Before April gets out of hand (and it's about to, and fast) I thought I'd better share my thoughts on my most recent trip to Schubas. Every monday this month, local band, Scotland Yard Gospel Choir is headlining their hand-crafted showcase of music, chatter, and various sundry features, with proceeds going to a handful of charities with local roots. I went to the first installment, and was treated to the cringe-inducing comedy of Jena Friedman, a too-long, but really funny story on Mayor Daley's speech oddities by WBEZ's Ben "too pretty for radio" Calhoun, and some music.
The opening band was Cabin, a band from Kentucy. They were okay. They played well, but I don't think they've found their own sound yet. SYGC's Elia Einhorn claimed that they were "Sufjan Stevens' new favorite band." I think he made that up.
SYCG itself was a lot of fun. A nerdy hybrid, showing influence of the Pogues, Belle & Sebastian and the like, they seem to have a lot of fun on stage. They're all pretty normal looking folks too. I had heard them at first on a Bloodshot Records sampler on eMusic, and so I was glad that they opened with that very song that had lured me there. "Aspidistra" is obviously one of their more polished tunes.
Their onstage banter is pretty good, and I particularly liked guitarist Mary Ralph's verbal catalog of tha nation's many varieties of generic Dr. Pepper.
A few of the songs are a little TOO referent to Belle & Sebastian in a sorty of gender-ambiguous, hopeless unrequited love sort of way, but pieces like "Aspidistra" and "Everything You Paid for" stand on their own, and I hope the band sticks together long enough to put out another album.
I'm going to plan to go back for their last offering on the 28th, if I'm not too exhausted after next week's music marathon. So, if you're reading this, you should join me. You can even by a nifty poster of a bunny humping a skunk for 5$. I did.
GOOD NIGHT.
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