Archive for November, 2007

After sleeping in as late as possible and then cleaning my lenses and packing gear, it was time to head back to the city for day one of Riot Fest 2007. I had planned on being there in time to catch The Methadones but after being a taxi to four people and sitting in the worst traffic possible, we all got there a lot later than intended. I missed The Methadones and Lower Class Brats as well.

The Queers

The Queers

The Queers

The Queers

When we walked in, The Queers were just about to start playing. I quickly got up inside the barricade and unpacked my camera. They played a very similar set as the night before, except they also decided to soil a Ramones song along with the Angry Samoans tune. They once again played full blast and rarely stopped between songs. It’s a shame they wasted those two songs on lame covers when they have like 100 records of their own material that they could have played better instead. I did like their own material for the most part, even though it tended to all sound the same from song to song.

Nekromantix

Nekromantix

Nekromantix

Nekromantix

Next up were Nekromantix. They were a three-piece psychobilly type band. The bass player/singer had a stand-up bass shaped like a coffin! It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. They were super entertaining both musically and in their stage presence. The singer/bass man moved a lot around the stage and was full of energy. While I’m not sure how often I’d listen to their records, I’d absolutely go see them play live again. I’m normally not much into that style of music but it always seems to come across way better live to me. They pretty much stole the show, they were that entertaining!

7 Seconds

7 Seconds

7 Seconds

7 Seconds

7 Seconds soon followed and Kevin Seconds told the crowd that this was the first show they played since last year’s Riot Fest! They immediately kicked into high gear playing mostly their classic hardcore tunes and a couple of newer ones sprinkled in there for good measure. The year off didn’t seem to do them any harm and I saw no evidence of rust in their performance. Kevin Seconds was all over the stage, which made for some difficult shooting as he never held still for very long at all!

Stiff Little Fingers

Stiff Little Fingers

Stiff Little Fingers

Stiff Little Fingers

Stiff Little Fingers

Stiff Little Fingers were next and the crowd was really excited about them. I heard lots of people talking about them in the bathroom and throughout the club. I was really looking forward to them because I had never seen them play before. They were on my list of bands I wanted to see and now I finally got to scratch them off that list. They played a lot of the early material as well as some new songs. They played them to perfection and they sounded great. When they played “Suspect Device” the crowd really went nuts. They closed with some Bob Marley cover that felt like it was about 20 minutes long which was kind of a drag just because it was too long of a song, but aside from that, they were great and I was really glad that when I finally did get to see them, they delivered the goods musically.

Naked Raygun

Naked Raygun

Naked Raygun

Naked Raygun

This just left Naked Raygun. There was what felt like a very long time between SLF and Naked Raygun as they set up all their equipment. The crowd started getting a little impatient there towards the end but they finally came out and played. They started off their set in the usual fashion but about half way through they started playing songs they haven’t played since reuniting, including one of my all time favorites, “Potential Rapist”! That alone made them awesome and it was cool to see them busting out some different material instead of taking the easy way out and recycling the same exact set list from the previous two shows here.

Naked Raygun

Naked Raygun

Naked Raygun

They stopped about half way through the set to dispense some “free shit”. This time it was just some stickers and a few t-shirts. It seemed rather uninspiring and that was the only break they took to give the stuff out whereas last year they gave out stuff at three different occasions during their set. Free Shit aside, they still kicked a whole lot of ass and put on a very solid show and it was a good way to end the day.

At the conclusion of my Riot Fest stories there will be plenty more photos on MXV’s flickr stream.

So last week Riot Fest weekend kicked off with a smaller show just like it did last year, this time at the Cobra Lounge. Unlike last year, Naked Raygun didn’t play it though. This time it was a five band bill that consisted mainly of local acts with the exception of the headliner for the evening - The Queers.

Shot Baker

Shot Baker

Shot Baker

When Cheddar Nines and I arrived, it turned out we were very early (the website said 8pm but the show really started at closer to 10) so there was hardly any people there. Slowly as the time passed the place started to fill up and there was a pretty good sized crowd at the place by the time Shot Baker took the stage. I had seen them play a couple times before and really didn’t much care for them, but this time they seemed to have gotten a lot better because I actually found myself kind of digging their set and not just staring at my watch wondering how much longer they were going to play. They must be finding their sound and settling into it better or something since the last time.

