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| Ortolan |
Chicago dance-rockers Bring Your Ray Gun seem poised for a remarkable future. The new-ish group took the stage at Pancho's with veteran swagger and a genuine desire to make people move. Heather Perry's catchy bass-lines meshed well with some tight drumming to create grooves that, well typical of the genre, never fell victim to predictability. Every now and then the guitar seemed to want to lead Bring Your Ray Gun into more all-out-rock-attack territory, only to have its leash pulled at the perfect moment. Lead singer Josh Lambert has a bit of Eric Paul in him, 'cept that Lambert looks like he's having the time of his life onstage. It's that sentiment that really carries the band- you get the feeling they'd almost rather be dancing in the crowd than making the music. Almost. The vibe was so contagious that Pancho himself was behind the bar grinning like a fool and jamming on a wood block. With a debut EP slated for August, it'd be a shame if BYRG weren't gigging outside somewhere in the city this summer. They have "street festival show stealer" written all over them.
However, I'd be wrong to suggest that BYRG stole this show. The main course for the evening was dessert, or more specifically, Ortolan. Wine Spectator explains that "for centuries, a rite of passage for French gourmets has been the eating of the Ortolan. These tiny birds—captured alive, force-fed, then drowned in Armagnac—were roasted whole and eaten that way, bones and all, while the diner draped his head with a linen napkin to preserve the precious aromas and, some believe, to hide from God." My experience musically devouring Ortolan was presumably just as sweet, though without the crunchy death or theological shame.
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