Deer Season 2017: Second Chances

     

Northwestern Indiana 8-point whitetail deer.

     One mustn't take second chances for granted: life doesn't always deliver a second chance. I got one this deer season and took advantage.
     Firearm season opened Saturday, Nov. 18 in Indiana, but due to work commitments this time of year, I almost never hunt the opener, and this year was no different. Instead, my opener was Wednesday, Nov. 22, an overcast day in the mid 30s with a steady north wind. I was in the tree stand before daybreak (5:30 a.m.) and saw no deer for the first few hours. I heard a screech owl call, and the Great Blue Heron patrolled the creek behind and to the left of my position, and wood ducks paddled by. I sat in the south prairie tree stand, the honey hole of a spot on my family's Northwest Indiana acreage. I look out on a 10-acre prairie, with a creek that forms my right hand border, as well as runs behind and to the left of me. Since putting up the tree stand, I am three-for-three the past years in harvesting a buck trying to sneak his way into the thick terrain behind me.
     At 7:30 a.m., I heard a shot just east of me--surely a hunter just got lucky. I waited some more, and at 8:20 a buck was suddenly headed my way, 100 yards in front of me, taking the trail between prairie and the creek. Since he was slightly to my right (2 o'clock position), I quickly shifted in my seat and angled my Savage 220 slug shot gun toward him--it was an awkward shooting position for me and the adrenaline was kicking in. I had no shooting rest. He looked spooked at 75 yards away and started to step into the thicket that runs next to the creek...so I fired. He disappeared into the thicket. I wasn't sure I hit him.
     I decided to wait until 8:45 before descending the ladder to look for any sign of impact. But five minutes later, the buck (a nice 8-pointer) stood up in the thicket less than 50 yards to my right. He ran, jumped, and continued to streak northbound across the prairie. I was unprepared and took the best running shot I could as the buck porpoised away. He out-smarted me.
     Despondent, I descended the ladder and followed. At the north end of the prairie, where the creek takes another bend at the base of a hill, I saw the buck disappear. Near that same spot, a doe also flashed a whitetail of warning and disappeared northbound. I realized then I should have stayed in the tree stand. Perhaps the doe was leading a different buck into my position. It was a frustrating end to my opening morning. Later, the afternoon hunt until dusk produced no deer sightings at all.
     The next day, Thanksgiving, was clear and in the mid-30s again. With a steady wind from the west-southwest, I hunted the south prairie tree stand in the morning and the north prairie tree stand in the afternoon, but no deer appeared all day. Other wildlife made its presence known. A hawk landed eye-level in a tree 30 feet to my left, and a muskrat sounded its tail smack warning in the creek behind me. The Great Blue Heron continued to hunt the creek. My family joined me at the cottage for a full Thanksgiving dinner after sundown. Other than no deer, it was a day in which to be thankful.
     On the third day of my hunt, Friday, Nov. 24, I was almost convinced my season was essentially over. I have missed bucks before and subsequently have then never seen another one during the same season. I wondered if I'd suffer the same fate this year.
     I decided to hunt the south prairie tree stand that morning. Although predawn temps registered in the low 30s, weather forecasters predicted highs in the 50s for the afternoon. A brisk wind blew from the south-southwest. At 7:09 a.m., my second chance buck appeared. I heard his footfalls in the dry leaves before I saw him.
     From the west (my immediate left at the 9 o'clock position), an 8-pointer walked down the hill from the small cut corn field above. It was slightly smaller than the other 8-pointer from two days earlier. I easily slipped my gun into the ready position--the buck was in the perfect position for minimal movement on my part. I had a natural gun rest by using my left elbow as a prop. He reached the bottom of the hill and the end of the tree line, facing me. I decided not to wait for him to present a broadside shot, so, as soon as he stopped at the bottom of the hill and raised his head, I shot. I aimed for his upper chest / lower neck region. He was 30-50 yards away.
     On impact, the deer reared back for a moment, then quickly fell to the side, dead in his tracks. I hit him at the base of the neck, a fatal shot. No more than 20 seconds expired from the time I heard him walking in the leaves until the time I pulled the trigger. My second chance was cashed in.
     Later, my family stood by as I gutted the deer (Cole said "My disgust emotion is turned off" as he watched). I was thankful that they were there to help me drag it up the hill--the same one the deer descended. Since the day was warm (high of 56), I hung the deer until the afternoon and then quickly processed it that night and the next morning. Three days of hunting in order to go four-for-four the last four years: I'll take it, second chance or not.


