Well Wicker Park sucks big time for parking so I had my dad drive me once again. I ran in and grabbed Joe from Squared Off and he helped me bring my gear in. No one else was really there at that point. I made my decision early that I would not drink before my set so I sat down and ordered a Coke at the bar. They gave me a nice pint glass full of ice so it was very refresing and good. Soon after Rob showed up and then Hilger. They loaded in thru the back in the alley. I was hanging out there and I also then met Eleanor’s Basement. They were rolling deep with about 5 other dudes besides the 5 in their band and they had tons of gear. Their drummers set consisted of over 2 full sets put together and they also brought their PA so they had like 7 cars full of stuff. Charleston Dueling Society showed up then and I introduced myself and told them how I had seen them play at Big Wig before. They were very nice and said they had ‘heard good things about Low Profile’ from the guys in Break of Day who later showed up also. Betty Burbank (here with Joe) showed up as well as Rhyno from Squared Off (check his ability to flick me off even with a fucked up arm in a sling). Get well soon Rhyno!
It soon started to get pretty crowded which was surprising to me. Looking back, I can’t really remember when the guys from Little Sisters of Philly got there. I know they had to work late or something. Charleston Dueling Society was up first and they rocked the house. They all have super nice gear and good songs. They didn’t play too long which was nice. Near the end of their set some of the guys from Boom Jack showed up. There were twins in the band and they approached me and Weber about loading in. At this point there seemed to be gear stacked up to the ceiling everywhere you looked. I told them that they had better just wait it out. 5 bands at a small club like the Big Horse is WAY too much! I know that everyone is concerned with the ‘bottom line’ and packing the club but you succeed more in packing the club with gear then anything. Its a terrible inconvienence. CDS was trying to get off stage after their set and I was helping them. We were just setting the drums in the tiny hallway next to the stage. At the same time we’re trying to set up as fast as possible. So within 5 minutes were almost ready and Weber comes up to me and says ‘I need you guys to pick up the pace’ or some other ignorant comment. As if I was fucking around and bullshitting up there. First of all, I am very anxious before I play so I am not in the mood to talk to anyone or so anything but get my shit ready so we can start. I had my wireless ready to go and I was just tuning up and he says how Armando (the owner/manager/bartender) says we have to hurry up. I went off on Weber at this point and said I don’t give a fuck what he or anyone else wants, were doing our best and get the fuck out of my face. Actually what I said involved the word ‘fuck’ alot more times but that doesn’t matter. The funny thing is how after I go off Weber gets his typical sarcasm going on like ‘What did I do?’. I was ready to kill him at that point but luckily now Rob was ready and we got our set on.
I was dead sober so I had a ton of energy and stamina and didn’t get tired or anything at all. We were blasting thru our songs and it felt great. Rhyno had kidnapped Rub-a-dub Doggie. Everyone was up front diggin it. Opening with ‘Figure it Out’ can never go wrong as far as I see it. ‘Hot Mom’ 2nd worked real well as well. The set seemed short, I guess because we didn’t talk hardly between the songs and we just tore thru em. We played a Jawbreaker song near the end of the set and I introduced it by simply saying ‘This is a Jawbreaker song’. I knew I didn’t have to introduce it anymore then that since no one probably knew who the band was anyways. I turned up the knob on my guitar and looked to Rob to rip the fill to start the song and in that moment of half silence and the buzzing of my amp, I heard someone say ‘Jawbreaker?’ I looked up and the song was on. My voice was perfectly warmed up at that point and I just ripped it. I love to sing that song. People always bitch about the Big Horse PA but I don’t give a fuck. People were also complaining that the PA wasn’t powerful enough but goddamnit I think I showed those people what was up. I know I could hear myself really well. I also turned my amp up past half way that night which is SUPER loud by the standards of every other show I’ve played with that amp. After the set, I changed my shirt.
