Solid Gold
Lincoln Hall – Chicago, IL
1/14/2010

The Minnesota based band came down from the constant cold to warm up the young Chicago crowd at Lincoln Hall on 1/14. Solid Gold was featured as a part of the Tomorrow Never Knows 2010 series which took place this week at both Lincoln Hall and Schubas music venues. MTV actually came down to record part of the series, hopefully sparking a new wave of music for MTV.

After hearing a few songs from their EP, I was pumped to hear how Solid Gold would sound live. Their music is pretty electronic, but a few beats shy of “dance” music. Sure, there are electric guitars. Too many of them if you’re too hipster, but not enough if you’re Solid Gold. Seriously. Nearly every member of the group had a guitar. At one point, the drummer stood up, and I could have sworn he was going to pick up a guitar.

They sound like Chicago-locals Hey Champ! in theory. The lead singer has a lot of soul in his voice with that classic rock wail itching to let itself go. During “Calm Down,” the crowd really picked up Solid Gold’s vibe. The chill beat and high vocals had the Chicago crowd cheering before the end of the song.

If you’re listening to “Synchronize” on their recently released EP, you’d be surprised to hear it sounds less dream-like and more nightmare-like.

Oh, but in the good way! The sound of the guitar is much heavier while the electronic sound is easily forgettable. The downbeat shoegaze was a different sound than headliner Voxtrot or the synth-tastic Gemini Club. Still, the sea of plaid bobbing to the beat, scrambling to pull out their iPhone’s for a few snap shots of the band’s frontman as he thrashed around the stage.

Solid Gold sounds great in theory, but their live sound is so different that it threw me a bit. Honestly, grab their new EP from iTunes. There is definitely something to Solid Gold that I can’t place my finger on. I’m not sure if it’s the downbeat dance music or the shoegaze vocals that makes them pretty unique for the indie scene. Although, there is something I have to give them credit for… They were the only artist that night that didn’t use a synth!

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