Pixies
Aragon Ballroom – Chicago, IL
November 19, 2009

It was one of those rare moments when both the boys and girls were having fun – the sold-out crowd rose to their feet and joined hands – as a chorus of voices chanted, “Bam Thwok…Bam Thwok,” (the title of their 2004 single). Or maybe I was the only one. “Bam Thwok” or no “Bam Thwok,” the set was about as outstanding as you’d expect, especially considering Doolittle was played in its entirety. Probably best “Bam Thwok” didn’t replace any of their other set selections. “Bam Thwok”….the last time I’ll say it. Bam. I would’ve liked to have heard “U-Mass,” “Ed Is Dead,” definitely “Cactus” and “Is She Weird?” and perhaps a cover mixed in. All the songs are hits in my book; it would’ve been a five-hour show to get to them all.

Rarely have I ever been to a show and saw the band as anything more than people I really respect; the Pixies were celebrities. The four came out all dressed in black, acknowledged the huge applause, paused in front of the mic without saying anything and launched into “Dancing The Manta Ray.” A visual backdrop accompanied the performance from five minutes before the Pixies took stage throughout varying from the lyrics of “Gauge Away,” the awesome doll-teeth/baby-spinning on “Crackity Jones,” to the huge face displays of the band themselves.

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Girls
The Empty Bottle – Chicago, IL
11/13/2009

Even now that I am of legal age to get into 21+ shows, I am strongly against them.  The true fanbase for the joyful and catchy Dominant Legs, for the TEENAGE Chicago Rockers the Smith Westerns, and for the Pitchfork-adored and critically-acclaimed Girls were nowhere to be found at this show.  400 people packed the Empty Bottle for two nights of sold out shows only sway during the three minutes of the Girls’ hit “Lust For Life.”  Sonically, the show rocked, all three bands were instrumentally tight and impressive.  The show itself was sort of lame, and the stiff aging indie fans felt it was more important to just be there, as opposed to interact with the live music.

The most refreshing part of the show was seeing Smith Westerns’ drummer, Hal James, outside the venue discussing the politics of rock, being 3 years younger than how old you have to be to enter the show, crowds, T-Rex, and – of course – most sincerely, how cool it is to be playing with Girls and a lot of the cool bands that play Chicago.  I so rarely have negative show reactions, and I want to stress that the guys from Girls are awesome, they were super helpful to me before the show, they’re an all-around good band, and are way better than what you’d expect from the biggest buzz band with the most outrageous music video.

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Devendra Banhart
Vic Theatre – Chicago, IL
November 16, 2009

I wasn’t planning on reviewing this one – so I’ll only touch upon the key moments – and there were certainly many. I wrote my notes in my cell phone…2010 Baby! List form, go:

1) Devendra rocked some ridiculously colored shoes and a t-shirt that said “We did it CHICAGO STLYE.”

2) Valencia Roxy Music and Rats underwent some changes for the worse…all other songs were enhanced live (especially the Spanish ones).

3) In freak-folk land, the backing band was a SuperGroup: Rodrigo Amarante – Guitarist (Los Hermanos, Little Joy) Noah Georgeson (Little Joy, Devendra Producer) Greg Rogove – drummer (Priestbird) Luckey Remington – bassist (The Pleased).

More photos of Devendra Banhart after the jump…

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Japandriods
Schubas – Chicago, IL
10/9/2009

I walked in. The Coathangers were rocking, Balloons on the stage, Troll rested on speaker, Four Gals, Candice’s Birthday, New singer/instrument set-up for every song, Every song = pretty damn good.The show only got better. Coathangers are an Atlanta quartet definitely worth checking out, “Pussywillow” is as awesome as its name, and “Shake Shake” probably tops the five on their MySpace.At 11:36 sharp, Vancouver’s Japandroids played what they called their first “own” show in Chicago (non-Pitchfork, as a headliner), and they were certainly excited about that. They joined the impressive duos that I’ve seen live along with the White Stripes, Fiery Furnaces, Black Keys, and Death From Above 1979.

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Mirah w/ Norfolk & Western
Schubas Tavern – Chicago, IL
October 3, 2009

With the exception of the four songs featured on MySpace , and being familiar with the impressive big-name indie-rock bands that the fellow Portland trio has backed in the past (M. Ward, Bright Eyes, The Decemberists, Jolie Holland, as well as Mirah), I hadn’t heard much of Norfolk and Western.  There didn’t seem to be too much to report; no particular song or part of their performance really blew me away or filled my notebook (though “Turkish Wine” was probably best), but everything was instrumentally tight and their set was definitely enjoyable and worthwhile.   Percussionist Rachel Blumberg played for both Mirah and N&W, for both sets, which – if my math is correct – meant four sets.   Norfolk and Western seemed to be well-liked by the audience, especially based on post-show chatter, and to me they seemed most impressive backing Mirah on “Generosity,” “The World Is Falling,” and “Mt. St. Helen.”

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Built to Spill
The Vic Theatre – Chicago, IL
9/26/2009

Built To Spill’s Chicago Saturday gig at the Vic Theatre went about as expected – fifteen songs, some new material, extended guitar solos, knowledgeable fans, and a killer set, all coming together for one really really sweet show.

The dull beginning of the intro that segued into the new (There Is No Enemy) track “Oh Yeah,” did not set the standard for the great set/performance to come; however, the delayed start, their readiness to  jam, and the long gaps from song-to-song did set the pace. It is fair to say that Doug Martsch and the Boise quintet weren’t too concerned with firing through songs one right after the other.

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Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains
Subterranean – Chicago, IL
4/14/2009

I’m writing a poem about called “Flipping Exactly To The Right Page” about how if you were to experience a day without any missteps or miscommunications it would be horrible. On MySpace I checked out both scheduled openers for the Sebastien Grainger show Tuesday Night at one of Chicago’s best venues, Subterranean, and figured it wouldn’t be worth getting there too much before the former Death From Above 1979 frontman took stage.

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Lykke Li
The Metro – Chicago, IL
2/7/2009

There are simply too many good Lykke Li songs for her to mess up a set; her show at the Metro on the unusually beautiful February night was no exception.

Reasons why this show rocked:

1) A Milli Cover

2) Tribe Called Quest cover

3) Kazoo

4) Fine Women

5) Sold-Out Dancing Crowd

6) Megaphone

7) Sat on audience member’s shoulder

(8) Ordered drink from audience member

BOOM!

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I told my friends after the show that I probably wouldn’t wait by the White Stripes’ tour van in hopes to get in a few words with Jack or Meg. Not a lie, all three times I haven’t. However, the healthy rum buzz blended mostly with the long lasting high from the brilliant Tim and Eric show made it impossible not to wait in single-degree weather. Once twenty people had gathered we eventually left, but still, right?

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By 10:00 Friday, the nearly sold-out, extremely satisfied Deerhoof crowd had already dispersed from outside the Metro and was on their way. Rocking along side the far better (at least live), Experimental Dental School and Flying, Deerhoof shared songs from their quality new disc, Offend Maggie, in a set filled with all the Deerhoof “hits.”

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