Show review: Austra, Young Galaxy, Tasseomancy at Empty Bottle

By Reagan Healey

Austra

I’m going to get right to it. This show was packed –like, ridiculously packed. Seriously, Empty Bottle, how many fire codes did you break? It was Canadian invasion night on Western Avenue this Monday, with shortlisted 2011 Polaris Music Prize nominees Austra returning to Chicago and the Empty Bottle on the last leg of their US tour with opening acts Young Galaxy and live collaborators Tasseomancy. It was about as cramped as I’ve ever been at that venue, but I’d be lying if I said the capacity crowd wasn’t entirely merited. In the spirit of full disclosure, I’d like to submit that the whole thing was pretty fucking awesome from beginning to end.

If I left it at that, though, I would be leaving a lot out.

I spent some time in my album review of Chicago three-piece Pillars and Tongues’ The Pass and Crossings discussing how acts that blend gothic mysticism and natural imagery with electronic instrumentation seem to have utterly taken the current music scene hostage. If that’s true, then this concert was undeniable evidence that the hostage situation is reaching a breaking point. Tasseomancy, fronted by twin sisters Sari and Romy Lightman, take their name from the practice of divining the future by examining tea leaves and wine dregs. If you can think of a hipper, more mystical name, I’m all ears –I mean c’mon, tea leaves and wine dregs, just wow. Dressed like a Romanian gypsy and an androgynous matador, they kind of resembled the ghosts of Bat For Lashes both Present and Future (respectively).

I’m not saying it was corny. Joined on stage by Austra drummer Maya Postepski, they delivered a perfect juxtaposition of witchy harmony with a tasteful blend of electronic and acoustic instrumentation. Of course, they also dedicated the show to a gay rooster named Henry. They elaborated more on that, but it was difficult to make out through their ghostly whispers –turns out speaking up is antithetical to being enigmatic. But why criticize the banter if the songs were solid, right? They certainly were, and Tasseomancy is also a lot of fun to watch, too. For some reason, being twins happens to go really well with acting supernatural, and they really acted the part. Romy was especially transfixing as she seemed to have perfected a dance gleaned in one part from a legitimate gypsy and in another from a strange old lady in church. When Tasseomancy joined Austra onstage later in the night as Katie Stelmanis’s backing singers, Romy threatened to upstage even Stelmanis herself.