Sunday night shows are not the toughest to do but the bands involved need to be well worth the trip. Calla alone would have warranted going (and when I bought the tickets, were the only band listed) so The Celebration was a nice bonus. Boxstep opened the evening and Eric Graf is a newly transplanted Chicagoian from Pittsburgh. He gathered together a great little group; pedal steel/guitar, bass, drums with him on a second guitar. His first song really struck me as Dylan-esqe, a slow meandering vocal delivery of words that you could almost hold. For these first few songs it was 2 guitars, which slowly lost its appeal with me, as the songs were also becoming very samey. Once the second guitarist switched over to the pedal steel I was really mesmerized, not that the songs had gotten particularly better but the guy on pedal steel was a sight to behold. He was very gentle and plucked out some beautiful melodies at times making me forget that there was a vocalist I should be paying attention to. All in all a fairly straight-ahead country/blues band that has some potential.
The Celebration were up next, and from the write-up in the reader I was surprised Rob Lowe was not doing sound (being that the Celebrationâs first record was produced by one of the members of TV on the Radio and that Lowe is very closely connected to them) Well after one song who walks in all in a rush and immediately starts dancing, none other than Mr Lowe. I canât blame him either, she was captivating, possessed even. The record does not do them justice, live they are much more interesting. The organ riffs shake the floor while the lead singer Katrina Ford moans, and shrieks like a banshee. Definitely channeling the spirit of Sioux while morphing it through a more current filter. More punk, more gloom, and lots of danceable beats. They played the entire album but I barley recognized it, it was so fast and alive. Donât pass them up in a small venue, they wont be playing them for long.
Where The Celebration came out all in black and played gothic punk, Calla came out dressed fairly typical but had all the lights turn down low and played a dark shoegaze rock. The songs on the album come off atmospheric and dark with touch of pop. Live he strips away any sense of restraint he had in the studio and really lets the songs do what they want with him. He played guitar as if it was possessed, or doing a waltz with it in the lead. While the songs could lead to long drawn out waves of sound, they did a good job of keeping the songs confined and interesting, not letting noise parts overtake the lyrical content of the songs. In some ways they did this too well, and I felt the set could have been a little longer. They did come out and do an encore that consisted of a cover of Enoâs âNeddle in the Camels Eyeâ which was pretty good. Not as many people in attendance then I thought should have been, but it was a Sunday and getting kinda late. Hereâs to hoping more people catch on.
