Wolf Parade: 11/23/10 - House of Blues, Chicago

I think I kind of have a music crush on Dan Boeckner. Between Handsome Furs and Wolf Parade, I’ve caught the dude blowing my mind (and eardrums) probably around 7 or 8 times by now. When I heard Wolf Parade would be back in Chicago after their brief, but enjoyable performance at Pitchfork, I knew I had to check it out—even if that meant going against everything I stand for in music venues and returning to the dreaded House of Blues. Now to be fair, I had only frequented HOB once a few years back; ironically enough, to catch Wolf Parade—but the bad taste that was left in my mouth from the obnoxious security personnel and staff just wouldn’t fade. (Seriously, who the hell doesn’t let someone with a press pass in with a PEN?! I mean, I know I’m super cool and Wolf Parade would probably throw me on their guest list once they got to know me on a friend to friend basis, but . . . seriously.)

While the security personnel allowed my blue point bic hassle free this time around, I was slapped with a handful of even more painful fun killers--$6 cans of beer (sober night), a crowd of obnoxious underage fleece sporting nerds and bros (almost had a $6 high life spill on my kicks when some 17 year old flew down the stairs at my feet; not to be topped off by the drunk jerkstore on my right who “loves snorting lines of coke off his iPad”), and the most god awful opening band in all of history. I could almost dedicate this entire review to how terrible a pair-up whatever nonsense it was that opened up for WP sounded (and I’m not talking about the cutesy Japanese band, either), but I think my six-word scribbled descriptor of “cringe-worthy nasal nuisance nineties reject rock” did a fair enough job of summing them up. And of course, they had the longest sound check of all time—so by the time Boeckner, Krug and crew eventually took the stage around 10:15, it was safe to say I was on my last nerve’s end.

It only took the first key chords of “Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts” to quickly turn me around, however. Instantly clicking with an old personal fave from Apologies to Queen Mary was just the anecdote to my unease, and I realized that maybe the next 75 minutes would prove to be worth the wait after all—plus I got the spiteful amusement of watching the staff finally catch on to some underage drinkers and throw their asses out. While banter was somewhat consistent between songs, it remained at a fair minimum—with Krug throwing in self-deprecating retorts to Dan’s annoying female “I LOVE YOU DAN! WOO’S!” along the lines of, “Well can you say Spencer, you fat fucker? I mean, I am getting a bit older, things are changing.” Additional awkward quips of watching themselves on the HD TV—“infinity mirrors” and commentary on the overwhelming odor of popcorn VS the typical ‘weed smoke smells’ followed; proving maybe Krug should have either stuck to sucking his bottle of Jameson or belting out his fantastically wavy, garbled wails.

Awkward banter aside, Wolf Parade succeeded in their rocker mission of the evening—coming across as cool and crisp in their overall instrumentation as one could hope for with their guitar, keys and percussion dead on the mark. While the majority of the songs represented stemmed from their most recent release, Expo 86, there were a handful of oldies in the mix too, with At Mount Zoomar’s “Soldier Grin,” “Fine Young Cannibals,” the 10-minute rendition of “Kissing the Beehive,” and Apologies’ “I’ll Believe in Anything, the encore closer “You are a Runner And I am My Father’s Son,” and my personal highlight of the night, an electrified, dancey rendition to “This Heart’s On Fire.”

By the end of the night, I was a pretty sleepy, yet content gal—even despite the high influx of drunken bros polluting the crowd. While I would have admittedly liked to have heard more Apologies’ numbers, I felt satisfied with the equal representation of WP’s catalogue and look forward with what’s to come in the future. But here’s to hoping dudes will wise up and rock The Vic or Metro next time around.