After our set the guy that said ‘Jawbreaker?’ came up to me, he was the singer of Boom Jack and gave me mad props. He was super nice and I bought him a beer and gave him some stickers. He said how he loved Jawbreaker and they were going to play ‘Boxcar’ which was awesome. Another drunken weird guy who was brown baggin in the alley came up to me and said how he had actually seen us play at the Divine Cup in Rockford a year ago which was crazy. I didn’t remember him but he said how we hooked him up with a ton of free shit like cds and a t-shirt. That guy ended up getting violently drunk later in the set. But first was the 3rd band, Eleanor’s Basement. They just had too much gear and too many members. I love playing in a 3-piece becasue we are very well suited for small clubs. When these huge bands with 2 guitars and all this shit come up in a club like the Big Horse it just sounds like mud. Leave the half stacks at home! They are too loud! They described themselves as ‘blues rock’ before the show and they were pretty much right on. They ended up covering a Rolling Stones and a Ramones song. I was never able to figure out how or why so many people were at the show that night, and me and Hilger were trying to figure out who made the huge draw. It may have been this band. They closed with ‘I Want to be Sedated’ and a bunch of weird drunk chicks started dancing and even I got into the mix regardless of the fact that I hate the Ramones. Its just a fun song.
Next up was, in my estimation, the best band of the night: Little Sisters of Philly. These guys were reppin the south side so hard that I couldn’t even believe it. They were dead serious and they had properly sized amps! I couldn’t believe it! They had 2 guitars and it didn’t sound like mud! AND ALL OF THEM HAD CRATE AMPS!!! How awesome is that! After like the 2nd song I was thinking ‘this band is pretty cool’. They had a nice rock/roots sound with good mid tempo beats. After a few more songs the beer must have been hitting me cause now I was super digging this band. They jammed out an awesome song they dedicated to 80th and California, and sang about how sad they were that that neighboorhood now is a ghetto. The song was composed of basically just quiet guitars, a few quiet drum accents and vocals. It moved me. By the time they got to the last song they were getting super powerful. Their bassist had an awesome vintage Rickenbacker that looked like it had been around the block. Their last song was called ‘Kings of the One Eleven’, refering to 111th street. I have no doubt that they guys are the Kings of the 111. The end of the song just jammed out with a blazing lead and it was truly emotional. Great job guys, you kicked my ass!
The last band was Boom Jack. Once again — 2 guitars with massive half stacks, it was LOUD. And thats not always a good thing. It was so loud that I went out back and was getting high with Hilger when Lisa came back and said people were beating each other up and getting ruthless in the pit. Well I have been in a few mosh pits myself and had no fear of these people. I busted in and saw our drunk buddy from Rockford who was now wasted as fuck with a swollen eye and some other drunken ass dude who had a busted eye also blood dripping onto his shirt. I walked right into the middle of that pit and started hitting dudes and grabbin em. Boom Jack ended up closing with ‘Boxcar’. They kept asking Armando for 1 more song and he kept saying no, so I just told the singer ,’dude, just start the fucking song!’. So they did and it was good. I grabbed him and sang a few lyrics myself.
Everyone left and I was still around. Oh yeah, the drunken dude #2 who was hittin folks in the mosh pit was now pukin like a lil bitch out back, getting soaked in the rain. In my own drunkeness, I went out and snapped a few pics of his broke ass. Heres a pic of him shortly before passing out, fighting/moshing with another drunken fool.
Everyone left and I convinced my girlfriend to spot me some cash for a burrito since I had spent all my loot at the bar. I ate that and went home and took a shower and kind of felt like shit as I came down from my drunkeness.
Great fucking show, can’t wait for Nov 14th to play again with Burnside Bridge and the Burbanks! Thanks to Weber for the show, looks like the 1st ‘Distortion Tacos’ was a success!! Right now its Sunday and I went back to the Big Horse and the Note the next night on Saturday. Too bad I’m not in Ratbag Hero or I could write another wicked review, as it was another awesome night.
