📷 : Tina Mead / ✏️ : Aaron Pylinski

I imagine what it would look and feel like to come out of COVID with so much raw power and energy, I could knock the roof off The Empty Bottle. I got a great glimpse of that on September 18th when Chicago militant power soul quartet, Avantist put out a whiplash set of killer music.

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 Saturday night, it was instant magic, drawing the crowd ever closer.

They could headline any show, any stage in Chicago; any time, definitely. This particular evening, they were opening. And what a fiery start it was! They opened the set with new material; a song called, “Hexagon” which was hotter than a blowtorch and instantly brought the crowd into a sweat-fueled frenzy. When they got into songs like “Red Bible”, from their self-titled debut, I could hear influences of frantic ‘90s punk. I’m a sucker for expressive art. I love it even more when it has hard music you can dance to.

I’m also a sucker for surf rock, and when they played “Tidal Wave” it reminded me of their set at the Sub T for Ian’s Party back in early 2020. That song is forever cemented into my brain because of that night. And just like then, the crowd at the Bottle was thrashing back and forth so exuberantly, like it was a joyous occasion. I love seeing fans getting into the music. What a release after so much isolation. They kept the vibe going with “Human Driver” and then brought in more new stuff.

“Bomb” - which should be released with “Hexagon” and an entire collection of work in the Spring 2022 - showed the bands ability to create an organic flow between funk, soul, metal, and RnB. When they played, “This Could Be It” I was in heaven. This song is a crowd pleaser through and through, with its marching beat and tinny guitar. It reminds me of those days when The Minutemen used to put out high treble, high energy punk on the west coast. They closed out with more new material, a song called “Work It Out.” This dancy, pop-fused anthem was a great end to a fantastic set. I can’t wait to see more from Avantist and this is 100% a band worth checking out.

The evening wasn’t over, though. Avantist warmed the crowd for black-clad electro demons from Brooklyn, Zen Mother, and headliner Algiers, a power-blues rock band hailing out of Atlanta. It should go without saying that Algiers shook the living shit out of the Empty Bottle.

-AARON PYLINSKI