22 September 2006

-OTHER CONCERTS

On Wednesday the 30th there were a series of three bands who played at the Hideout as part of the Jazz Institute’s club crawl: Tim Daisy’s SKY AND LIGHTS (with Anton Hatwich and Jason Stein), Keefe Jackson’s Quartet (with Jeb Bishop, Jason Roebke, and Nori Tanaka), and a quartet with Håvard Wiik, Jeb, Nori and Josh Abrams. I was at the venue from 6pm on, spinning records from my jazz collection (alphabetically of course), and some Lee Perry and King Tubby sides, so by the end of the night I was pretty wiped out- the TERRITORY and FREE FALL schedules catching up with me I guess. Really enjoyed hearing Håvard (on Rhodes piano) work with different players from Chicago, their group presented a range of compositions for a fun, free-wheeling couple of sets to close out a long night of music.

I went to hear MUDHONEY and RADIO BIRDMAN on the first weekend of September. Was really impressed by how good MUDHONEY sounded, well rehearsed and playing hard. They came out to play “Slidin’ In And Out Of Grace,” as an encore and when an enthusiastic fan jumped on stage he was quickly grabbed by a security guard. Nothing unusual about this except that this security guard was sporting a foot and a half mohawk with an A for anarchy tatoo on his head. The irony of this wasn’t lost on Mark Arm, who ended the tune by quoting Bob Dylan, “The times are a changin’.”. On Saturday RADIO BIRDMAN sounded strong but the amp that the club rented for the guitarist kept crapping out, so it was hard for them to get any sustained momentum going. One of the keys to the success of the RAMONES’ specific style was to never stop hammering, something that would have helped put this show over the top.

The next weekend one of the biggest music events of the year took place, Touch & Go’s 25th anniversary festival celebration (which nicely coincided with the Hideout’s 10th anniversary block party). I was only able to attend on Saturday, but it was absolutely great- about 8000 people enjoying bands who were playing their hearts out, a fantastic testament to the integrity of the label and the possibilities for independent music. All of the groups that played that day delivered 100%. My personal favorites were the EX (the first time I was able to hear and see them as a quartet, what can I say? They remain one of the most inspiring groups playing today); SCRATCH ACID (never got to hear them when they were first working, but this sounded like more than a simple “reunion gig,” a total ass-kicking was more like it. Seeing them I was reminded about how much I miss hearing
David Yow and David Simms play); BIG BLACK (just a few tunes, but a taste of the music to come from 20 years ago); and SHELLAC (another one of my favorite bands currently performing, I would be remiss not to indicate that I’ve stolen many of my current ideas about the displacement of rhythm from them). It was a good day to be in Chicago and to feel like I am part of the music scene that comes out of that city.