Secret Machines Preview

Secret Machines
Park West, Chicago
Monday, October 9, 2006

In their third(!) Chicago appearance since the release of Ten Silver Drops (Reprise), Secret Machines will go for prog rock gusto by playing in-the-round at Park West.

What’s charming about the setup is the nostalgia of it. Normally reserved for the most indulgent of arena acts, “the round” is startlingly infrequent, maybe because so many people associate it with approximately 96 of the 112 videos from Def Leppard’s Hysteria and choose to leave history alone. Secret Machines, a notoriously feral live beast, stand to look out of place because their realm is not one of theatrics but pure performance. Of course, this is a band who opened their debut album with a nine-minute juggernaut and followed it with a heady covers EP that disemboweled Van Morrison’s “Astral Weeks.”

Ten Silver Drops retained most of the guitars from their major label debut, Now Here Is Nowhere, but creates vast ambience that obscures their melodic sense, but should provide the Park West’s mirrorball with plenty of activity.

— Steve Forstneger

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly