Low Profile live at the Prodigal Son / 2626 Halsted Wednesday September 25th
with the Powerknobs and the Planet of the Planets
What a fucking show. I could start all of my reviews with that line. But seriously. This show was a blast. I emailed Brian who does booking for Prodigal Son and the Fireside and asked him to book us with the Powerknobs and he said they were playing the 25th and he would add our band. So we got the show with like 10 days notice. No problem for Low Profile though. So we get there around 8. We’re all hanging around and whatnot. The bartender/soundman puts on a CD. Eric and I recognize it. “The Sinner” by Judas Priest. We were going nuts. So we got all rowdy about it and told him nice choice and he said “I only play Priest here.” We were like “Fuckin A.” So we sang along and acted like fools and had fun. The other two bands showed up with their crews and we all talked and whatnot. I think our antics made some people nervous but it was a friendly atmosphere. And get this. One of the weirdest things about this place is that they offer u free bacon and free juice. I mean, cmon. Bacon. And I was told that it was salty as hell. Probably to make u drink more. But someone came up to Rob and I and told us about the free juice and bacon. We didn’t get it and still don’t. But that just added to the madness of the night. Another cool thing about the place is that they had a great choice of beer. Eric and Rob were drinking down some Red Stripes. Whice r from Jamaica. And Eric said that they had a beer that cost $13.50 for a bottle but it was much bigger bottle than average.
So whatever. We play first. Our set was:
Ghouls Night Out originally by the Misfits
Carl Panzram
The Limitation
Walter Mander
Breakin The Law originally by Judas Priest
Lachrymose
Grudge
Excited To Die
Hate
Low Profile part 1
And that was it. We were going to play Want by Jawbreaker but we changed it last minute to Breakin The Law because the sound dude played the whole Priest album Sin After Sin. I asked him what he thought of our version of the song and he said “You guys played that song so fucking raw. It was awesome.” What a guy. So we were all hot and sweaty and we moved our shit outta the way so the next band could set up. By the way. Let me describe the stage. It was a decent size but the ceiling was very low over the back half of the stage. Maybe 6 and a half feet high. Rob said he kept banging his sticks on the ceiling. Then they had crazy homemade sound proofing along the back wall and on the roof. They filled burlap potatoe type sacks and hung them to the wall. It just looked crazy. Again, adding the to madness of the whole experience of playing this show.
Right after us, the Planet of the Planets set up. They were mind blowing. I mean crazy music. It didn’t make sense to me. They were a four piece. Drums, Guitar, Bass and then the fourth guy switched between playing guitar, keyboards or he would just sing. They were great. The guitarist wore a cowboy hat. The singer dude wore these crazy old school sunglasses and Eric said he looked like he was in the witness protection program which was kinda true. It looked like he was wearing a disguise. The bassist played a 5 string and he ripped. Parts of their songs would be very melodic and slow and then the tempo would speed up and they would play some noisy changes. They were all very talented and I dug their music a lot. The guitarist said in between songs that he always wanted to see Priest play live but now that he saw us play Breakin The Law, that made his day. Fucking props. They were very nice and cool to talk to and everything. The singer made a comment on stage about Eric and I singing along to the song Screaming For Vengeance by Priest before the show. He said something along the lines of “We don’t promote vengeance and we definately don’t scream for it.” Pretty goofy.
Then the Powerknobs hit the stage. They were great of course. They r a 5 piece. Drums, Guitar, Bass, Keyboards and a frontman singer who is just fucking awesome. What a voice and what a frontman. They covered an oldie by the Dave Clarke Five. At least thats who I think originally played that song. I think the song was called “Glad All Over” They rocked it out for sure. During one song the guitarist ripped a solo and started using his full Pabst Blue Ribbon can as a slide and made some crazy sounds and sloshed beer all over himself and his guitar but it was awesome.
So like I said. What a show. It was a ton of fun. I got to play my Nikki Sixx deluxe Gibson bass for the first time at a show. It played great but went out of tune kinda quick. Then I switched and used the Ball. Eric played his maroon Jackson guitar. I don’t think he really had any problems or anything. No technical difficulties whatsoever.
So thats it. Fun was had by all. Well, most I should say.
-ERIK
Low Profile
