My goal is to see one show per week. Yes, I might be that annoying friend that just has to tell you about the thing you missed, but I’m also catching every great show in the city of Chicago–with plenty more ahead of me. Welcome to the Chicago Concert Dispatch.
At the time of this show, it is 32 weeks into the year and I have seen 142 shows.
The members of Saajtak were confident as they took the Bottle stage–and with reason. They are tight, proficient, and had a relaxed looseness that comes with their jazzy chops. All five songs they played took us on a journey. They opened with “Hectic.” The song went from atmospheric to driving to a rumbling percussive noise. At times they went so far into the noise that they threatened to unravel. It was amazing to see Saajtak stay completely together, to not lose track of the thread of the song.
Much of their music had a pulsing movement; it carried me along through their set. “Spokes” had so many movements within it, I mistook it for two separate songs. Alex Koi’s vocals were beautifully operatic, even if they were a little buried in the mix. It can be hard to shine through when three passionate performers are giving their all to the music, but it made those moments when the instrumentation gave way to the fullness of her voice incredibly striking.
Cold Beaches played the show short a bass player, so Sophia Nadia took it on (and nailed it, as far as I could tell). But it is Sophia Nadia’s vocals that are central to Cold Beaches. She went from a whispered depth to an edged roar. Whether crooning or shouting, she was a figure you had to watch. She stood up to the draw of Charlie B. Atchley, which is no small feat. He’s a guitarist that’s hard to ignore. He is very tall, especially compared to Sophia.
And, he was wearing glitter.
And, he was sucking on a lollipop.
He shred the guitar with loose–yet deadly–flair. As he played, he moved. It was sharp, jerky, bouncy, erratic. I could’ve watched it all day. Robby Kuntz’s drumming was slick and kept it all on track. When Sophia switched to her guitar for “Parliaments,” we saw that while she can get it done on the bass, she’s truly one with her guitar. She moved in practiced ways to hit the notes, completely captivating me.
As they rolled through the song, the shouts of appreciation rose up to vibrate the building. It is so great when the right song hits the right audience.
Throwaway–aka Kirsten Carey–grew up in Oak Park. One of those sullen teenagers not allowed to pass through the Empty Bottle doors for lack of a good fake ID. So, coming from her current home of Detroit to play that stage was something she was thrilled to do, and you could tell.
Her personality was bright, open, bubbly joy, whereas her music was pure anger and thrash. Oddly, the projections and interstitial videos played out like demented children’s television. In retrospect, the combination of her music and personality made that demented children show thing make perfect sense.
Nearly all the projections featured a figure wearing a paper bag on their head. Mostly innoncuous. The videos started, ended, and ran in the middle of their set. The paper bag wearing hero would wave from a distance through the foliage and make funny little noises that could be hellos. While Throwaway played “Revenge,” the figure had a toy sword and sliced through the air at an imaginary foe. When Jonathan Taylor was drumming for Saajtak, he carefully crafted noise jazz. For Throwaway, you could see it was still carefully crafted chaos, but it was more aggressive.
Most of the songs featured the duo in full assault mode, but for a few, we also got some harshly angled sax. During “Vanity Block,” it somehow made me feel like I was riding my bike over cobblestones. So much texture! My favorite moment of the set was the refrain, “Hey motherfucker, what do you know, I’m a dinosaur.” It was both whimsical and charming alongside some really perfect squawking roars from the sax that made me laugh.
Saajtak Official | Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram
Cold Beaches Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram
Throwaway Official | Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram
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