23 Aug 08
Ronny's
Chicago, IL
Set List:
"Hurry, Please"
"In-Fives"
"Above Heaven"
"Never Alone"
"Glisten"
It was another busy night in Chicago, with lots of show options, so this was probably our smallest audience, as only about 30-35 people came out to the show. Disrobe, who was supposed to play right before us, set up and played first, due to being double-booked last night. It seemed like their audience opted for the latter show, so that did not help matters, at all. After they played, Morgan Stanton and Kendra Calhoun (Call Me on the Allophone) performed as a duo for the first time, utilizing guitar, keyboard, laptop loops/textures, and vocals. Kind of dissonant and droning. A weird follow-up after the spazzed-out hardcore set. Edward Hamel came on next, and seated at a table full of pedals, oscillators, and mixers, I was half-expecting a harsh noise assault, to contradict what I know about his work in Estesombelo. But rather than come out hard, he started with a short vocal loop and slowly layered in sound, which at times did get heavy -- but typically flirted with themes and textures that reminded me more of mid- to late-1990s Coil, and at points, even Tangerine Dream. After what seemed like a very long break, The Kremlin was on next, and then, suddenly, we were setting up around them due to the looming cut-off time. Ace engineer Kenny made sure that we sounded on-the-money, and the MiniDisc recording that is playing in the background is certainly proof of that. The mix sounds spot on. Each instrument seems to have a proper place and a time in the overall balance of things. Geoff's guitar floats in and out so nicely... no indication that he was feeling like shit and shivering from a fever. Thanks to Kenny, for his great sound work - no easy feat at that garage space - and for guaranteeing us a full set. Thanks to Morgan, for inviting us to play. Thanks to everyone who came out and who stuck around to see us, especially our friends and our repeat guests!
Christ, "Never Alone" got really weird just now... the intro nearly became "We Will Rock You" with the impromptu crowd participation. It's a totally fractured version, but it recovers really well.
Here is a reproduction of a really nice silk screened poster that was made for the show, by Andy Burkholder, which we had not previously seen. It captures the general vibe of Ronny's pretty accurately:
