Chicago Crowd Surfer

📷 : Tina Mead / ✏️ : Aaron Pylinski

Cole’s Bar was the place to be on a Thursday night this past week. The backroom feel at Cole’s was the perfect setting for a trio of Midwestern post-rock bands promising a swath of good, fast music. It was a kaleidoscopic journey of hard riffs, harmonious vocals, and fun; just damn good fun. As the night unfolded and evolved, so did the music.

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📷 : Tina Mead / ✏️ : Aaron Pylinski

We went to Schubas last Saturday expecting to dance like crazy and lose our shit. And that’s exactly what happened. It started off with Diet Lite, a three-piece out of Milwaukee. Don’t let the name fool you, I can only describe it as immense, and that is understated. All considered, these cats are the dark matter of midwestern rock. It was the rowdiest music I’ve ever heard come out of a three piece band.

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📷 : Tina Mead / ✏️ : Aaron Pylinski

Headliner, Cel Ray called the crowd to the stage with the twang of Josh Rodin’s guitar. As people pressed closer, the set opened up. Lead vocals Maddie Daviss was dressed in all red (right down to the shoes) and brought the heat that matched the outfit. Especially when throwing cassette cookies into the crowd to celebrate the release of Cellular Raymond this fine evening.

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📷 : Tina Mead / ✏️ : Aaron Pylinski

Many a-traveler came from far and wide to see the rare occurrence of a Dune Rats show in Chicago. Cobra Lounge was the setting for high energy, mosh pit inducing, crowd surfing worthy music. The show was put on by Riot Fest which booked some great local flavor. The evening included Telethon, our five-piece brethren from Milwaukee and Chicago’s Devon Kay & the Solutions, who were opening, and that’s where the real fun started.

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📷 / ✏️ : Tina Mead

As the doors opened and people began entering Constellation, we found a big empty space with risers at the far edges. The black curtains at one end eventually drew our attention, but folks were happy to sit on the risers and gather in the back. The chatter was loud and the tension was thick by the time the curtains drew back…

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📷 / ✏️ : Aaron Pylinski

The fact that it was a school night, the Beat Kitchen was a great setting for a show. That didn’t stop folks from crowding the room with knit hats, pints of beer, and chit-chat between sets. The evening showcased three great math rock bands from Chicago all bringing a special flavor to the stage.

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📷 / ✏️ : Tina Mead

There was a house show vibe as folks chatted not just in the twos or fours you usually see, but in growing gaggles and with the bands on stage. It was a local show with local vibes, but don't think that means sparse. From the first band, the crowd was thick…

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📷 / ✏️ : Tina Mead

There was a crisp edge to the friendly atmosphere of the Bottle, as little clusters of happy chatting formed, pulled together for the warmth. It was the kind of cold that gets me excited to move, like bouncing while waiting for the bus. Good thing the night’s lineup of bands were primed for moving…

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📷 : Tina Mead / ✏️ : Aaron Pylinski

It was a dark and rainy evening sneaking up on Lincoln Hall on January 18th but that didn’t stop the throngs of people piling to the front of the stage for a triple stack of bands ranging from jazz to hip-hop to rock ‘n’ roll.

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📷 : Tina Mead / ✏️ : Aaron Pylinski

The moody interior of Sleeping Village was perfect for a blustery Tuesday evening in Chicago. We couldn’t ask for a better night to hear some live music and shake it with friends and loved ones. The lineup was a Chicago powerhouse with Pink Squeeze headlining and OK Cool opening the evening. Madison, WI duo Seasaw was in the middle of the hometowners sandwich.

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📷 : Tina Mead / ✏️ : Aaron Pylinski

Saturday was something special. The weather was warm and clear like only a fall Chicago afternoon can really be. The perfect atmosphere to check out live music and Smashed Plastic was on the radar.

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📷 : Tina Mead / ✏️ : Aaron Pylinski

Bats, cut out of black construction paper adorned the walls of the Golden Dagger on October 26th. A setting befit for a pseudo Halloween party. The ‘Halloween’ came from Elif Geris and the ‘party’ came from Partywatcher. As always, the event was an intimate affair where Partywatcher celebrated the release of a new single, “I Ain’t Got Anything For You.” 

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📷 / ✏️ : Tina Mead

It wasn’t the plan to post about this show, I was there to take some pics for the dynamic duo that is North by North and enjoy. Being back inside The Hideout was pure bliss and these three Chicago bands had such a savagely rockin’ night, I wanted to share some of my fav pics with you, dear Surfers.

