last weekend i headed out to chicago for danny c’s bachelor party weekend. whenever i go to chicago, i always see if anyone is going to be playing in town that id want to go see, and my timing has always been pretty awful. this time, however, was much different. fortunately for me, two of my new favorites, former dailybeatz artists jack penate and miike snow, were playing together at the empty bottle friday night (coincidentally only about a block away from the excellent condo we rented when we were in town for pitchfork fest), so i knew i had to make it happen. after finding 4 $20 tix to the sold out show, i knew we were in for a great time.

so when friday finally arrived, ann, louis, karen and myself met up at karens place in logan square and headed to the empty bottle. if youve never been there, its a great place to see a show. small, dark, dingy, walls covered in posters, its pretty much the quintessential image you would imagine when you think of a little bar venue. for you detroiters, the whole place is about as big as just the “dancefloor” area of the magic stick. teeny tiny.

when we finally got in the door, jack penate had already begun his set. we all grabbed a drink and hung out near the back, but the longer his high energy set went on, the more we knew we had to make our way up closer. he played most of the tracks from his latest album “everything is new” and the crowd was loving every minute of it. for some reason i imagined that hed be up there all by himself, but he had a full backing band and a lovely backup singer who all added to the excitement of the set. my only regret was that i didnt listen to his album 50 more times before the show, but even only vaguely recognizing most of the songs didnt seem to make much of a difference when we finally got up front (fortunately with little struggle) and rocked out to the last few songs of his set. it was amazing how well his music translated to the live setting. special thanks to jon peck for the pics below. i think they really show the high energy of the performance.

needless to say ive been listening to jack penate a ton since that night. besides his great melodies and high energy songs, theres just something so unique about his quasi muffled guitar tone that i just cant quite put my finger on. cant wait to see him again.

jack penate – so near

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so then began the long wait for the main event, the swedish newcomers who seemed to be taking over the music scene, miike snow. by this point we were one person away from the stage and knew that we were in for a treat. our first exposure to miike snow was at lollapalooza and while we are all obsessed with the album, the best part of the live show is that the songs are just vehicles for the electronic jams coming from the multiple djs that make up the group. and we were also excited to see them in an environment that did not involve 90+ degree intense afternoon heat with high humidity standing in mud from the day before.

at long last, the group came on stage in their black coats and white masks took the stage. they opened with the second track from the album, burial, and right off the bat broke into a nice jam that got the whole crowd dancing. while i cant really remember the order of the songs, they worked their way through black and blue (my current favorite), silvia, animal and sans soleil. and just as expected, each song broke into a dj-infused jam that sometimes had nothing to do with the song that preceded it, but still made lots of sense.

it seemed like no time had passed from the time the band took the stage until the band leader announced “this is our last song”. the crowd inevitably jeered, to which the singer replied, “dont worry, its a long one”. and just as i had hoped, the opening notes of “in search of main” rang out from the speakers. by far the funkiest and most electronic song on the album, we knew that the announced jam would be great. what felt like ten minutes later, the band finally left the stage, the electronic beats still flowing as they all said their goodbyes.

thanks to karen for remembering her camera when i forgot and dana loftus (the majority of the pics) and colleen catania for taking pictures with nice cameras and letting me borrow them.

even peabs, the self-describe jaded music fan, had nothing bad to say after this one. tired, sweaty and satisfied, we all made our way out to the streets. ive been describing it as an electronic dance show with a few songs mixed in between. during the hour long set, the band only played six songs that i can remember, and the rest was exciting improvised beats, which is what makes their live show so great. its different every time, but always guaranteed to get you moving. while i consider lollapalooza their first real american moment in the spotlight, its clear that there are big things to come from these guys, and they deserve all the success thats coming to them.

miike snow – black and blue

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