Zero to Sixty

Zero to Sixty

Zero to Sixty

Zero to Sixty

Next up were Zero to Sixty. This band featured someone (or maybe two someones) from 88 Fingers Louie. Their frontman was really solid and they played a pretty energetic brand of hard but melodic punk rock. I recognized one of the guys in the band from being in the Naked Raygun documentary so it didn’t surprise me to hear a bit of Naked Raygun influence in the sound. They played about a half hour and they sounded good the entire time.

The Methadones

The Methadones

The Methadones

The Methadones soon followed. They played a pretty sloppy set, made sloppier by the fact that their singer was pretty wasted when he got up on stage. He even admitted to it right before they played. They also must have brought about 100 people with them because suddenly there were a ton of people in that room, all of them dancing and spilling beer all over the place which made for some tough shooting.

The Effigies

The Effigies

The Effigies

The Effigies

After a bit of a delay trying to find their guitarist, The Effigies took the stage and wasted no time in getting to work. They were pretty much business as usual playing some new songs mixed in with the older material in pretty much the same order as the last few times I’ve seen them play. There is no such thing as a bad Effigies show, they always deliver a rock-solid performance and this was no exception. While the crowd was thinner than they were for the Methadones, the people in the room were definitely into it.

The Queers

The Queers

The Queers

The Queers

This just left The Queers. The crowd once again filled in a little more and went pretty crazy once the band started playing. There were people and beer flying all over the place. Why people would throw or shake up and dump full beers is beyond me, I mean you may as well just throw five dollar bills. They were super energetic and rarely, if ever, stopped between songs. It was like the old Husker Du formula of playing your set non-stop. They tried to sneak an Angry Samoans cover in there which bummed me out considering that was three minutes of their set wasted that would have been better served playing one of the songs people were disappointed not to hear them play. I got kind of bored part way through their set because all the songs started sounding the same to me, but the people in the audience who were fans thought they were pretty excellent.

And thus ended the Riot Fest pre-bash. I drove my very tired self and a very drunk Cheddar Nines home and rested up for the start of the big two-day show…

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Today is historically my favorite meal of the year. I know the holiday isn’t really supposed to be about eating and to look back at what you are thankful for or something like that. I can tell you that one thing I am thankful for besides all of the people who frequent this site is that I’m thankful that I have a lot of really great friends and I hope they know just how much I appreciate them.

Look for the start of my three days of Riot Fest photos and stories starting tomorrow. Until then I hope you all are resting up with full bellies.

Naked Raygun - What Poor Gods We Do Make DVD
Riot Fest Records

Naked Raygun were one of the earliest of the Chicago punk bands. In this city they became legendary over the course of time. What started off as a pretty out-there band quickly settled into their own unique sound and rapidly made a name for themselves around here to the point that a Naked Raygun show was an event people talked about for a long time before and after. At a time when it was dangerous and frowned upon to be a punk rocker, this punk band somehow transcended all the barriers of various cliques and not only did punks attend their shows, but suddenly so did jocks, metal heads and just about any other kind of character you can think of. That was completely unheard of at the time and defied all logic. Word of mouth spread throughout the masses and their shows got bigger and bigger, and their crowds more diverse despite the fact they were a punk rock band at a time that punk was considered mostly inaccessible to mainstream society.

The band attained such a huge and loyal following around here that they really became super heroes. Even when their later records were not up to par with the earlier ones, the people still turned out in droves, and they still ate up those records. The band could really do no wrong in people’s eyes. It was unlike anything I have seen before or since. Their early records were a huge soundtrack to my teenage skater-punk years and their shows back then were among the best I’ve ever seen. When the band broke up, which was never announced - they just sort of vanished, people mourned the loss of their heroes. Chicago was never the same.

