Touch and Go festival in Chicago

or
Seven Thousand Of My Closest Friends

I bought tickets to this 3-day event as soon as I heard about it back in June.  Bought airline tickets, flew up, paid for hotel ... I'm a yuppie, and a hypocritical one at that since I used to sneer at all the nostalgic punk rock tours that are perpetually coming through Atlanta.

Bands not mentioned I either didn't care to see (in lieu of actually seeing a bit of Chicago) or didn't inspire anything in me.

For TONS more pics, go to Flickr and search for "[bandname] chicago", like these pictures of Pegboy.

Friday

Girls Against Boys -- I walked into the festival a couple minutes before 7pm (on time to see GvsB) to hear the MC announcing that they were going to play VLN1B ... in its entirety, from beginning to end.  Now, I realize that this band is not the most punk rock thing out there, but that album was one of those perfect masterpieces from that time, largely due (I think) to the engineering prowess of Eli Janney (at left in photo).  And he seemed to be enjoying himself most of all, especially in his embarrassment at not being able to sing ...

Ted Leo + Pharmacists -- I've been reading great things about TL/Rx for years but have never bothered to go see him, or couldn't for whatever reason.  Solid, enjoyable indie pop rock, kind of a Jam sound, lots of energy, definitely a pro.  A++++++++

!!! aka Chk Chk Chk -- Aw geez there's an awful lot of indie rock hipster posturing about this band, pro and con.  It's funny how when a band really figures out how to push an audiences buttons, everyone gets all upset.  They're all over that dance punk sound that's all the rage these days, practically full-on disco.  But damn they put on a good show, mostly due to the magnetic frontman and his uproariously goofy dance style.  Solid sweaty entertainment although it's pretty much empty calories.  They are going to make a boat load of money over the next 18 months, ga-rawn-teed.

Saturday

Uzeda -- A really great performance.  The band's sound is pretty much a perfect copy of the  Jesus Lizard, including the Travis Bean guitar and menacing bass.  Except it was all played by four older grinning Sicilians, and the vocals were by the [female]  Giovanna Cacciola. Quite intense and moving, including in particular her brief heartfelt thanks to the crowd for the opportunity to play.  Just a simple, great set by a band obviously relishing the moment.  Here are more pictures from Flickr.

Pegboy -- Holy crap what a riot!  I expected this band to have the tighest set, what with John Haggerty at the wheel and the Naked Raygun history and all, but turned out to be the most sloppy fun of them all.  Larry Damore walked onto the stage to announce that he was drunk (at 2pm) and proceeded to demonstrate it.  Absolutely hilarious insults volleyed back and forth with the crowd (and himself).  I could have used a little bit less views of his substantial beer gut though.  This was one of the few bands that I really came to see and they delivered a show worth the trip.

Didjits -- Rick Sims, ladies and gentlemen!  What a ham.  Prowling across the stage with his gorgeous black SG, belittling the crowd (with a smirk) and tearing through a super set.  I don't remember the bass player from when I saw them 15 years ago at the Masquerade, but maybe he just became more ... memorable looking.  Tattoos all the way up to his chin, and above his chin he was missing a few teeth.  The drummer kicked ass too.  A shining beacon of raw punk rock power.  I would love to have video of this and Pegboy.

Negative Approach -- John Brannon and Co croaks through an earnest set of hardcore bon mots.  Well, the mohawk and leather kiddies were pretty happy.  The poor things, they stuck out like a kick in the head, sulking around the place waiting for NA to play.

Scratch Acid -- At this point, for the festival big guns, the place was fully populated with the sell-out crowd.  Without being a rude sonofabitch I couldn't get close enough to read the faces of Yow, Sims, Wesham and Bradford, what with all the scenesters in the way.  But from what I could see they put on a good show, Bradford in particular was skittering all over the place (excepting the psychotic Yow, of course).  Sims is great to watch anytime, and Washam ... well, I couldn't quite make him out.  Jesus, it was like seeing Journey or some shit like that at the Omni, they were so small.  Halfway through I left to go get something to eat and decompress my spine, but could hear them working diligently through the catalog.  Stop eating my braaaaaaain!