     

Concert Review: The Afghan Whigs at Metro

The Afghan Whigs played at Metro Sept. 22 and 23, 2017.

Live Review: The Afghan Whigs at Metro (Chicago), Sept. 23, 2017

Midway through the set Saturday night at Metro, Afghan Whigs frontman Greg Dulli momentarily halted the band’s momentum after the song “Algiers” to address one particular fan:

“Wasted and flipping me off is not going to work,” he said to a woman near the stage. As the crowd murmured, he continued, “This is not a negotiation--walk her to the back of the room.” She obliged and Dulli finished with, “I haven’t done that in 10 years. I’m so upset I’m not going to sing this next song.”

And as the band began “Demon In Profile,” just one of many songs played from latest album “In Spades,” a guest vocalist from opening band Har Mar Superstar filled in and sang, perhaps with new meaning: “All over your body, this electricity / It was all that I wanted, now it’s killing me.” Guitar and piano exorcised the tension, with the singer crooning “I’m so far inside you now, I’m your silhouette.”

The band followed that song with a cover of The Beatles’ “Dear Prudence,” after which Dulli confessed, “I feel better.” The crowd did, too.

About an hour earlier, the band’s second night in a row of shows at Metro began with Dulli taking the stage solo to sing “Birdland”--the only accompaniment was a backing track of cello and other strings--before five other band mates (three total guitarists, including Dulli) joined him for “Arabian Heights,” also the first two songs on “In Spades.”

This lineup (with bassist John Curley the only other original member) allowed the Whigs to forego nuance and subtlety in song choice. Instead, the set list favored wall-of-sound guitar selections from the band’s deep catalogue. Some violin and cello were incorporated sparingly, but the multi-guitar line-up was the showcase.

The rocking “Honky’s Ladder” (from 1996’s “Black Love” album) solidified early Dulli’s swaggering persona: “If you tell me ‘don’t get mixed up with the devil,’ that’s exactly what I’m gonna do.” The band reached further into its past to play “Turn On The Water” from 1992’s breakthrough album “Congregation.” That was followed later with the rollicking “Fountain and Fairfax” (from 1993’s groundbreaking “Gentlemen” album) with Dulli desperately beseeching: “Angel, I’m sober / I got off that stuff, just like you asked me to.”

Dulli continued his trademark come-ons with “Somethin’ Hot” the opening track on album “1965” (released in 1998), with the lyrics “I want to get you high / I want to get next to you.” The Whigs, around for decades now, know something of temptation and regret, of angels and demons.

“Can Rova” served as a double tribute: to recently deceased soul/R&B artist Charles Bradley, as well as to Dave Rosser, a Whigs guitarist who died of cancer earlier this year. Dulli pointed out that the last time the band played at Metro, in 2014, that Rosser played guitar “right there,” pointing to stage right.

The band had the crowd clapping in unison for “Oriole” with opening lyrics, “Light the candle, lock the door too / Draw the circle, I’ll fall into you.”  Also from the latest album, the band played “Copernicus,” “Toy Automatic” and finished the set with “Into The Floor,” melding lyrics from Don Henley’s “Boys of Summer” into the ending.

The encore featured “Parked Outside” from 2014’s “Do To The Beast” album--during which Dulli appropriately sung, “If they’ve seen it all, show them something new”--and the bombastic “Summer’s Kiss” from the “Black Love” album. With Chicago baking under record-breaking heat, and the heat generated by the band’s 90-plus-minute rocking set, Dulli’s exhortation seemed a little difficult to accept: “Did you feel the breeze, my love? / Summer’s kiss is over, baby, over." Link to review of the album "In Spades" Link to review published by Illinois Entertainer magazine

Concert Review: Mastodon plays benefit show at Metro

The lasers were in full effect for "Crystal Skull."