Somehow the band never caught on as big outside of IL for the simple fact of their lack of regular touring. People who bought their records loved them, but they never attained the super hero status that they did in their home town. Had they toured more, they would have won over the entire world with their amazing shows. However I think you’d be hard pressed to question anyone who has listened to Basement Screams, Throb Throb, and All Rise and not have them tell you that they are amazing, inspiriing, and seemingly timeless records.

Nearly a decade later after disbanding, the band reunited for a pair of sold-out reunion shows. The people went crazy. It meant a lot to a ton of people that they got the chance to either see Naked Raygun again, or for the younger folks it was a chance to see this band that they heard such legendary tales about in action and see what the fuss was about. When the band played those nights, they were better at those shows than they were the couple of times I saw them near the end of their career. That really says something that a band can do a reunion and not only not tarnish their legacy, but actually one-up themselves from where they left off (which admittedly near the end, the shows left a little to be desired compared to the earlier years).

Last year, the band reformed yet again to headline the Riot Fest. It was shocking to say the least and really seemed to come out of nowhere. There was a lot of excitement surrounding it and rightfully so. They had the good sense to film the pair of shows the band did last year and use that as the basis around a documentary telling the story of the band and that is where we come to this DVD. As luck would have it, those shows topped the reunion shows as far as performance goes (at least they did in my eyes and I was a lot harsher of a critic than most) which is just icing on the cake.

This documentary tells the complete history of Naked Raygun. It is told through the eyes of the current band members as well as from various people either who were part of the early punk scene at the time (Steve Albini and The Effigies, among others) or through various members of bands who were influenced by the band (Darryl of The Bollweevils, Jeff from Four Star Alarm, etc). They start off at the beginning of how the band formed and they go through all the trials and tribulations and lineup changes. They mention pretty much every person who did time in the band and why they were no longer with the band and in some cases, they really didn’t sugarcoat why someone left or was asked to leave. Being a big fan of the band, they even covered people who came and went that I never knew about!

During the various interviews they cut from the footage of the person speaking to photographs or some sort of footage that related to the story being told in the scene. After a few minutes or so of this a live clip is shown from one of the two shows last year. It is a pretty even mix between footage from the Subterranean pre-show and the Riot Fest show itself. The footage was pro-shot in widescreen on multiple cameras and cleanly edited. They did a stellar job too!

The pacing and editing of the documentary was really well done. There were only a couple instances where they just suddenly seemed to jump topics without warning or a proper segue. The one thing I would have liked to see however would have been interview footage with the people who left the band to hear their take on what happened in regards to their various departures. They talk about how Santiago left, John Haggerty left, etc. but you only get to hear it from the side of the current band members. It would have really put what is already a top-notch documentary over the top as far as quality goes had they done this. Major departures like John and Santiago however were at least told from more than one current band member so it at least helped paint a less biased picture than had it just been just Jeff Pezzati telling the story.

A couple of points were really driven home in this documentary; Naked Raygun were super heroes to a lot of people growing up in Chicago, and they made music that is timeless and influenced a whole lot of people. Bands this special are so rare in a lifetime and it was long past due that someone documented this so more people can learn of this. It was also fortunate for everyone that the band decided to finally give it another go or else you wouldn’t be reading this long-winded review.

The feature is and hour and forty-five minutes long. It is completely interesting from start to finish and I didn’t move from my spot on the couch the entire time and nothing could distract me during it. The pacing was excellent between interviews and music. When they show a live clip, it is the full song. The video is widescreen but it is letterbox, not anamorphic which I found to be a bit odd in this day and age of DVD authoring. The sound is straight stereo and sounds great both in the live performances and in the interview footage and the audio was mixed well so I didn’t have to keep my remote handy to adjust the volume up and down for the various segments, it was all consistent.

The package also comes with an audio CD of almost two dozen live songs from the same recordings used for the DVD. It sounds great, even better than the Free Shit live album they did on their first pair of reunion shows ten years ago. It’s a great document of those shows that I can now place in my car or iPod to listen to and bring back the memories of those two great shows.

