Concert Review: Sleep at the Riviera Theatre, Chicago

SLEEP
Riviera Theatre, Chicago
Aug. 1, 2018
Roughly 24 hours prior to, and seven miles north of, a sort of anti-Lolla pre-party occurred at the Riviera Theatre. Not that Sleep is officially opposed to outdoor festivals, it's just that you can be assured that the 25-year veterans of (take your pick) sludge/doom/stoner metal would never be a part of Grant Park's Lollapalooza. Wrong crowd, different worlds.

Matt Pike

Coincidental scheduling aside, Sleep is touring to support its album "The Sciences," the band's first full-length release in 20 years. During a 90-minute, eight-song set, the three-piece of guitarist Matt Pike, bassist-singer Al Cisneros and drummer Jason Roeder, played four of these new songs.
After 15 minutes of pre-concert recordings of NASA astronaut chatter over the PA, the band punctuated its spaceman motif with opener "Marijuanaut's Theme," a bombastic power-chord trip through space that layers crashing cymbals, thudding base and fuzzed-out guitar reverberations built around elemental blues riffs. 

Pike's deliberate down-strokes accentuated the slow grooves on "Sonic Titan" and other songs, but at times the momentum ground to a halt, especially at the end of 10-minute "The Clarity": Cisneros's sludgy bass solo, although captivating in its crunchy sound, left the near-capacity crowd stunned into submission. These lulls in energy perhaps are inevitable when song compositions reach a certain length: Sleep builds such momentum with repetitious and mesmerizing riffage and drum rhythms that oftentimes song endings harshed the crowd's buzz. The band of course needed a breather between each marathon.

Al Cisneros

Instrumentals are the band's forte (Cisneros's vocals were mixed a tad low), and "The Botanist" allowed ever-shirtless Pike space to forgo chords for extended solos in a nearly anachronistic display of guitar god prowess.
"Giza Butler," off the new album, closed the concert with its tale of the CBDeacon performing his cannabis sacraments, references not lost in the crowd above which, swirling in the green and purple lights, hung a smoky haze since the first notes of  "Marijuanaut's Theme" rung out.



CONCERT SET LIST
Marijuanaut's Theme
Holy Mountain
The Clarity
Sonic Titan
Leagues Beneath
The Botanist
Dragonaut
Encore: Giza Butler 

Link to review of the album "The Sciences"

Album Review: Poster Children's "Grand Bargain!"

POSTER CHILDREN

*Grand Bargain!*

(Lotuspool)

The current political-social climate has inspired many artists to add their voices to the din: so enter Poster Children, the darlings of the Champaign-Urbana alternative music scene since the late 1980s. The band has always been socially conscious and now, nearly 15 years since their last album, they prove to be again. In the title track, in the band’s vintage post-punk style, singer Rick Valentin points out, “In the land of the free market and the home of the wage slave / It’s not the robots you need to worry about, it’s the corporate humans.” “World’s Insane” tries to rally hope in the face of confounding events (“We are standing upright in a world turned upside down / We have got to stick together / We have got to stand our ground”). With a slower rocking tempo, “Devil And The Gun” takes a more pessimistic approach (“Find a quiet place for the ones you love / There’s no escape from the devil with the gun”). Valentin’s urgent vocals seem to hit a manic crescendo in “Brand New Country”: “Who are these strangers who let all these heretics in? / Where are the heroes? And where are the true citizens? / I think it’s time this experiment came to an end.”  Issues aside, the band is at its musical best when vocal harmonies between Valentin and bassist Rose Marshack are featured, as on “Lucky Ones,” a brooding, pure pop rock track, and on “Hippy Hills,” an upbeat, nostalgic trip to childhood that has the duet singing: “The best years of our lives / I’m going home / The way things never were.”

7/10

Link to print version of this review that appeared in the July 2018 issue of Illinois Entertainer magazine. Click the link and navigate to page 32.

Poster Children at Lincoln Hall in Chicago, June 29, 2018.

Concert Review: Primus and Mastodon, June 6, 2018--Chicago's Northerly Island

Concert Review:  Primus and Mastodon--Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island, Chicago, June 6, 2018

On paper and in concert, this is an odd bill: Primus, a quirky and influential alternative band from the 1990s, touring with Mastodon, a contemporary metal band at the peak of its career. In common, both bands stuck to their artistic visions.
Headliners Primus, led by bass virtuoso Les Claypool who virtually reinvented how to play the instrument, mixed songs most fans came to hear (from 1989’s “Frizzle Fry” album, for example) with songs from its latest album (“The Desaturating Seven”), which most fans merely humored.

