Saturday afternoon was a beautiful day, but that didn’t stop a whole bunch of people from packing into Tone Deaf Records to see Deep Tunnel Project play their third in-store in as many years, and they were joined by Steve Silver. This in-store was to celebrate the release of Deep Tunnel Project’s debut record and you couldn’t ask for a better store to have it at. The store has a really great selection of used and new records for fair prices in today’s market, and the owner is one of the nicest people you’re likely to meet.
Author and former tour manager, door man, security, jack of many trades, Steve Silver, started off the event. Steve is an excellent story teller and he shared many stories on a variety of music scene related topics, each one incredibly interesting. The theme was a bit heavy on Steve Albini as you’d expect for having a segment of the Chicago music scene gathered together, all of whom had their lives touched in a variety of ways by Albini. Steve shared some stories on Steve’s influence and encouragement on writing and what he could be doing for the next chapter of his life, and as Steve shared each story, he somehow weaved them together to all form a full circle that made logical sense at the end. It really was a great bit of storytelling and Steve had the crowd laughing at all the right moments, and also tugged a bit on their heartstrings with some more emotional stories. It was really enjoyable and as he closed his segment, he introduced Deep Tunnel Project.
For those of you not aware, and as Steve Silver so eloquently put it (far better than I ever could), Deep Tunnel Project really epitomizes music in Chicago with their sound. Many of the traits that Chicago music is known for (minus the industrial and house music) is sprinkled into Deep Tunnel Projects musical DNA and as you can guess, with very pleasing results. They are a rock band with loud and heavy guitars with some of that trademark clang that made Tar (the band that half of Deep Tunnel Project was in prior to this one) so amazing. This four-piece make songs to loud and with so much “oomph” that you’d think they had 8 people in the band. They played the songs from their excellent record (which you’d be doing yourself a disservice by not owning and listening to), as well as a new song.
Hopefully the new song leads to more new songs and more records in the future. These guys keep getting better every time they play, and they were great right at the start! Their performance was spot-on, included some of John Mohr’s witty banter between songs, and even some light hearted ribbing between the band members. It was a great set, a lot of fun, and it had a big turnout. You couldn’t ask for a better way to have spent a Saturday afternoon.