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📷 : Tina Mead / ✏️ : Aaron Pylinski

In the world of chill, sad-girl folk music, two prolific song weavers made great use of the Thalia Hall stagescape on September 29th. Boston native Ella Williams, aka Squirrel Flower started the night off bathed in red light and draped in a bedazzled denim gown. Soccer Mommy took to the stage and gave an unbridled delivery of modern American rock.

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📷 : Tina Mead / ✏️ : Aaron Pylinski

Avantist takes an avant-garde mentality and fuses it with a musically eclectic storm, expressing emotional syncopation. They are the Arias brothers and have been playing together for years. Their talent comes from hard work and a family background steeped in music and entertainment. When they took the stage on the 18th, it was instant magic, drawing the crowd ever closer.

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📷 : Tina Mead

Tension was high and cheers broke out when Thalia Hall went dark and our headlining band took the stage. Japanese Breakfast kicked off the set with "Paprika" moving with a beat bouncing gait, often taking wide-rocking stomping steps. She came back to ring the gong at the center stage over and over. Why does that instrument induce such a wonderful gut shivering thrill? We were all following her movements, excited for the next intonation. Jbrekkie kept venturing away and then being pulled back for those warm punctuations in the music. It was declarative, banishing all of the evil spirits from Thalia Hall’s vaulted space.

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📷 : Tina Mead / ✏️ : Aaron Pylinski

Waltzer kicked off their tour this past Wednesday night at the Golden Dagger. They played with a seriously slick rock band called Lucky Cloud. I was front row for this evening's festivities and it was the best (albeit a bit cramped) seat in the house. I love being up close and personal with music and musicians and I was glad to see the stage situation has improved from the Tonic Room days. It’s a treat to be able to get such a magnified view of these musicians’ art…

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📷 : Tina Mead

Headlining Cincy band In the Pines took the stage with a wall of sound. Their musical exploration covered a lot of ground, traversing blues rock, grunge, and psych, while keeping one foot firmly in southern rock throughout the set. The music moves so seamlessly through these influences it was a pleasure to sit back and see where they would take us next.

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📷 : Tina Mead / ✏️ : Aaron Pylinski

Saturday night at Lincoln Hall was a flourishing of style and charisma taking us on a fantastic ride. Coming back to live music “after” COVID - which is seriously still a thing - is a journey. There is a shimmering of excitement when it's someone's return to the stage or audience. Every show is someone's first and it will likely be months before we see the end. This journey included four of the brightest musical talents in Chicago.

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📷 : Tina Mead

Returning to shows after such a long break feels emotional. It’s awkward, joyful, and nerve wracking. What time to arrive? What shoes do I wear? How does conversation work? Seeing familiar faces makes my heart soar, but I am also feeling my introvertness more acutely than ever. 

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video premiere

DREAM VERSION
”BACKDROP PAINTERS”

Chicago has a stable of indie prog pop acts all bringing their own flavor to the table but collectively championing a standard in the industry as a whole. Dream Version is at the tip of that charge with their latest self-titled album that dropped last month. On said album is the single, “Backdrop Painters” which is described by the band as being about, “some of the frustrations of being an amateur artist.” 

This single gets the amateur artist touch in an almost 4-minute nod to the days when straight-to-video movies were hot to trot. Lead singer and songwriter, Alec Harryhausen said about the video masterpiece:

“I knew I wanted to make an amateurish action movie. This is something my friends and I used to do on the weekends in middle school. There’s something so funny looking back about staging all these dramatic action sequences in what is clearly a suburban backyard. We definitely felt like kids filming this, just making each other laugh.  

Our drummer Mike moved to Michigan just as the pandemic hit and we were feeling pretty isolated from each other. To keep in touch, we developed a routine of watching Jean-Claude Van Damme movies on the phone together. This video ended up being a tribute to those macho straight-to-video kinds of action movies we watched together.”

Dream Version is at Schuba's Tavern this Thursday, August 5 to play their record release. Get tickets now and go show some support! As always, be smart, mask up, and be safe! Keep surfing, Chicago! 

It bears repeating, we want to cover Chicago music, so if you have something coming out, please submit it!

Pure joy can only describe the feeling of being in a crowded Sleeping Village once again for dollar beer night. The local band showcase quickly became our preferred way to discover new Chicago acts or revisit old favorites. Along with Empty Bottle free Mondays, dollar beer nights are the best deal in live music in the city. With a $5 cover and usually three bands to take away your hump day blues. Especially when it’s indie pop upstarts Snow Ellet celebrating the release of their EP (three months later, but who’s counting) backed up by power poppers Gal Gun and newly minted Chicago artist Rat Tally. 