Mastodon at Metro, Chicago, Sept. 9, 2017

Mastodon rarely plays an encore. Instead, the band merely thanks the crowd and walks offstage. Saturday night at Metro, though, the band’s parting words carried more weight as they played an intimate benefit concert for Hope For The Day, a Chicago-based mental health education and suicide prevention organization.

At the end of the show, bassist/singer Troy Sanders said “thanks for one of the best nights of our lives” before drummer/singer Brann Dailor more directly addressed the heavy topic in the room. He spoke of his experience losing a sister to suicide and underscored the positive message of the night: there’s hope every day.

The music before the parting words was delivered with equal heart, as the band roared through a 90-minute set that pulled from nearly every album (absent were songs from “The Hunter”). Mandatory live songs “Crystal Skull,” “Megalodon” and “Colony of Birchmen” set the crowd into a frenzy but much of the the set list reflected the special nature of the event: rather than just focusing on songs from the latest album (“Emperor of Sand”), the band also performed many tracks from the album “Crack The Skye”. They opened with “The Last Baron” and also delivered mightily on “The Czar,” songs from an album that Dailor has said is a tribute to his sister who died at age 14.

Hailing from Georgia, Sanders mentioned the threat of Hurricane Irma (bearing down on the Florida Keys during the concert and generally threatening the entire Southeast), before starting “Precious Stones.” The song’s lyrics--”Don’t waste your time / Don’t let it slip away from you / Don’t waste your time / If it’s the last thing that you do”--suddenly carried even more meaning as layers of green and pink lasers etched a grid through the smoke above the crowd’s outstretched arms.

The twin lead-guitar attack of Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher cut through the haze on “Oblivion” and “Ancient Kingdom.” But the most poignant moment came during Dailor’s vocals on “Roots Remain,” perhaps the most emotionally vulnerable song the band has released. Dailor sang: “And when you sit and picture me / Remember sitting in the sun and dancing in the rain / The end is not the end you see / It’s just the recognition of a memory.” Rarely has a heavy metal band been as equally ferocious and empathic as Mastodon was this night.

Powermad opened the evening with an energetic hardcore set, and Brain Tentacles’ distorted saxophone and guitar attack delighted the crowd before Mastodon headlined.

And, to further solidify the theme of the night, Three Floyds brewery debuted a special libation made in collaboration with the band and Dark Matter Coffee: Crack The Skye Imperial Coffee Stout.

Set List

“The Last Baron”

“Sultan’s Curse”

“Divinations”

“Crystal Skull”

“Ancient Kingdom”

“Colony of Birchmen”
“Megalodon”

“Andromeda”

“The Czar”

“Oblivion”

“Precious Stones

“Roots Remain”

“Chimes At Midnight”

“Steambreather”

“Mother Puncher”

“Crack The Skye”

Link to originally published version for Illinois Entertainer magazine.

Album Review: "Ghosts" by Sadie and The Stark

Sadie and The Stark

*Ghosts*

(self-released)

On “Ghosts,” a six-song EP follow-up to the 2016 debut EP “Witches,” Chicago’s Sadie and The Stark continues to be a band that reaches listeners on a visceral level. Of the six tracks, “Wait For Me, Sansa,” “Rip” and “Crawl” employ the most aggressive guitar-bass-drums instrumentation that draws upon an elemental post-punk style to boost the raw and powerful vocal delivery of Sadie Rogers. It’s as if Shirley Manson were fronting Joy Division. “Riders” and “Wild In The Caves,” with its Native American-like wails of “Woah! Woah!”, highlight Rogers’ considerably powerful vocal style backed by more subtle instrumentation. But “Vampire Love Song”--featuring pedal steel guitar and a folksy rhythm and melody--might be the most surprising and interesting in lyrical content with Rogers singing: “Crush my soul, rip my skin off / after all, this is the end of the world.”

