Human Television @ Schuba's Tavern - 7/22/06

And thus begins what will hopefully turn out to be the best month of live music in my life. I had intended to travel to Wicker Park for their Summer Fest on Saturday after I got off work. The weather was too unpredictable though, and the gloomy sky made me decide to wait until Sunday. Instead I went up to Schuba’s Tavern by myself. I had never seen a show there and it was long overdue. Schuba’s claim is to have live music of various genres every single night. And by the way, it really is a tavern. The music room is small and sleek, with little tables lining the two side walls. The stage has carved wooden arches overhead, and the overall setting is very intimate. The show on Saturday was Human Television, Avagami and Bound Stems opening.

I arrived around 9:45 pm and entered the music room. At 10 pm, Chicago group Avagami took the stage. Avagami is, in the spirit off the current trend of duos, a two man band. One plays drums and handles electronic samples, and the other sings and plays saxophone. Their MySpace identifier is “psychedelic/new wave/jazz.” Think that sounds mind boggling? It makes more sense than you might believe. Just imagine Devo (that robotic 80’s new wave group with red conic hats) crossed with Miles Davis (maybe late 50’s era). Then throw in the palpable energy of a duo like Mates of State. When the samples expired, the drums and saxophone often exploded into freestyle escapades. A few times the drummer would solo while the other performed interpretive dance. Overall it was highly entertaining. I recommend checking them out at Beat Kitchen on August 10.

The next group was Bound Stems, who are also based in Chicago and are currently members of Flameshovel Records’ line-up. Having heard a few clips of their 2005 EP, The Logic of Building the Body Plan, I knew enough to expect some noisy indie rock. Since they’ve been a prominent act in the Chicago music scene over the past year, the crowd swelled to its largest level of the night during their set. The group has a guy on vocals/guitar, a girl on vocals/keyboard/etc, then lead guitar, bass, and drums. The result is like a midwestern Modest Mouse with definite Broken Social Scene aspirations. It was disappointing to hear the two vocalists often singing the same words in the same key, instead of complimenting each other with some sort of harmony. However, they did command the crowd, and I appreciated how much fun the group was obviously having. I could see them expanding their sound to something more powerful with national potential or beyond. I’ll be sure to check out their new album Appreciation Night, which releases on Flameshovel September 19.

There’s not much to say about the headliner, Human Television. They boast impressive influences that actually set the bar a little too high for their current abilities. Their group play was tight, but their unexciting state presence requires that the music do the talking. And the truth is that their music said too little for me to stay through their entire set.

I’ll try to cover all the live music I witness over the next few weeks, which should include day 2 of the Wicker Park Summer Fest, Camera Obscura at Logan Square this Friday 8/28, Pitchfork Music Festival, and Lollapalooza. So check back soon!

MySpace pages (where you can find band website links):
Avagami
Bound Stems
Human Television