Oct 5, 2007
Empty Bottle
10pm
On Friday, I went to see
Fujiya & Miyagi at
The Empty Bottle at 1035 N Western. The Bottle is in an open and easily accessible part of town, where it’s not quite ghetto anymore and it’s not quite trendy-gentrified. I hadn’t been there in years. The last show I remember seeing there was some hippie jamband concert with a bunch of drunk people ready to lose their hearing and piss in garbage cans.
Since 2007 has been a year of shoe-gazer danceparty shows, I kept with the theme and took
McL up on his offer of an extra and we went to the sold out show. The bar was as it always is, a haven for hipsters and an example to the indie world of how we are living in the wild west of music discovery where places like The Empty Bottle are treasure troves later-letter generation nostalgia. XYZ. May CBGB’s RIP.
The place is still standing with the help of ink, glue, paper and cigarette smoke residue to support its inner walls. It’s dark and crowded, full of people who look you in the eye nonchalantly with fixed apathetic smirks to check you out as you walk past to get a $3 beer at the bar.
Dirty on Purpose took the stage to open the show, American rocker boys from Brooklyn. They were wiped out from the drive to Chicago, but the volume kept them awake, along with everyone else on the block. I forgot how loud little clubs are when you are standing only feet away from the stage. No amount of looking cool can protect your hearing in a place like that. Dirty on Purpose is another band with an indie rock sound that is different than what they sound like on their CD. They are Yo La Tengoish when I listen to their tracks, and almost Sonic Youthish at a live show, crumpled over with noise. Original songs can sometimes be bouncy but the tempo is just below danceable. Some of the hipsters were not impressed, but they played a good show and were good sports about being rushed and cramped in a tiny steamy club after spending all day in a van together. I chuckled at their debate over Fujiya & Miyagi is coupled with an ampersand, or the word
and or possibly a slash.
It is indeed an ampersand and boy did Fujiya
& Miyagi get that party started! It was forty minutes of fulfillment to anyone who’s been waiting for a good danceparty hosted by one of UK’s trifectas of laptronica, Steve (Fujiya), David (Miyagi), and Matthew (&). Kids were getting down. That's right, they're not Japanese, they're from Brighton UK. They say their inspirations stem from 70's krautrock (think CAN) but I don't know why. They're straight outta the danceparty play book. I'm not quite sure how they explain how those inspirations tie in to their music, but I wouldn't kick them out of my bed if they ever wanted to explain it to me.
It was hot and they started off slow, warming people up. Starting with “Ankle Injuries”, they went shyly from one song to the next, sexing up the crowd. Once the real beats began, people started to do their fashionable mid-80’s john-hughes-movie dances and scream as if they were fourteen year old girls at a Justin Timberlake concert.
They played my favorite, “Collarbone” among others that made me officially shake my ass in a one foot square on the floor a few rows back from the stage. David Best’s breathy vocals and sharp guitar angles signed each song as it ended. The bassist, Matt, could not help but smile at the crowd’s reaction after each danceparty hit. The energy in the room fro 20 of those 40 minutes was pretty electric and genuine, but after all it was a fall Friday night in Chicago lit with anticipation of jacket weather. The best time of year to play a show like that in my opinion. In addition to the fantastic show that was the start to a lovely weekend, I got these little buttons for only $1 at the merch table afterwards.
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