Side Note Non Review Addendum/RANTS

• Dudes, it is not smooth, cool or ever a good idea to interrupt someone who is obviously in deep thought taking notes - ESPECIALLY if said person is female and you are trying to get in her panties with lame slurs like, 'arrrrrgh yew rigghtin' a revuue?' 'that's shlooo aweshum,' 'what bhlowg? i liv in shikawgo so i probaablee reed it.' gross bros, piss off. if i wanted you to read my shit or talk to you, i wouldn't give you my meanest bitch face with my arms crossed. i also wouldn't say 'a blog' when you asked where i wrote. I HATE DRUNK BROS.
• To the guys to my right who wouldn't quit saying 'NOW THAT WAS A JAM!!!' you are very fortunate i did not reach over the railling and bash your respective craniums into the stair banister. seriously.
• That new song in the setlist i didn't really mention above in the review, I had never heard it, i just know they kept singing, 'search for discovery' and something about a 'precious stone.' this song ruled. i want to hear it again. that is all.
• Never again will I go to a show 100% sober.
• While I love Wolf Parade, they need to shorten up some of their songs. Strictly personal opinion, but I was getting bored with some of the extended outro jam seshes. (NOW THAT WAS A JAM!!!)

ok. set list time:

Wolf Parade Set List – 11/23/10 – House of Blues, Chicago

1. Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts
2. Soldier’s Grin
3. What did my Lover Say? (It Always had to go this Way)
4. Ghost Pressure
5. Cloud Shadow On the Mountain
6. Fine Young Cannibals
7. New song
8. Palm Road
9. I’ll Believe in Anything
10. This Heart’s On Fire
11. Kissing the Beehive
12. Yulia – encore 1
13. You Are a Runner And I am My Father’s Son—encore 2

raping my writer's block.

words have been difficult to come by lately. the motivation and drive to pummel out material has been dried up and nonexistent. ramblings and reviews have been trickier to knock out than convincing my roommate to do the dishes. in other words, it sucks. in efforts to make a change, i've been stepping up and agreeing to additional obligations beside my norm monthly load. i joined CHIRP. CHIRP is cool. it gets me free tickets to shows and excuses to write as i knock out reviews for albums in rotation. for those of you who don't know what CHIRP is, it's the chicago independent radio project, a volunteer grassroots effort for a noncommercial radio station. currently we're streaming online at http://www.chirpradio.org/ and are fighting legislative powers to pass a motion for low power fm stations to have power in major cities. its a struggle, but hopefully one we can win.

CHIRP has been a great way to meet and connect with new people, and in addition to having even more access to new music, i get the opportunity to attend interviewing workshops to strengthen my current skills and have dj training this saturday with a possibility of being on-air once again after a 5 year hiatus. radio roots. its' a good thing. finally, 5 years after college graduation i'm doing something halfway relevant with my journalism and radio/tv/film degrees. too bad i can't get paid for it. . .

regardless. in addition to chirp, my gigs with venus, chicago innerview, i recently started contributing to another local blog, secret note. so far, i've only contributed one assignment but the editors seemed happy enough with my excerpt and have expressed interest in additional pieces. to try and keep myself on track, i sought out confirmation for some upcoming chi shows. here's what i've got on the books thus far. i still need concert attending buddies, so if yer planning on attending any said shows or would like to, gimme a shout. i could use some music pals.

10/22 - deerhunter/real estate - metro
10/28 - the vaselines - lincoln hall
10/29 - the books - vic theater
11/17 - dresden dolls -vic theater
11/21 - no age - lincoln hall
11/23 - wolf parade - house of blues

i'm also thisclose to shelling out the monies (a mere $15) for junip (jose gonzalez) & sharon van etten at lincoln hall on 11/6 - anyone interested in being my date? i'll hold your hand and lean on your shoulder.

p4k : day two

let's see how my memory serves me for two days back. . . saturday, saturday, saturday. not the strongest of the three days (that would be a toss-up b/w fri and sun, for sure), but not a horrible day either. there were a few good surprises.

luckily for me i was well rested after opting to go home early friday night, but unluckily for me it turns out i was on the darkroom's guest list for dickfork (i found this out through dj stv slv of the hood internet who i ran into sunday night - when he asked why he didn't see me, i told him i had run outta dough, 'but i saw your name on the list!" woops. fail. oh well.)

