Ruckus Live: Sunset Rubdown
Logan Square Auditorium
October 06, 2006
(Click on pictures to enlarge.)
As I walked into the Logan Square Auditorium, my head has heavy with questions... Would local Chicago band, Office, live up to the serious buzz about them? Will Spencer Krug's live show be as spot on and charismatic without the rest of Wolfparade on stage? Who the hell is Beaver? There was certainly a lot left in the air about this show, but soon all the answers would be revealed--except where the f*** I parked my car.
Office took the stage first in front of a fairly decent sized crowd, considering they were the early band. Apparently, their appearance at Lollapalooza this year had really given them some Chicagoland street cred. On a nationwide level, you may also have heard of Office on iTunes in The Indie Spotlight.
Whichever the case, there was a definite hype to their set... and when they hit the stage, they didn't disappoint. Their particular breed of dancy indie poprock, which is much more guitar driven live than it is on the recordings, had the kids dancing and the hipsters standing arms crossed, heads bobbing in approval. They're certainly worth checking out, so go fire up iTunes and give their new LP, Q&A, a listen.
Download: Bar Yellow
Next up was Beaver, which turns out, is not a band's name, but rather a guy's name. Let me just say that everybody's group of friends has someone named Beaver in it, and that guy is pretty much always a big, crazy, beer-drinkin' sonuvabitch. Spencer Krug is no exception. And this is how Beaver landed a spot as the opening act on the Sunset Rubdown tour, despite the lack of any media, recordings, publicity, or merch in support of the Beaver phenomena. Although I do suspect that several cases of Molsen Ice were involved.
This is about the point of the show where most of the kids went outside to smoke. I however, decided to stick around for a couple of songs. By the way, Beaver rocks out some pretty decent acoustic folk rock, if you care. Unfortunately, I was only able to hear about half of his set, as I had to go to the wine bar next door to refuel for the headliner.
Once the roadies got done toweling up all of the Beaver sweat--I'm just kidding! (They didn't clean it up) It was time for Sunset Rubdown to take the stage, and let me just start off by saying that, not only do these guys rubdown some serious sunsets, they also rock some serious faces.
No joke, the Sunset Rubdown live experience is both captivating and haunting; I highly recommend going if it ever comes to your town. The only low point of the night was when the venue's equipment shorted out right at the beginning of Sunset Rubdown's set, but the band managed to keep the crowd entertained by pretending to start songs, only to realize that they were all playing the wrong instruments, accidently singing into a beer bottle instead of a microphone, and other such drunken shenanigans. That, and giving a five minute dissertation on how awesome Spencer Krug's new moustache is, yes, shows definitely need more speeches about moustachary. Once the technical difficulties were taken care of, Spencer strapped on his trusty headband and led his troupe through an amazing set.
Download: They Took a Vote and Said No
Conclusion
The Good:
October 06, 2006
(Click on pictures to enlarge.)
As I walked into the Logan Square Auditorium, my head has heavy with questions... Would local Chicago band, Office, live up to the serious buzz about them? Will Spencer Krug's live show be as spot on and charismatic without the rest of Wolfparade on stage? Who the hell is Beaver? There was certainly a lot left in the air about this show, but soon all the answers would be revealed--except where the f*** I parked my car.
Office took the stage first in front of a fairly decent sized crowd, considering they were the early band. Apparently, their appearance at Lollapalooza this year had really given them some Chicagoland street cred. On a nationwide level, you may also have heard of Office on iTunes in The Indie Spotlight.
Whichever the case, there was a definite hype to their set... and when they hit the stage, they didn't disappoint. Their particular breed of dancy indie poprock, which is much more guitar driven live than it is on the recordings, had the kids dancing and the hipsters standing arms crossed, heads bobbing in approval. They're certainly worth checking out, so go fire up iTunes and give their new LP, Q&A, a listen.
Download: Bar Yellow
Next up was Beaver, which turns out, is not a band's name, but rather a guy's name. Let me just say that everybody's group of friends has someone named Beaver in it, and that guy is pretty much always a big, crazy, beer-drinkin' sonuvabitch. Spencer Krug is no exception. And this is how Beaver landed a spot as the opening act on the Sunset Rubdown tour, despite the lack of any media, recordings, publicity, or merch in support of the Beaver phenomena. Although I do suspect that several cases of Molsen Ice were involved.
This is about the point of the show where most of the kids went outside to smoke. I however, decided to stick around for a couple of songs. By the way, Beaver rocks out some pretty decent acoustic folk rock, if you care. Unfortunately, I was only able to hear about half of his set, as I had to go to the wine bar next door to refuel for the headliner.
Once the roadies got done toweling up all of the Beaver sweat--I'm just kidding! (They didn't clean it up) It was time for Sunset Rubdown to take the stage, and let me just start off by saying that, not only do these guys rubdown some serious sunsets, they also rock some serious faces.
No joke, the Sunset Rubdown live experience is both captivating and haunting; I highly recommend going if it ever comes to your town. The only low point of the night was when the venue's equipment shorted out right at the beginning of Sunset Rubdown's set, but the band managed to keep the crowd entertained by pretending to start songs, only to realize that they were all playing the wrong instruments, accidently singing into a beer bottle instead of a microphone, and other such drunken shenanigans. That, and giving a five minute dissertation on how awesome Spencer Krug's new moustache is, yes, shows definitely need more speeches about moustachary. Once the technical difficulties were taken care of, Spencer strapped on his trusty headband and led his troupe through an amazing set.
Download: They Took a Vote and Said No
Conclusion
The Good:
- The exceedingly hot Office keyboardist.
- The Logan Square Auditorium's bar being "out of whiskey."
- Puddles of excessive Beaver sweat shorting out the stage's electrical system.
posted by Tyler at 11:14 PM
1 Comments:
This was my favorite. I'm a "roadie" though, so I hope I don't end up mopping up fat guy's sweat. That's for the sound guys anyway. Good job. I enjoyed it.
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