Big Black -- somewhat like seeing Nirvana in 1992, meaning it sucked, in that it seemed like everyone was there just because they'd heard it was cool, and whether the band was actually playing didn't seem to matter much.  Three songs, short and sweet.  Yes, that is Jeff Pezzati playing bass.

Shellac -- Hey look, another Travis Bean!  But Albini's TB is a rare model, so there.  I got bored and left.  I'll try to catch them when they come through Atlanta, since I'm told they're in good form lately.  I just couldn't bear the see-and-be-seen crowd anymore, nor the distance from anything worth seeing.

Sunday

Seam -- One of the bands that I was really here to see.  They put out an album on T+G called "The Problem With Me" which apparently everyone liked but that came after my time.  I was more into their early singles, and they played them all.  That's the crazy thing about this whole event: typically with these bands that have been together for a long time, you go in hoping that the band will at least play a couple of your favorite songs, and in the case of this festival they've been playing them ALL.  Every damn one.  I mean, I don't bother going to Superchunk shows anymore because these days they barely play the stuff I care about.  Aaanyway, the crowd was very much into the Seam performance, and I didn't hurt myself jumping up and down like an idiot.

Brick Layer Cake -- Todd Trainor is a god.  That's pretty much it.  OK, that's not it.  Brilliant sarcastic skewering of the rock scene, I was in stitches the whole time.  At the end he mentioned that he was playing Bill Grebe's guitar ("legendary"), but I don't know who that is, or if I got the spelling right or even if I recall the name right.  I'd appreciate if anyone could fill me in.

Calexico -- Critical faves, I hear.  Pretty much what I expected.  Pleasant southwestern shuffle, low impact adult rock.  The lead guy's extolling of T+G and Chicago felt a little forced; I think they haven't actually been on T+G very long, so they're a bit of a fish out of water here.  Anyway, they did fit well into the lower key feel of the third day of the festival.  I recognized the pedal steel player (at right in photo here, playing regular guitar), I think because he toured with Kurt / Lambchop a while back. [does some googling] Yeah, it's Paul Niehaus.

Other bands played, but I either missed them or gave a mighty shrug.  I fail to see the talent in Pall Jenkins and any of that San Diego "pop" stuff.  Gimme a John Reis band any day.

In all, an unbelievably great, friendly, groundbreaking event.  Well run on all fronts.  Best $35 I ever spent!

Comments

[Adam]

I'm embarrassed to say I don't know any of these bands, but I'm impressed by your thorough, run-down. I'm still trying to work out how I'm going to recount the single band show I saw on Wednesday...!

Are these photos yours? The Didjits shot (Rick Sims?) kicks ass.

[Chris]

Yeah, Adam, you and I run in entirely different orbits. I read the music posts on your blog and am amazed that you actually worked at WREK for 4 years :)

The photos are all shamelessly lifted from Flickr. You can pretty much find them all (and their sources) by searching on "[bandname] chicago" just like I did. I didn't take a single picture myself when I was there -- didn't see the point, since I knew everyone else would be doing a far better job of it. The Pegboy pics (link at top of post) are really good. As are Uzeda's. And the rest of the Didjits' photos. Oh damn, they're all good, but I was standing there so I've got a soundtrack in my head ...

[Chris]

Hey, Chris you dumbass, how 'bout searching YouTube for videos? OK, will do!

Chk Chk Chk (check out first minute just for the goofy disco fever moves): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xHCQjnWm3A

Uzeda: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkHGP1QpEQI

Pegboy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nm5-nSxp4k
(my skinny ass is right up in there somewhere)

Didjits: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wWqmKzpjME

Negative Approach: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVAfuizCTos
(I was well back on this one)

Scratch Acid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1Ap_dM-M5w
(David Sims is right in front here)

Big Black: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU1PRinyWZI
(nice intro by Steve Albini, then they play Racer-X. Racer-X!)

Brick Layer Cake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNSiyZEgEO4
(stay with it, it's worth it)

I'll add these to the post above when I've accumulated a bunch, so as not to annoy the RSS subscribers, of which I'm sure there are scores.

[Chris C.]

Touch and Go posted their own highlights of the event (with multiple cameras and good sound) on Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/user/pigeonkill

[Chris C.]

and photos:
http://www.touchandgorecords.com/links/tg25/index.html

and general info:
http://www.tgrec.com/bands/band.php?id=93

I wish they would put it out on DVD.