Local Legends #9
Venue : Sleeping Village
City : Chicago
Line Up : Sex Dream, LEVER, No Tagbacks
Back at it again for another $1 beer night at Sleeping Village! I’m telling you, even though it’s an odd night of the week, drinking $1 beers and listening to local music feels like a secret portal to the affordable past. I also wandered around the floor a bit to identify any audible dead zones but the mix is clean even upon leaving the back venue towards the front of house. Even had the beer garden to myself during twilight hours! Don’t sleep on the village.
Alright, opening the show was a new band to me, Sex Dream. They’re a female-led Punk three piece that genuinely seems super fun to be around and were both tight musically and loose personally on stage. Sonically I’d place them between musical-if-not-pop punk bands like some later Ramones up to early Green Day or No Doubt. Check out their song “Lydia vs Daleks” and you’ll hear what I mean; this band would have been all over MTV back when they still did all music all the time. I was also really surprised, in a great way, by their choice of covers. First, “Oops, I Did It Again” by Brittany Spears is a perfect pick, lots of her songs would be great sped up with distortion, but “Meow Mix” was a hilarious choice. Not only is it a catchy jingle for a specific generation but this bands rendition makes it sound like the commercial ripped THEM off. It’s on Spotify so please go listen to it, it’s the perfect song for a movie intro or a skate video. Someone get on that!
Moving on, if you’ve been to a show of mine or read any of these blogs then LEVER shouldn’t be a new name to you. If they are, however, I’m telling you now to pay attention. They’re a three piece that cover a lot of ground and I’m always in a rush to mention Nirvana as a reference but that’s really only half true. Listen to “Don’t Feel Alone” or “Code Name Killer” and you’ll hear that grunge corner of their sound but do yourself a favor and right after that listen to “Young & Poor”. You’ll be blindsided by the change to something closer to a folksy rock like The Dreadnaughts meets the Raconteurs, and it’s from the same album! Also, their singer / bassist Jon has a bass that looks like something Paul McCartney would play but sounds like Mike Dirnt would want it to sound and I just like it. Great guys, great music, listen and catch them wherever you can!
Closing tonight was Kevin on drums, Christian on bass, and Evan on vocals / guitar for the band No Tagbacks. “But Ryan…” you might be starting to think, “…why did you start with their names? You’ve never done that before!”. My dearest reader, I’ll tell you! These guys had pre-recorded individual introductions and even a full commercial that played for their merch in the back. I don’t know what it’s like to only read that sentence but I’m telling you it was hilarious and effective. Beyond super fun stage ideas though this band is equally unique and fun in their music. Their songs “Good Old Days” and “No Sheep” are great representations of their pop-punk side but what sold me on the genuine creativity of this band is their song “If I Never Left You in Illinois”. It reminds me of the bigger songs from The Mountain Goats, Spoon, or another local band called Flake Michigan (which would make an awesome show pairing!). The song sounds miles wide and really lets you hear what each member brings to the band and I’m excited to dive more into their streaming catalogue; there’s a ska song on their Spotify called “Never Gonna Die” and it’s absolutely going to be on heavy repeat for the rest of this year!
