Kirstiecat | Blog

Perhaps even more so than great albums, 2006 was the year of great shows. Chicago was especially spoiled between Intonation Music Festival, Pitchfork, and the Hideout Block Party all pulling in fantastic bands at an incredibly reasonable price. (We also had an above average amount of great music at street festivals this summer.) This was also the year of a Swedish invasion where I felt I saw more Swedish bands than any other (still not enough, mind you, but more than in previous years.) Other news…The Lakeshore Theater in Lakeview became a new venue for music in Chicago. Previously home to only theatrical performance, this year it became a venue booked by the folks at The Empty Bottle. Not only is the lighting better but the sound is great and you can actually sit down, have some chocolates and enjoy the show from a seated position.

This year, I took more pictures and saw more bands perform than I have in any previous year of my existence. The verdict is in. The Empty Bottle may have a cat but Schubas has better lighting. (Beat Kitchen being runner up for best lighting in the city) Suterranean gets mad props for helping to set up the musical acts for this year’s fantastic Wicker Park Street Festival and Logan Square proved to be a fantastic place for the likes of DeVotchKa, Andrew Bird and Xiu Xiu

The following are my top ten shows for this year as seen in Chicago. Clicking on the link will take you to my show review when it was posted which often also includes more pictures, a setlist or setlist details, and official links as well. All images are my own and I spend the kind of time on them that only a complete obsessive would so please don’t use them without permission.

1. Os Mutantes.

More than any other show this year, I was most amazed by Os Mutantes. I didn’t really think it was possible to even see them play and when they started to announce tour dates, Chicago wasn’t amongst them initially. I would have flown to NYC and paid much more to see them at Webster Hall had that been my only option. I was overjoyed when Pitchfork announced Os Mutantes as the headliner for the second day of the festival. So inspiring is this band’s music and so completely revolutionary in a time of absolute fascism in Brazil. Os Mutantes isn’t just about music. It’s about overcoming harsh political adversity and creating something amazing in a time when any art is stifled and artists are in great danger. Os Mutantes showed the world that you cannot stop the music through intimidation, force, and imprisonment. The music will survive because it has to.

So, to see this band on stage before my very own eyes was possibly the best dream I’ve had. Further, to see Brazil’s CSS dancing along and singing every lyric beside me was something that filled me with such light. We danced while the stars above watched and we sang songs we knew weren’t just full of beautiful melodies but had the ability to inspire and empower. In one word, we were lucky to have the privilege to be there and I had a hard time not crying when it was over.

2. Bert Jansch
As part of the Empty Bottle’s Three Million Tongues Festival, Jansch played an acoustic set including covers as well as hiw own songs from his newly released Black Swan (which also features vocals from Beth Orton) and previous albums. Jansch’s playing was filled with some subtlety and grace. Listening to his solo and Pentangle released albums in the past, Jansch was another musician I had convinced myself I’d just never be able to see. And so it was that I felt a kind of resignation that the music would just not be experienced in a live setting.

Chicago was lucky again because we were one of three dates announced for Jansch this year and I found him to come off as both humble and understated. His guitar playing and singing was filled with a sort of honesty that is difficult for other musicians to match, especially these days. Similar to experiencing Os Mutantes, I had to keep pinching myself because it was difficult to believe I was really truly seeing and hearing him play. Another highlight was the fact that The Empty Bottle is small enough for it to be a really intimate place. Having arrived for the music festival intentionally early, I picked out a space and was literally close enough at times that I could have reached out any touched him. We don’t know what life has in store for us in the future but it’s these moments that make the past worth remembering.

3. The Dears
After releasing a fantastic album Gang of Losers, which pales only in comparison to the awe inspiring No Cities Left, The Dears did something I never thought would be possible again…they played Schubas, an incredibly small venue for them. They played as if they were headlining an ampitheater. I was, to say the least, impressed. To make matters even better, the setlist was phenomenal and perfect. Seeing them a couple of months later at The Metro was nice but I dare say it’s impossible to duplicate how special it was to see them at Schubas.

4. DeVotchKa at Logan Square Auditorium.

I actually went and saw DeVotchKa two nights in a row after taking a road trip with some friends to Madison. The setlists had some similarities, though at the end of this second night while playing in Chicago, DeVotchKa brought on My Brightest Diamond to play and sing along with them. It was also nice to just to dance and be with Chicago. I had anticipated this show for weeks and was not disappointed. Anyone who has not heard Nick Urata’s incredible vocal range in a live setting should make an effort to do so. Not to mention the gloriousness of Jeanie Schroder’s suzaphone playing…

5. Jon Brion at the Intonation Music Festival

If there was only one flaw I could pick from Jon Brion’s set, it was the lack of songs off of his very personal and endearing album Meaningless, which I had listened to on repeat for days in preparation for seeing him. (I hadn’t listened to it this much since I ordered it directly from his website not too long after I became obsessed with all of the film soundtracks he’d done.) Still, even though his setlist was missing this element almost completely, Brion was utterly dynamic and seemed to be having the time of his life playing an eclectic group of covers. Even though I’d heard many of the songs (like “Waterloo Sunset” by the Kinks) he chose to play several times before, the way he played them came off as spontaneous and fresh. Of course, it didn’t hurt him to have Benmont Tench and Glenn Kotche backing him on stage.

