Red Red Meat reunite!

Red Red Meat
Hideout, Chicago
Thursday, July 10, 2008

The grin on Red Red Meat frontman Tim Rutili’s face was eerily similar to the one on Steve Albini’s puss two years earlier. Then, during Big Black’s three-song reunion, Albini cracked: “I know what you’re thinking: ‘What’s the big deal?'” During the Meat’s, Rutili was more succinct: “This is weird.”

In reality, it wasn’t. Thursday’s Meat meet — the first official one in 10 years, not counting an unannounced opening stint for Calexico/Iron & Wine — was merely a chance to hear some old songs. Califone, which Rutili began as a solo project immediately after RRM’s demise, commonly involves his former bandmates, so much so Ben Massarella is as essential to it as its founder. So no one expected any rust, even though Brian Deck and Tim Hurley less-frequently contribute. Califone might seriously discuss the parameters of pop music based on interactions between the organic and mechanical, but none of the Chicago vets had any trouble remembering what it was like to be in a rock band.

Nostalgically, it’s hard to remember Red Red Meat in the contexts of the “next Seattle” Chicago alt-rock community of ’92/’93. It’s mostly because Califone and ubiquitous-producer Deck have always kept the old band’s sound so close at hand, rattling on as an influence to Iron And Wine, Modest Mouse, Fruit Bats, and countless others. Rutili and some fans briefly mocked Billy Corgan at Hideout, but Smashing Pumpkins (or Urge Overkill or Material Issue or . . . ), despite touring with them, were never part of the equation. In fact, while the others tried to fall in line with the industry, RRM signed to Sub Pop and almost immediately began deconstructing their sound.

On Thursday, they kept the audience off balance by slicing through their catalog without deferring to chronology. Brimming with energy, Rutili practically spat the opening lines of “Stained & Lit,” and later had difficulty containing the dragging pace of “Gauze” — nearly turning its malfunctioning-slideshow imagery into an anthem. Other than “Braindead,” which remains Rutili’s finest vocal performance, the band seemed most comfortable when the deconstructo fuzz-blues pace increased, as on “Rosewood, Wax, Voltz + Glitter” and “Taxidermy Blues In Reverse.”

But the evening’s most exciting piece came early, not with a revelation of plans to record, but a punishing rendition of “There’s A Star Above The Manger Tonight.” It began with a Reconstruction-era banjo lick (played on guitar) and before long collapsed into a jagged, discordant heap. But before you could think “Was that about Christmas?” Massarella and Deck’s synchronized pounding muscled past Rutili and Hurley’s destabilizing effects and exploded in a rapturous thunderclap. Following the script isn’t part of Red Red Meat’s story, but this only added their unpredictable reputation.

(No urine was harmed in this performance.)

— Steve Forstneger

Category: Live Reviews, Weekly