Built To Spill live!

Built To Spill
Vic Theatre, Chicago
Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Doug Martsch and Built To Spill are slowly getting used to this whole rock ‘n’ roll thing. The Boise guitar band — tonight a quintet — began playing Metro-sized venues nearly 10 years ago behind their total-freedom major-label contract and never acted as if they cared to expand. They still load most of their own gear onstage, quickly say “thanks” after every song, and damn if they aren’t proof guitarists don’t need to make faces when they solo.

On Tuesday at the Vic they may have had to ask someone to dim the lights and bring them towels, but at least they asked. Even anti-heros get used to some perks. (This is a band who, at Lollapalooza last summer, spent about five minutes examining and dismissing the Bud Light logos marking their stage.) As such, they rolled out a best-of set uncannily light on jamming, presumably to flex their muscles before another round of writing and recording. (Two reggae tunes recently released on iTunes were ignored.)

“Liar” was an appropriate opener for such a night, though a highlight of last summer’s You In Reverse (Warner Bros.), it’s a deadringer for the clean-cut, alternapop from their 1994 debut. The guitars remained caged for “The Source” and “Made-Up Dreams,” the latter featuring a chiming, crystalline coda that was like a cool breeze before the tempestuous guitar workout “Time Trap” stormed through.

A peppy, keyboard-free “Strange” drifted into the first extended foray, a dizzying sustained howl conjured by Martsch, Jim Roth, and Brett Netson, seguing brilliantly into the crushing “Velvet Waltz” and an abbreviated “Else.” Agitation resurfaced for a staccato cover of Brian Eno’s “Third Uncle” (for all their improvisational tendencies, BTS covers are oddly faithful). The band actually retreated for “Car,” leaving Martsch and his guitar to themselves in the quest to see the movies of their dreams.

But what made Tuesday so different was the piling on of “Carry The Zero” following “You Were Right” to end the evening. Built To Spill rarely cater to the crowd like this, prefering instead to pull songs out of the catalog at random. Two anthems in a row, and from the same album? Built To Spill fans might start getting used to this rock ‘n’ roll thing, too.

— Steve Forstneger

Category: Live Reviews, Weekly