6. The Boredoms

More transcendent than anything else this summer were moments of The Boredoms set as part of the Intonation Music Festival that combined the pure power of the drumming and the hair raising singing of Yoshimi. Seeing them play under an open sky made us all witnesses to something that made us feel every single movement and molecule around us. Our skin felt fragile and we were careful to not break as we felt our pulse in our ears reminding us steadily Yes! You are alive!

7. A Silver Mt. Zion and Tra La La Band at The Empty Bottle
I didn’t miss Lollapalooza. Not one bit. I had something better and that was A Silver Mt. Zion two nights in a row! Though not without it’s small anxieties (Efrim is a little unpredictable in his thoughts and banter), the set was amazing in its intensity, perhaps heightened by the strings. This was perhaps the most emotional set I witnessed this year, bordering on complete nervous breakdown and collapse. Just thinking back to it reminds me of the way some people have described their experience seeing Chan Marshall of Cat Power fame perform live. (I’ve only seen her play once and fortunately, it was a mentally stable performance.) The thing with these two shows was that it became unclear to me who would lose sanity first, Efrim or different devoted audience members. At times, you could literally hear a pin drop, which is quite rare for The Empty Bottle. It won’t just be a show I remember for this year but one I will remember until my dying day.

8. CocoRosie

Sure, there were sets at this year’s Hideout Block Party that were much more anticipated. Reunions and rare appearances were made by several bands in honor of the Touch & Go label. I heard quite a bit of press about Shellac and Negative Approach and others. But, aside from perhaps Chk Chk Chk, I didn’t have nearly as much fun with these previous sets. To be honest, I felt a little more than slightly inundated with math boy rock I could have done without. CocoRosie was fun and unexpectantly danceable with the addition of beats to many of their recorded songs. On stage was a great sense of magical intimacy made even better by the captivating presence of a younger sister wearing a unicorn outfit. I had the most fun taking pictures yet this year during their set!

9. Les Georges Leningrad

Speaking of fun, I haven’t ever felt the floor at the Empty Bottle thumping quite as much as I did when I saw Les Georges Leningrad, whose three members go through a curious transformation somewhere in that time period between setting up their instruments and playing their set. It felt random and at times completely off kilter but it worked and made me feel a renewed passion for everything French Canadian.

10. CSS

Brazil’s CSS brought down the house at the Biz3 tent at Pitchfork. Lead singer Lovefoxx was spontaneous as ever jumping into the crowd while singing in time to catch every beat of the dancy indiepop. The audience loved it and you could tell they were having the time of their lives as well. It was a shame they had to be a bit tucked away from the main stages when their set was one of the most captivating of the festival.

11. The Liars

I was really tempted to put the Liars higher on this list and with a different year of shows, they might certainly be. Angus Andrew, despite his charming demeanor off stage, is a whirlwind of action on stage. By his live show, you’d think he was possessed, a reincarnated Jim Morrison of sorts, playing the language of demons hiding in the Australian outback. He might be the most intense lead singer on the face of the earth.

12. Frida Hyvönen
As much as I loved seeing Jens Lekman at Pitchfork, his set was far too short and there was a much more personal feel to sleek Frida at the Beat Kitchen. She was elegant, charming and when she sang you knew she meant it. The Joni Mitchell-esque songs make the most apathetic music fan perk of their ears. It’s difficult not to be close to her as she tells you so many things in the form of song.

13. The Wedding Present at the Double Door

I’ve been a fan of David Gedge for quite some time but I tend to favor the songs on Cinerama records because I felt those early Steve Albini produced Wedding Present albums muffled the best part: Gedge’s voice. I’ve always seen him as a sincere version of Jarvis Cocker, though both seem to struggle with their share of insecurities when it comes to relationships. They are keen observers of the women they love and leave. When they are the ones left, which is more often the case with Gedge, they perseverate and analyze every detail the way Marcel Proust would go on about a curtain. I find Gedge, amongst other things, rather endearing in his vulnerability.

Yet, I wasn’t quite sure he could pull this off as I am much more familiar with his Cinerama material. I’d seen Cinerama live at The Metro a couple of years ago and I hadn’t been disappointed. When Take Fountain was released, I knew I had to see Gedge again. What was great is that he brought both eras of Wedding Present songs together and I could make out all of the vocals. Talk about the best of both worlds…

14. Gogol Bordello at the Metro

To be honest, I didn’t really enjoy myself at this show for the first half of it. I literally felt as if all of the bones in my body might be broken by an overabundance of testosterone driven males who wanted nothing better than to ram into a bunch of females whose only wish was to see Eugene up close and to be left alone by all of the aggressive males around them. I, of course, was one of those females. I would be letting my bias against the audience unfairly destroy my opinion of Gogol Bordello’s set if I didn’t place them somewhere on this list. In many ways, watching their set was akin to viewing a play being performed by a cast of thousands. The playing was tight, which isn’t easy to do with so many bandmates and instruments involved. It was truly impressive and I enjoyed both the music and the picture taking immensely as soon as I moved to the balcony.

15. Beth Orton

This is the one exception to my all in Chicago rule. I saw Beth Orton at NYC’s Webster Hall in April and was completely enamored with her newest release Comfort of Strangers thereafter even though before hand I wasn’t nearly as impressed. I was up close and loving her gentle way of singing even the most pained lyrics and the way her metaphors rode her soft melodies. She was beautiful lit all in a green light that surrounded her skin and the fabric of her shirt. I couldn’t look away as she played her fantastic set of both new songs and my old favorites.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007 at 12:18 pm and is filed under music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.