flew solo sat for the most part, arrived in time to check 3-4 of delorean's tracks, which were ok. it's never really a good idea to throw in a dance crazed indie sesh at 2 in the afternoon, so it was a bit lackluster. i got to hear 'stay close' which is prob my fave track by them, so that was ok. strolled to meet mr. handsome joe and crew over on the b stage for a bit of kurt vile - never had heard of/or heard this dude, but his shit was ok. stood in the sun,got heated, but sought refuge in the shaded tree area in the back until dam funk went on. dudes, no matter what i ever say about music, for the sake of your earbuds please hear this: DAM FUNK DAMN SUCKS. it was so bad. i think he was supposed to be hip hop or something but it just sounded as if the-dream and lil jon got wasted on some new wave acid shit and made some wackass 'GANGSTA' pussy beats. so fucking bad my ears bled. so gross. hated it. the sound was gross. the back up band in their shitty white tuxes were gross. dam funk was gross. i don't think i've ever seen so many ppl hightail it out of an enclosed area ever. it's painful to even think about. no dam funk. no no no.

so instead we opted to go check out some real hip hop and strolled to the a stage to check raekwon. raekwon sounded MUCH better than dam whats his face, but encountered a crapton of technical sound difficulties, halting the show in increments. which sucked, cuz like, you can't hype the crowd with C.R.E.A.M and then just stop for five minutes. but he did. it was cool to hear a handful of 36 chambers joints for sure, specially with brews and such, but the interruptions were distracting.

post brew and pizza break, i reconvened with my hippie friends to check jon spencer blues explosion. not so much by choice, but b/c i wanted to stick around the area for wolf parade who played next. jon spencer and crew are getting up there in age, but for what they do, actually surprised me. they weren't that bad. just a bunch of bluesy grandpas i wouldn't mind boning jamming away on their harmonicas and whatnot. although i kinda did wanna punch jon spencer in the face everytime he squealed in his auto tune BLUES EXPLOSION!

made it kinda up front for wolf parade. wasn't sure what to expect. didn't want all new stuff, didn't want any mount zoomer stuff, didn't want all apologies. i was pretty happy with their chosen set list. from apologies they played 'i'll believe in anything,' 'dear sons and daughters of hungry ghosts,' and 'this heart's on fire' (my fave). from mt zoomer they played a couple tracks, but made the mistake of closing out with the way too long and jammy 'kissing the beehive' which really started to confuse me towards the end, but that's just because i was kinda fucked up at the time and was thrown off by the repetitious chords at the end. noone should play 10+ minute long songs at a fest, c'mon. outta new stuff, i picked up on their singles 'what did my lover say (it always had to be this way)' and 'ghost pressure' and i know more new and old stuff was interwoven, but like i said, jodi had indulged in some silly juice and didn't take notes. i know dancing commenced though, and the overall sound quality was pretty righteous.

then it was time for panda bear. well, i don't want to wind up sticking my foot in my mouth 2 months down the road if i wind up worshipping dude's new record, but for the sake of the festival it was basically souped up animal collective. lots of reverb and crazy electro noise with an occasional yelp "oooooh!" thrown it. liquid neon visuals on the screen. thank god i was stoned. good lord i was confused, though.

and then lcd soundsystem. well, it's their last tour. and james murphy rules. and the new album, well, you can take it or leave it but that's what we've got. i think it's a grower and half decent. the crowd was condensed as fuck for this particular set and my biggest beef was that p4k is quiet as fuck for all headliners. at one point b/w songs the crowd even started yell/chanting 'LOUDER LOUDER LOUDER' and james murphy just kinda awkwardly smiled and shook his head. at one point later in the show he even was shouting out about how members were spinning at an after party with details, but then stopped and realized, 'you guys probably can't even hear or understand a word i'm saying right now, can you?' not really. but we still love you for it. homeyz busted out 'sound of silver,' 'all my friends,' 'get innocuous,' 'time to get away,' 'daft punk is playing at my house,' 'yeah yeah yeah,' 'drunk girls,' 'you wanted a hit,' 'i can change' and closed things off with 'new york i love you but you're bringing me down.' fun dance party. for realz. just man, shit should have been louder.

post set i waited like a fool for not 1, not 2, but 4 ashland busses full to capacity with fest goers before i realized i was prob better off on foot to go meet some non-p4k pals. strolled up to division and grabbed a brew at gold star b4 shoving my face full of brats at a pal's aptmt on grand. so exhausted, but i made it home after another long, sweaty, 90 degree dancey brew filled day.

jodi is getting too old for music festivals.