Fielded

  Normally its metaphorical when these bands take you places. Bringing wonder back into where you stand. Everything is new and cool because the music unlocked that feeling. Sometimes to see something wondrous, you have to travel to unexpected places that feel dreamlike and likely may never visit again. Hmmm.....And since I'm too broke to go very far, I have to find the wonder that drifts here. Sometimes it feels like that labyrinth of Borges opened a door. Hmm, I guess I find myself using that phrase and its usually when I'm awestruck with something close, when that something is repurposed. Because there is still mystery even those places that are so close you thought they held none left. In my old childhood neighborhood there is this huge building, non-residencial looking. Perhaps its that its only now that I decide to be curious and, let me walk my way back to the fucking point....oh yeah that one time when you saw her on the southside.  Fielded I've been seeing for a long time. Lindsey is in a lot of music I have. She's in Festival, G'aan....Fielded is what I'm currently most familiar, but there are more.
  With artists that you have seen multiple times, some venues on some nights become especially memorable. Weather sometimes factors in as just a fucking backdrop if you are fortunate and not an obstacle that kept you from going. The first time I heard Arms of Heaven I think it was in the back room of this liquor store that escapes the mind. It was bloody cold. I'll start this one ahead of time.
  Fielded brought me to the third floor of this building near 26th and Kedzie. I forget the name of the venue, but it seemed like it once was a factory of some kind. The stairs, were narrow and felt like they were made of iron, and seemed made for previous generations, but made to last. And for as long as I was there the great wonder for me was to think about what those original purposes were. What was a job there like? Was it union? For how long was it stable.
  The place felt and looked like a squat. A slightly different set of people go to these events among the familiar faces. People felt free to smoke what they want. The third floor, where the concert was held and really the only floor available had a door to the roof with a view of the backside of Chicago.  It effortlessly looked and felt like a Mad Max Thunder Dome concert venue. You can be repulsed or you can be fascinated.
  I've seen her in other places as well, but this place sticks out as another room in the labyrinth of Borges. There was nothing to separate the hot midsummer night outside air from the inside. The place looked like artists just took over the asylum. The stage seemed to be where ever the artist wanted and people just surrounded you.
  Fielded is something to behold live. Before even going on stage I am brought to this state of fascination. Seeing her construct the mystery in front of you, layering voice over instrument. Pictures can easily catch the intensity she puts into that moment. She channels that of a preacher over taken by The Spirit while speaking in tongues.
  That long thick hair makes her sweat even more. Her music is effortlessly dance-worthy under layers of mysterious. You are hit first with this otherworldliness that you don't know where its going.
  She puts on such an intense and compelling performance that you just follow her lead and surrender the keys to whatever you drove there. I started this post because I thought she was going to be on the Weyes Blood show at Empty Bottle. It was even on their website...briefly. I even took down the poster that says so. It still makes sense to write this about this. Here is an artist, her music I hear a lot. I don't mean casually on NPR since that's all I listen to. I mean on my own, deliberately. I seek it out on my ipod, on CD to hear Arms Of Heaven from Ninety Thirty Thirty, or Red Queen from Terragiest...on vinyl. This is music that orbits close in my head. And there is more work to anticipate from her.
Zig