The Bitter Tears
Empty Bottle in Chicago
12/18/6
Chicago’s own five piece The Bitter Tears are perhaps the most quirky and sardonic band Chicago calls it’s own. I had seen members of the band play with Califone and provide some nice backing horns during their summer set at West Fest but nothing could quite prepare me for the experience that seeing them play live as a band brings.
Let me be honest about my biases, I’m just as much a photographer as I am a music fan. So when lead singer Alan Scalpone came on stage to set up his gear in a shiny shirt, I felt my pulse quicken with anticipation for the pictures I could take. Then, when they came back on stage in jilted lovers’ wedding dresses, I felt my heart literally flood with joy!
Getting back to the music, on album their songs are endearing sort of oddities that remind me quite a bit at times of another band I really enjoy, The Residents. The lyrics entail everything from getting murdered in a bar to looking down someone’s mouth to find Texas. They are sometimes morose, bitter, but also somewhat amusing.
Live, the songs were really played up quite a bit. Three of the band’s prominent members stood before me looking like a cross between Miss Havisham and Marie Antoinette while playing not only songs off of their self titled release but demented Hanukkah and Christmas songs. The drummer, Foster Lee dressed up like a cat while the keyboardist John Leonard appeared as a sort of Stanley Kowalski in his wife beater with, oddly enough, an iron handy. In between songs, they gave away copies of their albums as presents. The Bitter Tears will be playing at the next Bandwidth on February 22cnd at The Subterranean. Expect the unexpected!