Sunday night was the conclusion to the two day run of shows at Beat Kitchen. This time there would be three different bands: one I never heard of, one from the very old days of Chicago punk, and one newer band that I’ve heard the name of but wasn’t familiar with.
Flophouse
Flophouse
Flophouse
I got off to a late start so when I finally arrived at the club, Flophouse were already playing. They consisted of two members who mixed up guitar/bass with lots of noise and effects. Their songs were long pieces of droning noise with the occasional growling vocals. It served as mostly ambient background noise. I’m not sure how much of their set I missed, but they seemed to play a long time. I liked their last number the most because it actually had a lot of vocals and built to a noisy and aggressive climax.
Silver Abuse
Silver Abuse
Silver Abuse
Silver Abuse
Silver Abuse
Silver Abuse
The band that got me to go out late on a Sunday night in the cold were next and that was Silver Abuse. I had just seen them do another reunion a few months ago that I really enjoyed so I was looking forward to seeing them play again. This was the same lineup as the last time. As usual they played a nice handful of their old, and older songs. This time out they even had a tuba! Just like last time, they did not disappoint and played a really fun set. It appeared they had more songs to go on their list but the sound man informed them that their time was up which was a bummer because I’d have liked a few more songs.
Lovely Little Girls
Lovely Little Girls
Lovely Little Girls
Lovely Little Girls
When Silver Abuse were finished, what seemed like an entire army of people were up on stage setting up equipment that mainly consisted of horns and a strange looking fellow in a tutu was painting a line on his face. This cavalcade of oddballs were known as Lovely Little Girls and I had no idea what to expect. When the drums and horns started, the singer was moving all over the place, contorting his face and body and flailing about. Lovely Little Girls play in what I can best describe as demented show tunes. Think of it as dark opera for the disturbed. The songs are a pretty good tempo and they are just really odd, but in a good way. I found them to be extremely entertaining to watch and it was like nothing I’ve seen before. Kudos for the originality and presentation. I hadn’t planned on sticking around for their whole set in an effort to try and get home and to bed at a reasonable hour but I couldn’t help but get sucked in and the next thing I knew their set was finished! A nice way to cap off two nights of good shows.
Lovely Little Girls
Lovely Little Girls
Lovely Little Girls
Don’t Call Us No Wave Fest was a pretty cool concept that was only slightly marred by poor attendance. The bands played like they were playing to a full house though, they all gave 100 percent and it showed. I hope something like this can happen again sometime in the future (and with better weather conditions).
More photos from this show will be posted this weekend on MXV’s Flickr Stream.
Mike, thank you for being there, taking wonderful pix and for such kind words! We will do this again with some changes…warm weather, all the bands on one night and never again at Beat Kitchen! Everyone had fun and next time maybe we should just call it a convention.
XOXOXO
Liz