The band’s ninth studio album is an indulgent art-rock project from Claypool: a concept album based on the children’s book “The Rainbow Goblins.” The story goes that these goblins have robbed the world of its color by stealing it from a rainbow. The tracks are mostly free-form instrumentation--Claypool explores the sonic possibilities with his electric bass while relating the tale of these goblins in singsong voice. It’s a tedious affair with enough flashes of songwriting brilliance to reveal a band favoring artistic expression over commercially minded songwriting. Primus fans expect no less.
The crowd revelled in the older songs featuring classic Primus storytelling amid rumbling bass, soaring guitar leads and uptempo drumming. Songs “Tommy The Cat,” “Too Many Puppies,” “My Name Is Mud” and “Jerry Was A Racecar Driver” are seminal alternative rock songs that have cemented Primus as one of the most original and influential genre-blending bands of its time.

Mastodon's Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher

MASTODON’S OPENING SET

Mastodon opened its set with “Sultan’s Curse,” winner of the 2017 Grammy for Best Metal Performance, and from there gave the crowd a survey of songs from albums spanning 2002’s “Remission” debut to 2017’s “Emperor of Sand.”

“Crystal Skull,” “Black Tongue,” “Bladecatcher” and others are requisite songs at a Mastodon show, but the band also played a lesser-known track from 2017’s “A Cold Dark Place” EP: “Toes To Toes” featured a more mellow and melodic approach compared to the band’s more hard-rocking aesthetic.

Newer tracks “Show Yourself” and “Steambreather” energized the crowd the most as lyrics sung by the audience drowned out Troy Sanders’, Brent Hinds’ and Brann Dailor’s miked vocal efforts. [Link to review posted on Illinois Entertainer magazine website--photo gallery included.]

Primus setlist:
Too Many Puppies
Sgt. Baker
Those Damned Blue-collar Tweekers
Tommy The Cat
Southbound Pachyderm
From “The Desaturating Seven” album:
The Valley
The Seven
The Trek
The Scheme
The Dream
The Storm
The Ends?
_________
Welcome To This World
My Name Is Mud
Jerry Was A Racecar Driver
Here Come The Bastards
John The Fisherman

Mastodon setlist:
Sultan’s Curse
Divinations
Crystal Skill
Ancient Kingdom
Bladecatcher
Black Tongue
Ember City
Megalodon
Andromeda
Toes to Toes
Sleeping Giant
Show Yourself
Precious Stones
Roots Remain
Ghost of Karelia
Mother Puncher
Steambreather

Album Review: Sleep's "The Sciences"

SLEEP

*The Sciences*

(Third Man Records)

Sleep’s surprise release of *The Sciences* (six songs, 53 minutes total) is remarkable for many reasons: it’s the band’s first full-length album in 20 years; it was released on 4/20; and its themes of cannabis culture seem perfectly timed with the changing attitudes about the drug, both for medicinal and for recreational use. In other words, Sleep has never been more relevant. “Marijuanaut’s Theme” tells the adventure of an astronaut--an “inhaler of the rifftree”--bound for “Planet Iommia,” while “Giza Butler” relates the earthbound tale of “The CBDeacon” performing daily sacraments, including “salutations to the cultivators...bless the Indica fields/grateful for the yields.” But the lyrics (not necessarily sung, more like chanted or recited) are secondary to The Riff--the super-fuzzed-out, repetitive power chords that are the backbone to every Sleep song. The deliberate downstroke picking of guitarist Matt Pike allows each fuzzy chord time to ring out and to resonate. “Sonic Titan,” mostly an instrumental composition, builds like other past Sleep songs, such as “Holy Mountain” and “The Clarity,” with a bare, blusey riff that is tweaked and explored during the song’s 12-minute runtime. For a different approach, “The Botanist” instrumental track relies less on this type of riffage and more on guitar leads and single-note progressions, which results in a more cerebral sonic appeal. “Antarcticans Thawed,” a song played live for years, is the most glacially paced composition on the album and relies on lyrical allusions to H.P. Lovecraft’s story  “At The Mountains of Madness.” The 14-minute track represents the band’s most complex arrangement, with more frequent tempo changes and the most freeform, discordant guitar solos on the album.

9/10

Link to print version of this review. It appears on page 28 of the June 2018 issue of Illinois Entertainer magazine.

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.