For less than twenty bucks, What Poor Gods We Do Make is a sound investment and a really well done documentary on a very important band. It serves as both an education and also as an inspiration to pull out all those Naked Raygun albums you may have been neglecting for awhile, or maybe even to give another chance to a couple that may be better than you remember them being.

Related links:

Naked Raygun headlines the first night of this year’s Riot Fest and it should not be missed.

Naked Raygun official website

Riot Fest Records website

Order the DVD from amazon.com

Last night I went to see Neurosis play at the Logan Square Auditorium. This is the first time Neurosis has been back here in more years than I can recall. I think my best guess is maybe six or seven years since they played Chicago. At some point they just stopped touring for a long time whereas they used to play here at least once every time they put out an album, if not more than once. I was glad to see them return especially because their most recent album is better than the last couple that came before it.

US Christmas

US Christmas

US Christmas

US Christmas

After a whole lot of running around, I arrived to find the first band, US Christmas were already playing. I think I missed the first 15 minutes of their set. They were a strange hybrid of Southern rock and space-age post rock. On top of the traditional instruments, they had a guy who controlled all kinds of strange effects devices and their bass player also had similar gimmicks that he sometimes controlled depending on their song. I found myself on the fence about them as some of the heavier and more experimental songs I really liked and the ones that were more Southern rock sounding didn’t really appeal to me. My final impression was had they shaved about ten minutes off their set I would have enjoyed them a bit more.

Minsk

Minsk

Minsk

After the stage was cleared, Minsk were up next. I had never heard of them before but little did I know I was in for a pleasant surprise. Their music was in a very similar vein to bands like Neurosis and Isis. They have long songs full of changes and odd tunings and effects. The vocals were fairly minimal and they were very powerful and sometimes droning. The last song they played had to be about 15 minutes long and it was really intense and built to a very satisfying and powerful climax. I promptly bought their LP from them after the show I was so taken with them.

Neurosis

Neurosis

After a fairly lengthy equipment change and setup, Neurosis took the stage to what was starting to become an impatient crowd. In the first five minutes they reminded me about just how great they are. They played a good portion of their newest album Given to the Rising, as well as a couple from the album that preceded it. While the new album is quite good, they are so much more of a powerful force live. In fact in the years it has been since last seeing them, I had forgotten just how powerful they are live. Neurosis live is one of the most powerful, intense and heavy bands in the world. Words can’t adequately describe the feeling you get when they get start beating the shit out of their instruments in a controlled way and make these things emit sounds and energy that they were never designed to do. As good as most of their records are, they always fail to truly capture the force of their live sound.

Neurosis

Neurosis

As they were playing, various images were displayed on a screen/backdrop set up behind them. That and the minimal lighting (about five dim blue lights lit up the stage and whatever projected on the screen consisted of the rest of the lighting) really set the mood for their whole post-apocalyptic whirlwind of sound. It also made for a photographers nightmare as the lighting was so low, even with my fastest lenses and ridiculously high ISO, photographing this show was a losing battle that I must apologize for.

Neurosis

The band paused for a couple of minutes between songs to get their abused instruments in order to repeat the pounding they’d endure in the next song. After each song, the crowd were extremely vocal in their approval of what they just heard. After about 70 minutes, the band finished their set with the song “The Doorway” and the crowd really got into that one especially to the point that a pit nearly formed. When they finished the crowd lingered around for awhile hoping for more, but sadly the show was over.

In their lengthy absence, Neurosis had not lost a fraction of a step as they’ve gotten older. In fact they have aged gracefully and time has not at all softened the intensity of their live show. They are still a band that shouldn’t be missed!

I guess it has been a few weeks since I’ve written one of these and sadly that means it was time for the wrestling world to lose another one of its great performers. The Fabulous Moolah passed away. Unlike many in the business, Moolah lived a pretty long and full life. She had been nearly retired for many years except for when she’d make surprise appearances on WWE shows alongside Mae Young. Moolah did more for women’s wrestling than anyone before or after her did and is from a time when women wrestlers could, you know, actually work and weren’t just  there because they were nothing more than a pair of tits and a nice ass.

Rest in peace Fabulous One, you will be missed.