it's just one impression out of many. I don't know if this is from watching them live a lot. I like how they jam session in the middle of some of their songs like Noise, Cats, oh and Wheelin'. Theres like a middle segment where you just hear them jam. If you're already sold on all three of their releases this really works well because its like an extra kick of cardio. It's in these moments when you see the engine parts flex as they cruise around. The three moving parts are Venus on keyboard, Corey on drums and Konstantin on bass. Venus is the primary voice but they all sing.  I can really hear instruments individually. The cool thing about not having a lead guitar show boating around is that you can hear everything else so clearly. The bass stands out and everything. Nothing washes together into a fog. If you listen to as much shoegaze as I do, time away from the fog is good sometimes. So they got songs that sound great on CD and really blossom for you live.