Well we’ve made it Surfers! One last issue before we turn 50! A crazy achievement considering we started this project a year ago with just three people and now we’ve garnered eight more solid contributors and many more who dabble with us here and there. This was a great week yet again with so much new local music, and plenty from the world outside our humble metropolis. Check out our write ups on Music Frozen Dancing, Bob Mould and locals Beach Bunny rocking out The Metro, and Dessa taking over Old Town. It was another exciting week of music and we’re here to share it all with you Surfers! Join us next week for our one year anniversary issue, (start the fanfare!), but until then plug into the playlist, dig into this brand new issue and make sure to check out the calendar. Pick out a show, get your ass there, and support live music in Chicago!

Keep Seeing Live Music!

⬐ SHOWS ⬎

Goose Island snowman at Music Frozen Dancing / photo by KPL (all photos credited as listed)

Music Frozen Dancing is one of our most anticipated events of the winter months. A one day outdoor celebration of music, the never ending cold, and the greatest venue in Chicago (we love all the local venues but The Empty Bottle is Chicago, followed closely by The Hideout). Every year EB throws this event with sponsor Goose Island, that some see as insane, but to die hard music scenesters it is not to be missed. Every year the lineup is stellar, the beer flows freely, and everyone takes a gamble on the weather. Some years it has snowed, some have been fridged, others a balmy 45 degrees; unfortunately this year was soggy, with rain a good portion of the day, and the sky opening up right before headliners Ty Segall & White Fence took the stage, but it didn’t stop hundreds from turning up throughout the day to take in some compelling acts that made the day long, pacho clad, effort worth every moment.

Beach Bunny / all photos by LPL

Unlike most of the attendees at the Music Frozen Dancing festival, this seasoned MFD-goer was both warm and dry thanks to ski base-layers, snow pants, and a checkered poncho. The Sonic Muse messaged us mid-fest with tickets to the SOLD OUT Beach Bunny and Bob Mould show at The Metro - JCB and I did a little rainy jig and scooted over to Lakeview.

Bob Mould’s fans came early, and Beach Bunny were beaming on stage as they rocked through their set for a packed house. (Every time we see Beach Bunny, they are on a bigger stage). As the stages grow, so does their confidence and stage charisma. Their big hits are a bit tighter now too, garnering the full attention of Mould’s dedicated fans who were, perhaps, double the age of a typical Beach Bunny audience. Multiple pairs of people around us were heard commenting, “Hey, these guys are great!” and “Who are they?”

Lili Trifilio has an adorable guitar, but there is nothing diminutive about her guitar skills. She has a way of plucking through chords that do not necessarily follow her vocal tone or pace; I can only imagine how difficult it is to get your brain to do two very different tasks at the same time. I mean, I can’t even pat my belly and rub my head (or is it supposed to be the other way around?). Drummer Jon Alvarado provides the platform for Trigilio and guitarist Matt Henkels to roll between pensive strums and sunny hooks to allow listeners to receptively digest their the oft-times unsettling, albeit, familiar subject matter. Anthony Vocarro (drummer, Bur) seamlessly joined on bass. Together, the quartet radiated from the stage and up into Metro’s 91-year-old anatomy.

Our setbreak convo unveiled that I was there to see Beach Bunny, and JCB was there to see Bob Mould. It was quickly concluded that JCB best take the review from here…

Oh, LPL, by quick conclusions do you mean when the kind gentleman approached us to ask if we were, like him, the only people there for Beach Bunny, after seeing your beanie from The Hideout show last weekend… and I just kind of smiled awkwardly like some aging post-punker? Yeah, I think I scared him away.

I’ve never seen Bob Mould live, and certainly am not old enough to have seen Hüsker Dü or Sugar in action. But, his music has always swam in and out of my life. Hüsker Dü and Sugar were played alongside my metal upbringing by sage older brothers of my friends – being an only child, my family’s musical contributions were primarily dad’s Sabbath vinyls and mom’s Jim Croce cassettes. He’s been solo for some time now, so going into tonight’s free show (proper thanks to the fine folks at The Sonic Muse!) I had the assumption I’d be hearing plenty of tracks off his latest career iteration. I was jacked regardless, as I’m quite the fan of Sunshine Rock – as you will know, loyal reader, from our last issue. To my surprise, however, the first four songs included a Hüsker Dü classic (“I Apologize”) and two Sugar bangers (“A Good Idea” and “Hoover Dam”).