Addy Harris has been performing as Rat Tally for several years now and after stints in LA and Boston, she has come to Chicago. This was her first local show, and it definitely won’t be the last. With a vocal range akin to Julien Baker, and a solo style that harkins back to that artist’s early days, Rat Tally captured the crowd with her gorgeous pipes and steadfastly serious lyrics. Though the tuning banter was what really won us over, as Harris’ self-deprecating humor and ability to just be herself up there, made the music ever more personal and heartfelt. A set that included the new single “Shrug” and plenty of 2019’s When You Wake Up, was the perfect way to lead into the evening. 

Gal Gun hit the stage to staggered cheers but by the time they had rounded the corner of the second number, they had us all moving to their indie tinged power pop that dreams of lost girlfriends, anime, and future loves. The O’Brien brothers, John (guitar) and Thomas (bass), bookend frontman Colin Burns impeccably, while towering drummer Anthony Franco Vaccaro (dude has to be 6’6” at least) keeps that backbeat coming to pull the whole thing together. While John’s solos shine through, it’s really Burns’ enthusiasm and awe shucks lyrical style that makes Gal Gun endearing. Getting into last year’s Critical Hit is essential in any Chicago music listening session, and while they seemed to be shaking off a few cobwebs in their first set back, things are looking up for Gal Gun.

Release parties for long ago album drops are a norm in post-pandemic times, but Snow Ellet only had to wait a few months to celebrate his debut EP suburban indie rock star. As the album title ironically proposes, Eric Reyes’ music scratches the indie rock itch while finding a home more in the pop punk realm. Each of the five very short tunes graced the stage, along with some older material from previous projects to fill time, and Reyes’ has a certain unaffected charm and the performative skills to hold the audience in his hand for a good thirty minute set with ease. It won’t surprise us to see Snow Ellet on quite a few bills in the coming months and years, and at 11 min and 30 sec the EP is as affecting as it is brief.

-Kyle Land

We stopped by Rockwell on The River for a fantastic performance from OHMME and V.V. Lightbody. Words can’t express how great these acts are, so you should check them out yourself. But here are some fantastic photos of the show.

-photos by Tina Mead 

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-photos by Tina Mead 

What a way to come back to the Empty Bottle. Having visited several times in the past months for drinks, only to be greeted with tables on the floor and a barren platform, it was an absolute pleasure to see instruments on the storied, sticky carpeted altar of music that is the Bottle stage. To welcome us back was one of the last bands we saw at the EB, Chicago’s own maniacal post punk machine Ganser. 

Alicia Gaines and Nadia Garofalo are the yin and yang of punk rock; with Gaines' cool, collected bass rhythms and electric vocal purr paired with Graofalo’s snarling bark and captivating presence, the two make for a perfect match in rock archetypes without falling into a stereotype trap. Add in Brian Cundiff’s unrelenting backbeat and exemplary crashes with Charlie Landsman’s devastating atonal guitar attack, and you have the equation for one hell of a band. 

That is just what Ganser is; one hell of a band. If there were any cobwebs on night one of their three night residency, they sure didn’t show on night two as they launched head long into a marathon set filled with plenty from their now nearly year old Just Look At That Sky, one of 2020’s sure fire Chicago hits, and some older gems like opener “Satsuma” off 2018’s debut full length Odd Talk. A tune that could be seen as deeply prescient and creepily timely at the same time. 

They even pulled in a few oldies with “Candor” and “Pyrrhic Victory'' off their 2016 EP This Feels Like Living.  Add in the pair of “YES NO” and “[NO YES],” the latter with guest spoken word from Sean Gundersen, to the mix and it made for a comprehensive tour of Ganser’s career till now. Was it an hour? Ninety minutes? It didn’t really matter as we were swept into the dynamic grooves, sissling vocal crackles, and the uncompromising  Landsman six string onslaught.  

After following this band for years and seeing them grow to a confident and bloodthirsty machine before our eyes, there was no better way to return to the scene than a night with Ganser at the legendary Empty Bottle.

-Kyle Land

Thanks for all the support

For those that have followed us over the years we would like to extend the warmest of thank you. As a zine established to celebrate the live music scene in Chicago it’s been a tough road over the past year and a half. We have gone through a variety of changes during the pandemic, both private and on the surface. We went on two extended hiatus’ for personal reasons, flipped our formula on it’s head several times, and have decided to return with a simple and reasonable approach. Getting back to what we love: seeing, writing about, and photographing live music. Maybe someday we will return to album reviews, artist interviews, and other ways to support the scene; but for now, this is who and what we are: a live music zine. We love you Chicago, let's get back to rocking together.

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