This Is American Music reviewed
This Is American Music
Hideout, Chicago
Thursday, November 29, 2007
The Drams
You can bemoan today’s youngsters, who aren’t aware there was a time when people actually paid for music and vinyl was more than a poor choice to upholster your car’s interior. But The Drams, Grand Champeen, Two Cow Garage, and Glossary went further, reviving the old time rock ‘n’ roll revue to keep the music coming Thursday at the Hideout.
Keeping the same basic amps and drums onstage, the This Is American Music revue was to operate loosely around four-song sets while members guested on vocals and guitar when asked. (Unfortunately, some apes slashed Glossary’s tires the previous night in Kansas City, which delayed the kickoff and their own set nearly two hours.) Once underway, the format kept the audience in its thrall, leaving barely time to retreat to the bar between sets.
Two Cow Garage took to playing first in Glossary’s tardiness, and in effect never really left the stage. Rare was the moment when bassist/vocalist Shane Sweeney wasn’t bellowing backups for one of the other bands or even filling in with his battered rhythm instrument. Vocalist/guitarist Micah Schnabel was nearly onstage as frequently, giving the soundman problems with each raspy scream. Churched-up organ tones gave the IROC-Z honky tonk of “The Great Gravitron Massacre” and “Mediocre” an odd glow, though a sprinkling of piano keys during “No Shame” messed with the driving beat.
No sooner were Denton, Texas’ Grand Champeen onstage with their sassy power pop that Sweeney was up there with them, fittingly shouting “It’s nice of you to join us.” Frontman Channing Lewis, who was the night’s third-most inescapable musician, brought some extra grit to the table (maybe he slashed his bandmates’ cabinet speakers), leading to an off-the-rails rendition of “Nothin’ On Me” (with Sweeney, again).
Though Champeen seemed to have squeezed past the four-song limit, their set was immediately in danger of being wiped from memory due to a monstrous outing from The Drams. The Austin quartet, who rose from the ashes of Slobberbone, were in such a zone they could have gone toe-to-toe with Molly Hatchet, whether pulling from newer tracks like “Crudely Drawn” or Slobber classics like “(I Can Tell) Your Love Is Waning.”
Then, as if on cue from The Drams (and Sweeney, of course) screaming, “Stuck behind a cattle truck/where all you smell is shit,” tour-organizers Glossary spilled in through the back door so This Is American Music could hit for the cycle. While the bands continued to drink and rotate, it didn’t seem like such a bad place, this America.
— Steve Forstneger
Category: Live Reviews, Weekly
