Kirstiecat | Blog

7/29/07
Schubas Tavern in Chicago

Calla is what you feel in the middle of the night when you pace the floors and your space is filled with echoes from alleys. Calla is the broken glass and if the moon made a sound, it would be Calla. A disjointed sense of pedal distortion. The dream pop sounds flood you like water couldn’t do. It’s in your system forever and you long for the heaviness whether it contains a sense of drowsiness or an abrasiveness that you think may not really be good for you. Calla is all of these things and if you are only a partially whole being, you will demand more.

I really don’t understand how a band like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club can play a crowded Vic show and there wouldn’t be lines from Belmont up to Western Ave. for the NYC three piece known as Calla. To be honest, I was worn out on Sunday and the last thing I wanted to do after band after band of The Wicker Park Festival was see another one. Calla is a term of endearment to me, though. It is music on another level, filling the darkness and then transcending it.

On tour to support their newly released Strength in Numbers, they gave the songs quite a kick that the album sometimes doesn’t have. The one thing that the lead singer Aurelio Valle has that bands like BRMC or The Black Angels doesn’t have is a lush sense of sweetness reminiscent of a Joe Pernice or Jason Martin of Starflyer 59. Though they are at times drenched in shoegaze effects, there is time left for the lulls in the darkness of everyday life. And unlike Interpol, whom they are touring with, they still have their thick sense of surreality that is better than anything else in this world. Go see this band.

Listen to music on myspace

View the complete photoset on flickr

Setlist:

Remaining tour dates:

Aug 1, 2007 St. Louis, MO Pageant w/ Interpol
Aug 3, 2007 Covington, KY Madison Theater w/ Interpol
Aug 5, 2007 Atlanta, GA The Earl w/ Mendoza Line, Moorish Idols
Aug 6, 2007 Chapel Hill, NC Local 506
Aug 7, 2007 Washington DC, DC Black Cat Backstage w/ The A-Sides
Aug 8, 2007 Philadelphia, PA Johnny Brendas
Aug 9, 2007 Cambridge, MA The Middle East w/ The A-Sides
Aug 11, 2007 Brooklyn, NY Studio B w/ Castanets, Other Passengers

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 1st, 2007 at 10:16 am 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.