(www.sadieandthestark.bandcamp.com or www.sadieandthestark.com)

Print version of review appears in the July issue of Illinois Entertainer magazine. Click PDF and navigate to page 44.
Appearing 7/16 at Quenchers in Chicago.

Album review: "In Spades" by The Afghan Whigs

The Afghan Whigs

*In Spades*

(Sub Pop)

Desire, betrayal, heartbreak, regret...The Afghan Whigs’ frontman Greg Dulli has been fixated on these themes for nearly 30 years, and he’s no doubt perfected the subject matter. In “Demon In Profile” before the guitars and drums kick in, Dulli sings: “All over your body--this electricity / It was all that I wanted / Now it’s killing me.” It’s the most rocking track on the introspective album, the eighth from the band that currently only employs original members Dulli and bassist John Curley. Dulli is similarly pessimistic about the ways of love (would Whigs’ fans want it any other way?) on “Arabian Heights” when he sings as if in physical pain: “Breathe--my desire / Make no sound / And we’ll escape in each other” only to have the song end with: ”Love is a lie / Like a hole in the sky / Then you die.” A few tracks incorporate cello and violin string orchestration, including “Birdland,” a slightly off-putting ballad opener that thankfully and quickly fades into “Arabian Heights,” and “Oriole” and “The Spell,” which better balance the strings with more uptempo rock grooves. Curley’s  thudding bass lines drive “Copernicus” and “Light As A Feather,” the other pure rockers on the album. “Into The Floor” starts with piano, strings and Dulli’s wails and builds to wall-of-sound guitar and this final (ironic?) lyrical image: “And suddenly / A summer breeze.”

7/10

Print version of this review appears in the July 2017 issue of Illinois Entertainer magazine: click PDF and navigate to page 32.

Album Review: "Emperor of Sand" by Mastodon

Mastodon

*Emperor of Sand*

(Warner Bros.)

Mastodon has released concept albums about the deep sea (“Leviathan”), the mountains (“Blood Mountain”), time travel (“Crack The Skye”), space travel (“Once More ‘Round The Sun”), among others. Apparently it was time for a desert-themed album, and it may be the band’s best to date. These Atlanta-based progressive metal rockers keep evolving while proving to be the most creative and delightful outfit in heavy metal.

The album’s story concept loosely involves a character pondering mortality while wandering a desert ecosystem. The richly arranged tracks once again truly show a band that is the sum of its individual parts, with three of the four members contributing vocals to songs (often multiple singers on the same track).

“Steambreather,” with drummer Brann Dailor on primary vocals, features a catchy mid-tempo, area-rock guitar riff that would make Soundgarden proud, mixed with a trumpet-like synth chord for an off-kilter touch. “Show Yourself” may be the most accessible Mastodon song ever recorded. Instantly singable with an upbeat pop rock arrangement, it will over mainstream fans who may otherwise be turned away by Mastodon’s earlier harder metal sound, one they have gradually evolved away from during seven studio album releases.

The last two and a half minutes of “Roots Remain” comprise one of the most memorable movements on the album. Poignant lyrics mix thematically with an extended soaring guitar solo to end the 6:25-minute track: “Beauty fades, death decays...branches break, roots remain...and when you sit and picture me/Remember sitting in the sun, and dancing in the rain/The end is not the end you see/It's just the recognition of a memory." That’s  about as optimistic as prog metal gets.

“Ancient Kingdom” provides more best-of-album moments with its lyrics about a sultan fleeing battles literally as well as “pain in mind” battles. Bassist Troy Sanders belts out the story of an ancient kingdom that still remains but crumbles slowly, as well as the “ageless sounds” that “never die” and instead “ride beyond mortality.” The musical arrangement on this song and on all others is both fresh and timeless.

“Clandestiny,” with Ghost-like synthesizer parts, takes a more ominous lyrical approach. A metallic, robot-like voice at one point makes for an otherworldly aesthetic as other lyrics suggest self sacrifice for the greater good: “Give your life, so I can live.” “Andromeda” embodies “chronic delusions” in both lyrical content  (“It never ends/enough is enough”) as well as aggressive guitar riffs to match the progression of ideas and sounds.

