Location: La Casa Maldita
Bands: Bruise Violet, Sin Orden, Condenada, S.S.EX, and Sangre De Abajo
Cost: $5
Things I missed to be there: ? and the Mysterians at the Empty Bottle; Weekend Nachos and some SxE bands at some joint on Belmont; LMNOP and Super Meego at the Country Club; Scalpels at Ronny's; Resonate2.0 with Schizowave, Environmental Encroachment, SPUNN and all sorts of rave shit
Reason for going: I never got a ride to a punk show from my Dad before; today he made up for that missed high school experience
I wonder if there's a name for that part of a song, particularly a punk song, before it gets all fast and you don't know where it's gonna go. It's not an intro so much as a teaser. Back in the day, my favorite band for this was The Mascots. They would play these intricate teasers that bordered on jazz, before devolving into incomprehensible shrieking hardcore. Then they would trade instruments- the bassist and guitarist would switch, then the drummer and the singer- and do it all over.
Condenada is getting good at this. They always had some slow songs (they fall closer to punk than hardcore on that limited spectrum that separates one loud screamy band from another), but their teasers are sounding as much like complete movements as the thrashfests that follow. While some of their songs reminded me of Mary Tyler Morphine (another old favorite, melodic but loud, recently reunited but with no worthwhile web presence), some of their teasers reminded me of pogo, postpunk, and hard rock from the 70s, Deep Purple kinda shit, Mott the Hoople kinda shit. Plus they soundchecked with Inxs. I've said it a number of times on this blog before... Chicago's punks are getting good.
Tonight's show was all about the ladies. I'm not saying this because of the bands, sure the girls outnumbered the boys three to two, I'm saying it because of the crowd. Just before Condenada started the last set of the night, a friend of mine, a tiny girl with a big voice yelled into the back yard that the band was starting, and started a stampede. Girls were skipping the stairs and literally jumping down to the basement; from the front of the room, it looked as if the crowd was segregated by height, as girls, women, and womyn all crowded the pit, leaving the men and the boys pulling up the rear, and the groups only totally intermeshed when the music got really fast and they started slamming into each other.
Sin Orden played hard as always, but I missed a good portion of the set because Martha, the little girl with the big voice, was discussing an article in a paper I write for that she felt was racist. I didn't get there in time to see the two new bands, Sangre de Abajo and S.S.EX, but I did catch Bruise Violet, who came to town to join Condenada on a tour of the Midwest. Named after a Babes in Toyland song, they're another group on the political tip, but unlike most bands, I can actually understand what they are saying (at least in their recordings, live tonight their vocals were as fuzzy as their guitars). They were really good. Someone was bitching about them being too LA-style. I don't know if that's true, they sounded fairly Chicago, but not like anything that's being made here right now. I figure that to be a good thing.
Next on the Agenda: Sunday jam at the Orphanage (finally?)
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