One thing to know for Bob Mould newbies – he has a very particular style, and has planted his feet firmly in place for the majority of his storied career (we can have a side bar about the electronic dabbles and DJing). One might even say that most of his songs sound the same. There’s merit to that, but fuck – when they’re that good, who cares? Especially when the aging rocker has more energy on a second night of three sold out shows at the Metro than I can muster in my best days at the gym. Whipping his Fender around, headbanging, lumbering around like an alt-rock Frankenstein, kicking his feet during ‘the good parts’, and yelling his acerbic and often self-deprecating lyrics like it might be the last time anyone will hear them, he absolutely destroyed the packed venue.

He didn’t talk to the crowd much, allowing the song choices to speak for him, and the measured-in-seconds breaks clearly pushed his band to the brink. The song choices, if I went into detail, would balloon this review into the stratosphere, so I’ll just say that Mould is enjoying his late 50s. He’s happy and has learned to love the nostalgia. If you want to dive in, here are some setlist gems that illustrate my point:

“If I Can’t Change Your Mind”
“Hoover Dam”
“Sinners and Their Repentances”

I often forget what a real sold out Metro looks like. There were people lined up on the entry steps, where you can’t even glimpse the stage, rocking their damn faces off. We loyal Mouldites (that’s a thing now) knew that this was a show for the books. Pun intended for his drummer’s other awesome band, Superchunk, it’s a time to be alive and a time to enjoy Sunny Love Songs from an alt-rock hero. 5 stars. Would see again.

-LPL / JCB

Dessa / all photos by LPL

(My Tuesday afternoon Blue Line commute served as sort of a mental draft space on where to begin this piece…) During my walk home from the train, my swirling ideas began to intertwine and threatened to form a destructive eye... As my gaze lowered and vision narrowed, a Dessa track seeped into the mental mix. “Velodrome” restored a wave of clarity as a passing car blasted it, passing up Kimball Ave.. I honed my trajectory and sat straight down to write.

Dessa is wholistically influential: Her lyrics bring an amber hue to extremely personal stories and take us through a lesson in self-realization by way of allowance. The rate and tone of her compositions cue the psyche to create an emotional platform on which to properly process Dessa’s stories. Her stage performance is intuitive and breathes of confidence (hardly an act) as she reaches each person through twinkling, extended eye contact letting them know they are the most important person in her world at that very moment. The feeling does not fleet when she looks away, but rather roots itself as she lifts the confidence of every person in the room.

Between songs, Dessa shares her pensive humor as she reads her poetry, acknowledging events in the room in real-time, and recounts her journey to the show. (Tonight we learned how she came to own the black shirt on her back: She had to duck into a high end boutique because she had only packed pajamas.) While other ladies test-drive their clothes in poised fashion, Dessa jumps up and down and throws her hands in the air, ensuring a stage-performance-style while keeping the chest and mid-drift regions in place.

Her backing band is so good that they hold down an entire opening set as Monakr, before Dessa joins them on stage...

As I entered Old Town School Of Folk Music that night, I recalled the confidence released in me at the Dessa / Monakr show at the Subterranean last April (ISSUE #5). Chicago’s own Monakr brings a well-crafted performance of three musical artists. Two-time Grammy-nominated Matthew Santos’ pristine voice surpassed my earned expectations as he resounded through to the catwalk inside the acoustic engineering of Maurer Hall. Saam Hagshenas shared the front row with a triple-stacked (two-keyboard plus a synth, and then some) slanting set-up, coupled with his own vocal dexterity. (Hagshenas table-crashed as the first song ended because they apparently “had bought too many toys.”)

While the hub rebooted, Santos constructed a track from scratch - a rare opportunity in the synth scene. He released the genius inside of him that might be fueled by stage jitters that come from an on-stage issue. Santos didn’t seem to be shaken, rather relieved to unleash a raw, creative energy that stews just under surface, otherwise intimated by pre-written works that continue to grow their fan base.

As Dessa’s on-stage gratitude informed us, Santos sings the notes that are too high for her to sing, and Hagshenas gets to sing the notes that are too high for Santos. Hagshenas graciously took that as a compliment as he should, because the resulting blend is one of inspiration. We are stronger when our unique traits are embraced, and Dessa and Monkr are a walking example of the kind of achievement that can be curated when we shift our view of differences from barriers to assets that can help us become our strongest selves.

Jonathan Marks’ drum skills, only seated in the back for ease of stage layout and sound mixing, is a masterpiece all on his own. Without even checking his stagemates for cues, he lays a brilliant cushion for their voices to nestle into, inculcating a freedom that arises through the healing power of sound.  

-LPL

NEWS & NOTES

• The annual parade of summer music festival ticket sales has begun with tickets for Pitchfork going on sale this week, purchase your early bird 3 day $150 tickets for a limited time! The lineup announcement is coming soon, and with it a price hike, so get em while they’re cheap Chicago!  

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AS ALWAYS THERE ARE MANY SOLD OUT SHOWS NOT LISTED

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See you at the show Chicago!