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| From | "Sager, Greg" <greg.sager@bankofamerica.com> |
| Subject | Re: Shazam at fireside |
| Date | Thu, 15 May 2003 08:44:04 -0500 |
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> Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 08:10:39 -0700 (PDT)
> From: kcronin <fiatluxury@yahoo.com>
> To: audities@smoe.org
> Subject: Re: Shazam! at fireside (Was: Michael Carpenter on tour)
> Message-ID: <20030514151039.82998.qmail@web21407.mail.yahoo.com>
>
> Heya Bob: The IPO slot was better. The boys were not
> so gussied up in the rock finery, and don't know if it
> was a voice issue but they didn't play the
> superfantastic "Higher" from the new one, always a
> highlight for me. Most of the rest of the core of
> "tomorrow the world" was represented, however (absent:
> the ballads.)
>
I agree with Kelly. The IPO show was better. But that had a lot to
do with the fact that David Bash let Hans & Co. play their full set (or
something close to it) at the Abbey Pub. The Shazam's Fireside Bowl set was
somewhat curtailed because they were the opener for the resolutely arcane
Wesley Willis (if you're a *Friends* watcher, imagine Phoebe's lyrics set to
Ross's music) and by the fact that it was the Fireside's early all-ages
show; Sub Pop thrashers Zeke played the late show after the early crowd had
been shooed away.
In spite of the abbreviated set and the fact that the audience
consisted of the junior class from Henry Rollins High School (save for the
handful of us un-spiky oldsters from the Chicago pop mafia), I'd have to say
that the Shazam still managed to reach the "They Really Rocked!" setting on
the Bash-O-Meter gig gauge.
> They had a wee fanbase at Fireside, but
> it's an odd setup for rock and I don't know if they
> ever got the crowd momentum that they had at IPO even
> with the late-night dwindle (admittedly, preaching to
> the converted at IPO). The Fireside, for those who
> have never been there, is a shithole ("scariest
> bathrooms outside Glasgow"),
>
The confluence of bowling, punk rock, and teenagers is apparently
not conducive to the sort of hygenic standards usually insisted upon by
patrons outside of a Third World setting.
> and while perfect for the
> all-ages punkrock shows they cater to, this could be
> quite a mental hurdle to overcome after opening in
> front of 10,000 people or whatever the Shazam got to
> do in Europe (or even, god help me, when they opened
> for *Flickerstick* here - if there is anything that
> more palpably demonstrates how unjust the world is
> today, i cannot think of it.)
>
I'm still baffled that they're opening for their tourmate Wesley
Willis, although they do seem to be on friendly terms with him.
> That said, they still kick more ass than anyone
> around, and I am increasingly won over to the camp of
> Jeremy, after seeing them initially 3 times with their
> replacement guitar Greg.
>
I agree, especially because it's painful being used as a
rock'n'roller's musical instrument. And I hate being stuffed into the case
at the end of the gig.
:::rimshot:::
Now that I've worsened Kelly's dental agony, let me add that for me
the highlight of last Saturday wasn't the Shazam's set itself. After the
show, several of us talked to the band and got them to agree to meet us
after we went to the Ted Ansani Project's late set at Beat Kitchen, during
which the Shazam was going to go get a bite to eat. Well, that night's
thunderstorm knocked out the electricity in the Beat Kitchen during the set
before Ted's. Rather than go someplace else that had power, we called Hans's
cellphone and talked the Shazam into coming over to drink with us in the
blacked-out bar. It made for a fun and off-beat way to end the evening.
The Shazam, incidentally, is coming back to Chicago in July to film
a video, do another gig, and drink as much free Coors as the brewery can
give them.
Gregory Sager
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