Finally, “Jaguar God,” the closing song at 8 minutes in length, represents the most theatrical arrangement with three distinct movements, started with Brent Hinds’ acoustic guitar ballad introduction. It all collapses with a soulful guitar solo outro that punctuates the album’s overall ambition and majesty.

9/10
Link to print version of review, published in the May 2017 issue of Illinois Entertainer magazine. Click the link and navigate to page 46.

Concert Review: The Flaming Lips at The Riviera Theater, Chicago

There will be confetti...and balloons.

The Flaming Lips

The Riviera Theater, Chicago

April 17, 2017

The Flaming Lips are touring to support their latest album, a psychedelic electronic effort that was conceived after the band’s work as Miley Cyrus' backing band. “Oczy Mlody,” another evolutionary step away from the band’s long-forgotten art punk days, is a mostly mellow, drugged-out exploration of trippy themes, one that a listener would expect not to play well live.

Wayne Coyne astride a unicorn.

The band apparently knew this, too, and only played three new songs amid the 18-song, two-and-a-half hour set in front of a sold-out crowd. “How??” was the best conceived “Oczy Mlody” song in concert, with “The Castle” a dud eliciting relatively zero crowd reaction or enthusiasm--a rarity for a band that approaches each song as an event itself. The band added a dramatic visual to “There Should Be Unicorns”: singer Wayne Coyne--wearing inflatable wings, pink day-glo finger nail polish and  a blinged-out dollar sign pendant around his neck--was wheeled through the crowd on a unicorn prop, much to the crowd’s delight. Juxtapose that image with the more mundane one of bassist Michael Ivins tastefully wearing a Chicago Blackhawks sweater, barely moving from his back corner spot on stage.

Inflatables, in fact, are a theme at Lips’ concerts: there were actors wearing inflatable star and catfish costumes, as well as stationary mushrooms (some of them blocking the view of the stage) and rainbow inflatables. The crowd was also bombed from above with the requisite confetti and balloons, and a web of programmable LED lights hung over the stage. A visualizer screen swirled in the background of the stage, almost like an afterthought amid the other visuals demanding attention.

Coyne travels above the fray for "Space Oddity."

After the uplifting opener “Race For The Prize,” singer Wayne Coyne held up a massive balloon that spelled out “Fuck yeah Chicago!” before offering it to the crowd as a sacrifice that quickly got torn apart.

One third of the songs of the set were from the band’s breakthrough effort “The Soft Bulletin.” Songs including “Feeling Yourself Disintegrate,” “A Spoonful Weighs A Ton” and “Waitin’ For Superman” (played during the second encore) were crowd favorites. On “What Is The Light?”, Coyne played his deliberate, plodding guitar solo under the inflatable rainbow that was only used for that exact moment. It was an intimate moment in a night of outrageousness.

But the band’s faithful rendition of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” was the most thrilling moment. Coyne sung his parts inside an inflatable clear ball, held suspended in the air by the part of the sold out crowd that was mashed together front-and-center. Coyne channeling Bowie’s spaceman persona in a hamster ball: the most authentic gimmick of the show.

Link to my full review of the Lips' album "Oczy Mlody."

Album Review: "Nightmare Logic" by Power Trip

POWER TRIP

*Nightmare Logic*

(Southern Lord)

Power Trip’s song “If Not Us Then Who” really should be named, ”If we aren’t the ones to release the best thrash album of 2017, then who will?” The eight-song, 33-minute ripper of an album “Nightmare Logic” makes a strong case not only for best of 2017, but for best thrash album since Metallica and Slayer first released genre defining albums in the mid-1980s. Thrash as a movement was relatively short-lived, and Power Trip’s latest effort reminds listeners there is still much to explore. Songs “Executioner’s Tax (Swing of the Axe)” and “Firing Squad” combine uptempo shredding with urgent, anxiety-filled lyrical content and delivery. Compelling thrash combines accelerator-to-the-floor riffing with repetitious grooves, and all songs deliver in fresh ways. And amid all the sonic aggression and lyrical fixation on mortality, the band offers this motivational anthem on “Waiting Around To Die”: “‘Human being’ has lost its meaning when you refuse to fight / If I don’t force your hand it could cost you your life /  You’re waiting around to die and you’re all right with it / Just waiting around to die and I can’t stand for it.” Translation: there is hope in this nightmarish world.

