I was already coming back from Connecticut through Chicago, so it didn't really cost me anything to get there. And, I was lucky enough to be able to stay with friends and borrow one of their cars to drive to the show. So, all told, this experience only set me back $12.50 for the ticket to the show.
It was a packed house at the Bottom Lounge, a 400ish capacity club just outside of downtown Chicago. It was off the beaten track enough that I was able to find free parking easily within a block of the venue. Nice.
When I got in, everyone was sitting on the floor in front of a movie screen. I don't particularly like standing up for hours upon hours, so the sitting thing looked good to me and I surveyed the floor for a nice spot to sit.
They started with the film, Major Organ and the Adding Machine. It was a "silent" movie, accompanied only by music from the project of the same name. It was really cute. A sort of psychedelic story for children, it looked to be a blast to film. The sound during the film was fantastic, so I started getting excited about how the bands would sound.
I got excited too soon. Once the bands started, the sound constantly fluctuated between passable and downright poor. The collective had somewhere around 12 to 15 musicians taking part. There were two drum kits, two keyboards, a bass amp, several guitar amps and a half dozen or so microphones for vocals, horns, strings and singing saw. It was a lot of inputs to keep track of. I don't know why they didn't bother to bring out a sound engineer to make this stuff sound better. I looked back at the crusty, jaded house engineer and he just looked frustrated, pissed, and confused. And, it showed in the sound. Hell, I'd have volunteered to go out with them and run the sound for free, just to be a part of the circus!
Anyhow, the sound aggravated me, because I'm deeply in tune with that shit. But, it certainly wasn't bad enough to be distracting or ruin the show. In the end, I could hear most of what was going on. Anything that I couldn't hear enough, I was able to fill the gaps with my memories.
I got into the whole Elephant 6 thing a little late. But, I did happen to be turned on to Olivia Tremor Control around the time of Dusk at Cubist Castle. It was a very influential album at a time that was very important in my life. So, while everyone there (including me) was hanging on every single sighting of or inference to Jeff Mangum, I was really, really excited to see OTC.
I heard lots of old favorite songs by OTC, Apples In Stereo, Elf Power, Circulatory System, and the Gerbils. I also heard a lot of songs that I was unfamiliar with. To be honest, I didn't enjoy any one more than any other. It was more about the experience than about hearing my favorite songs.
The vibe onstage was so fucking amazing. I'm not religious at all, but god bless Julian Koster for putting this thing together and for seeming to be one of the sweetest, most enthusiastic people I've ever seen on a stage. I was really touched by his child-like joy.
Total time for the show, including the movie, was about 4:15. That's a long time. But, it really kinda felt like you were a fly on the wall when all these people would get together and play songs for each other. It didn't feel like I had paid to see a performance. It felt like I had paid to be able to quietly observe a special, intimate evening of friends enjoying and encouraging each other for as long as they could hang in there.
The Elf Power stuff was pretty great, too. I've become a pretty big fan of that band. I think that I enjoyed the feel of their songs much more with the E6 collective band than I did with the Elf Power touring band when they came through town this year.
One band that I hadn't heard before, just totally blew my mind. That band was called Nana Grizol. I LOVE THIS BAND! Theo Hilton, the main dude in the band, gave a really inspiring performance. He reminds me of Conor Oberst or John Darnielle singing for an Elephant 6 band, with the bratty enthusiasm of Josh Jones. You should really check out this band. Top quality, indeed.
I could go on all day about the show and the performances. Hell, it was 4+ hours. That's a lot of stuff to talk about. But, I'll just sum it up by saying that this show made me feel young again. Not so much in that it reminded me of being a younger age... But, it reminded me of a time when I had a younger spirit. And, it showed me that you can still embrace that younger spirit, even as you move on in years.
I'll leave things with a miracle capture from a YouTube video of Jeff Mangum's performance of Engine with Julian Koster. It was a very dark video. But, I just got lucky to catch a camera flash where you can see my face. It looks like my head is growing out of Jeff's right ear!
They ended the show with everyone taking the stage for Circulatory System's great song, Forever. "We will live forever and you know it's true, know it's true." Julian let us know that it's ok if we sing along. But, it wasn't happening. Jeff Mangum was on stage and everyone was clearly fixated on him, trying to make out his voice in the crowd. How do I know that every eye in the place was trained on Jeff Mangum? After a few times through, he motioned to the crowd to join in. And, all at once, the entire building was singing. It was a pretty powerful moment. Eventually, the band started slowly walking off stage. Jeff grabbed an acoustic guitar and Julian grabbed his saw and bow. As they made their way to the center of the audience, the song continued. "We will live forever and you know it's true, know it's true." As they took their position the audience executed a perfect fade. It was glorious. And, just as they started tuning up for Engine, the d-bag house sound guy brings up some crappy house music in the P.A. He was promptly shouted down, and the guys delivered this performance:
That's it. It was a pretty fantastic night.
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