Red Capes Make The Bull Man Mad

Date: 2/16/07
Location: Unnamed apartment in Humboldt Park
Bands: Minotaur, Walkie Talkies
Things I missed to be there: Catburglars and Intifada at Humility Gallery; Eavil at Jackhammer, benefit for the Skeleton News at the Boris Kar-Loft with Root Shoot Leaf; benefit for South Union Arts with Shemilaya at Ronnys, The Warriors themed birthday party in Logan; j+j+j and yip-yip at the Beat Kitchen; The Eternals at Empty Bottle; Hillary Rawk!s art show at the Ice Factory
Reason for going: It was centrally located for meeting up with my girlfriend, and I had a Sparks-induced time traveling moment where all of a sudden it's three in the morning and it felt like no time at all had past. We probably would have been there til five if we didn't see the opportunity to glom onto a free ride up north

This weekend has had a shocking amount of quality shit to do, and it was pretty well spread out across the city to boot. I almost felt guilty going to see two people I'd seen so many times before, but it was a good scene. The crowd ranged in age from early twenties to midfifties, the spread included spicy falafel and various cheeses, there was never any shortage of booze and the music was tits. It's not often that someone who hasn't hit it big will have a chance (or a reason) to stand up his critics but that's just what Minotaur did on Friday.

Before the show he announced that he wouldn't be using electronics. He'd just plug in a twelve string and play. He would also be printing out lyrics sheets. This was so that we could finally understand what it was he was playing and singing, and it was necessary. Minotaur doesn't just do music, but he does sound, and his setup is pretty unorthodox. I don't know if it's particularly complex or not, but almost every time I've seen him play it comes out all garbled. The guitar and the banjo get lost in the beats and the samples which end up clashing with each other. Sometimes this is because of soundguys who don't get it and sometimes it's because he's working with a sound system that isn't worth a shit but it makes up about 3/4 of the times I've seen him.

With the (relatively) unplugged set, I learned a lot. First off, his lyrics aren't just sing-song string-of-consciousness gibberish. There are tricks and allusions and turns of phrase. Then I found out he could actually play guitar, like really well, enough to warrant a twelve string. When Rita came out to join him on the casio and played The Walkie Talkies' song "Nicotine Girl", I could see past the cabaret vocals and hear it as a blues song. I'd never realized that before. That was the thing though. Right Eye Rita and Minotaur, individually, are two of my favorite acts in the city, but together, The Walkie Talkies is more than the sum of its parts. Each song gives one of them a chance to experiment while the other has a chance to craft it into something, and keep the other one grounded. Unlike either of their solo projects, Walkie Talkies songs will get stuck in my head and I'll listen to them over and over. Supposedly, they broke up last year but I've seen them a few times since then and they're working on a video, but until they realize that the Walkie Talkies is the way to go, i'll settle for a long future of solo sets.