Special thanx to the crew in this pic — its on my desktop right now.
–satan165
Low Profile live at Big Horse Lounge in Chicago
Friday Oct 24th
w/ Charleston Dueling, Eleanors Basement, Little Sisters of Philly and Boomjack
What a fucking night. When I found out there were gonna be 5 bands total, I knew it would be a long night.
I got to Big Horse around 9 and everyone was there already. Weber was pretty much running the PA and all. Scott was there all night too. Thanks for everything guys.
So I started drinking right away and mingled a bit till Charleston Dueling were ready to start. They stalled out a bit and started late. They r a 3piece punk band. Pretty tight and just a fun band. Their drummer jammed fo sho!!! They rocked.
Satan picked up their CD. I’m interested in hearing it and maybe we can set something up with them in the future.
We were up to play second. We had a real good set I thought and afterwards, many people commented and thought the same. Our set was something like this:
Figure It Out
Hot Mom
The Limitation
Walter Mander
48 (thrown into the set at the last minute for Weber)
Execution Style
Lachrymose
Boat Dream From the Hill (originally by Jawbreaker)
Milwaukee (originally by Mongoloids in Crayon Suits)
I think that was it. It seems like I may be forgetting something but I’m not sure. It went by pretty quick. I had a lot of energy the whole show and wasn’t tired at all.
The crowd seemed to like us and seemed like they were having fun. Betty, Joe and Rhyno were right up front. Joe sang along to most of our songs. Thanks dude.
Thanks to Lisa for taking pics. The ones I’ve seen so far look great. We took our shit off stage and let the next band set up. I just had to sit down to calm myself after that set. It felt great.
Eleanors Basement were up next. They were 5 piece with a keyboardist. They played bluesy type music. The drummer played a huge ass drumset with many pieces that covered him up. He ripped a drum solo during one of the songs. They were good but I was so hyper that they sort of chilled me out a lil too much. I went out to smoke a bowl in my car with a select few and went back in feeling much better and got to see them play I Wanna Be Sedated. Williams bought me and Weber a round of shots and we started partying harder.
Little Sisters were next and they were awesome. Representing the southside and 111th to the fullest. We have much luv for these guys.
They were 4 piece. Both guitarists and the bassist played out of small Crate amps. So we were down with that and told them when they were loading out. They were awesome. The singer was great and they were just all around fun. I’d luv to play with these guys again sometime.
After they played, Williams and I were out back getting soaked in the rain and splashing around in puddles. There was a club with a lot of noise coming from it not far away so we tried to get closer to see what was going on. Some band was playing 80s rock covers and there seemed to be a lot of people singing along. So we creeped around and checked it out and just hung out in the back alley. He smashed his beer bottle against a wall and we cheered like lil fucking kids. It seemed so fun.
The last band was Boomjack. They took a while setting up and we were forced to listen to bad rock bass ‘licks’ that the bassist played while waiting for the rest of the band. This band was crazy. They were loud as fuck and had a crazy PA system they set up for themselves.
Their crew in the crowd were getting rowdy as fuck.
Bloodied drunk dude who puked included.
They covered Boxcar by Jawbreaker as their last song. We chatted up with the singer before the show and he told me that 24 Hour Revenge Therapy was one of his favorite albums. I agreed with him. So since we played Jawbreaker, they played Jawbreaker. Fucking A guys. U rocked that song out fo sho!!!
And they had twins in the band. How ya luvin that? They both played guitar. It was a very crazy night. Some is blurred but I had a lot of fun.
It was so fucking loud in there. My ears r still ringin. So many huge ass amps that seem to big for that place.
So I’m goin to see Ratbag and the Symptoms at the Note tonight and then I’ll run across to Big Horse to see Burnside Bridge. Can’t wait. It’ll be another fun night.
So thanks to everyone that was there. Hope u all had fun and enjoyed all the bands and the booze. Cya round.
-ERIK