9/10
Click this link to see print version of this review--in the April 2017 issue of Illinois Entertainer. Navigate the PDF file to page 24.

Album Review: "Oczy Mlody" by The Flaming Lips

THE FLAMING LIPS

*Oczy Mlody*

(Warner Bros)

For some Flaming Lips’ fans, this will forever be the album most associated with the band’s collaboration with pop star Miley Cyrus, the album they released after serving as her backup band for her tour the previous year. “We A Family,” the last track on their latest effort (the 14th album since 1986), features Cyrus on backing vocals on one of the most upbeat and optimistic tracks of the 12. Singer Wayne Coyne, vocals heavily distorted, sings amid chirpy synth effects and over-fuzzed beats, eventually letting Cyrus take over singing duties, ending with the repetitive and saccharine chorus “we a family...we a family.” The majority of the other tracks are slower tempo drug-themed explorations, arranged mostly with layers of electronic instrumentation (long gone are the days of the Lips’ analogue art punk sound). Some song titles are more interesting than the songs themselves--“Listening to the Frogs with Demon Eyes,” for example--with “How??” and “The Castle” representing the band’s best songwriting efforts. “One Night While Hunting for Faeries and Witches and Wizards to Kill” is interesting for its layered percussion (from taps to distorted kettle drums) backed by cricket and frog night noises. It’s an enchanting backdrop for Coyne’s languid vocal delivery as he weaves his psychedelic tale. But that’s balanced by the more pretentious “There Should Be Unicorns,” featuring guest vocalist Reggie Watts lecturing listeners in a pseudo-intellectual hippie persona: “...And we will be high and the love generator will be turned up to its maximum. And we’ll get higher, when at last, the sun comes up in the morning and we will collapse under the weight of the ancient earth...And it will be the end of the world and the beginning of a new love.” It’s a little much, but the Lips were never about moderation. 5/10 These "fearless freaks from Oklahoma City" will be in concert April 17, 2017, at the Riviera Theater in Chicago...Jill and I will be there.
Here's the link to the print version of this review, on page 24 of the February 2017 issue of Illinois Entertainer magazine.

Song Review: "The Clarity" by Sleep

SLEEP

“The Clarity”

(Southern Lord)

Sleep’s cult status as the trendsetter in stoner doom metal continues to grow despite the lack of new music released this millennium. That the band continues to actively tour (around guitarist Matt Pike’s High On Fire commitments) only contributes to rumors of potential new music or even a new album. For now, though, fans have “The Clarity.” Originally released digitally as part of the Adult Swim Singles program in 2014, the song still represents the only new track the band has released since 1998’s ill-fated “Dopesmoker” album, an album originally rejected from the band’s record label because it featured one epic 60-minute song (it became an instant genre classic once it did get released). The re-release of this single, slated for Feb. 10, will get the 12-inch, 180 gram vinyl treatment. The B side will feature the iconic spaceman artwork used by the band.

Staccato guitar notes herald the beginning of the nearly 10-minute track, eventually giving way to a repetitive, two-note power chord. But therein lies the song’s genius and appeal: the power chord is elemental, and combined with the bass and drums--heavy on the snare and crash cymbals-- leads to metal transcendence. Singer Al Cisneros doesn’t sing the lyrics about mind altering adventures, but rather chants them with cryptic and choppy word choice: “Toward the weed fields / to that which holds the worlds / walks the sinsemillian / refutes death / remains stoned constantly.” About halfway through, the trance is broken by a soaring guitar solo, only to dive back into the mid-tempo riffage and eventually come full circle to fuzzed-out guitar notes to let listeners down easily at the end. Although certainly different in its arrangement and sound, the track plays like a tighter version of “Dopesmoker” in other ways.

8/10
Link to Sleep concert review