Show review: A Place To Bury Strangers, Apteka, The Big Sleep at The Empty Bottle, 3/21

By Gene Wagendorf III
 

APTBS bursting eardrums

Whether it was online or amongst the smokers on Western and Cortez, there was a whole lot of pre-show hubbub about just how loud the night was going to be. A Place To Bury Strangers have a reputation for playing at volumes that melt fingernails and boil ocular fluid. This is, after all, the band that famously sent earplugs out with copies of 2009's Exploding Head. Hell, they were selling official APTBS hi-fi earplugs at the merch table. There's no doubt that Brooklynite openers The Big Sleep were aware of what they'd be followed by, and boy did they try to compensate.

The Big Sleep kicked off their set with blaring, churning guitars and a healthy lump of distortion. The group's muddy, straight-forward rock showed hints of grooves and a cool riff here and there, but their greatest victory came in making sure they simply weren't pegged as the quiet band on the bill. Overcompensating crunch weighed a few numbers down and almost completely obscured the vocals. The most interesting moment of the set came about midway through, when a stumbling, hungover melody shambled over a stuttered drum beat. By this point I'd drifted back towards the bar, and the change up called for me to refocus. Something cool was about to happen. Instead, the melody found the toilet bowl and burst into a garbled sonic vomit. I'm a fan of noise, but as Charles Bukowski said, "if you're going to try, go all the way." The hooks and structure suggested that The Big Sleep might be better as a focused,  high-octane rock band. In the end, they came across like a group that had yet to commit either way.

Do Divsion Fest recap: Javelin, White Mystery and more

Posted by Andrew Hertzberg

A Place to Bury Strangers being deceptively stoic

And so continues my love / hate relationship with street festivals. It’s a great way to catch up with multiple friends in one public setting, hanging out of doors with great weather after being treated with phenomenally disagreeable Spring. The bands are always rock solid and the positive atmosphere can make even the harshest anti-hippie swoon with love for their city. For the next three months, Chicago is the capitol of the music world. New York, Paris, and London forget about it: we are it. Likewise, the crowds can be claustrophobic and two egg rolls for four dollars is the best deal you can really find. The sound is impossible to control for such a wide spanned audience and with all due respect to the sound guys, well, it really could be better. But, as an attendee of what I consider our Summer’s kickoff music festival, I must write about it. So, without further ado, a very half-assed, half-attentive, alcohol-hazed review: 

Saturday

Javelin

I had seen these guys play an afternoon set at Millennium Park last summer so I knew what to expect: Two guys and a lot of sounds. What they produce on record is amazing. Likewise, they perform with an unworldly energy, the setting sun spilling over the Damen stage not stopping the marathon-stamina jogging-in-place of the percussionist of the duo. The sound was overblowing the soundsystem, but I’ve always viewed Javelin best as background music. Thus, the sample heavy Northeasterners provided a welcoming tune for someone after a rough day at work (oh, if only music blogging could pay the rent). Only caught half the set, but catching 'Vibrationz' was enough to make it worthwhile.