Empty Bottle Announces 'Friends of the Bottle' Annual Pass

Death From Above 1979's favorite Chicago venue, Empty Bottle, announced today that for the first time ever it is releasing year-long passes that entitles card-holders to certain perks. The $150 standard "FOB" pass gets you free entry to any $10-and-under show, exclusive pre-sale access to shows $10+, a free drink at every show, line-skipping, and other stuff. It can be purchased here. The $500 (!) "FOB Gold" pass gets you all of the above, except you get free entry to every Empty Bottle show regardless of the $10 demarcation line. It can be purchased here. Anybody doing this? I'm curious who is willing to drop $500 on unlimited Empty Bottle shows for a year.

Peelander-Z: Greatest Live Band?

Now, the title "greatest" is obviously a subjective measure. And a great live band can take on many forms. The "greatest" live performance could be your favorite band playing your favorite song in your favorite club. The "greatest" live band could be a band you don't really think much of until you see them live, then they just knock it out of the park. Bands like Art Brut or Girl in a Coma. But, I'm here to argue that the title really belongs to Peelander-Z (@peelanderz).

I bought tickets awhile back to go see Those Darlins (@those_darlins) at Empty Bottle this past Wednesday (review to come in a later post), but I had no idea what I was in store for with opening act Peelander-Z. Never heard of them. Self-described as "the Japanese Action Comic Punk Band based in NYC," think of a combination of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Gwar. The band is so over-the-top goofy, and in the warmest "we're-here-to party-and-make-you-laugh-and-dance-your-ass-off" way possible, that I, and the rest of the crowd, were swooning. Your typical Wednesday night hipster Empty Bottle crowd was instantly won over - transformed from stand back, not approach the stage, to full-on dance party. 


It was so good, I went again the next night at Schubas. I wasn't the only one. See this band.

Enslaved @ House of Blues 5/6/9

I haven't listened to an Enslaved album since about 1998.  I think I may have saw them live at Milwaukee Metal Fest around that time, but I can't really remember.  If it weren't for this show, I might not have remembered this band ever existed. During the show, I kept thinking that the black metal scene has changed quite a bit since then, but it wasn't until the very last song of the 45-minute set that I realized what it was.  Sure, the corpse face paint is now gone, as are the bullet belts, chains and spikes (at least on stage - some in the crowd seem to be stuck in the '90s metal scene) - but that's not all that's changed.  I don't really keep up with metal at all any more, but I got to see (local band) Nachtmystium last winter at the Empty Bottle, and they were terrific. Enslaved seems to have just been past by. Their sound is a lot more polished, and their newer material is hardly black metal at all. And that's when it hit me. On their last song, they finally played something I recognized, and it was the stripped-down, treble-heavy, all screaming affair that coincides with what I grew up to know as black metal.  The rest of their set is some sort of black-metal hybrid that can't help but sound more commercial (as if anybody mainstream would buy this stuff).  It's not what "black metal" was meant to be. After all, the front man of Mayhem killed himself, in part, because he was starting to attract fans. Black metal has matured, and seems to have moved past the gothic stage show it once was and towards concentrating on the music itself, as it should be. Unfortunately, for Enslaved, this seems to have escaped their capabilities. I admit I haven't sampled much current black metal to get a sense of the scene today, but if Nachtmysitum is any example, there are bands representing the movement far better these days.

Fucked Up @ Empty Bottle 2/14/9

Fucked Up, is one of those bands that has to be seen live, if only to see what antics the front man Damian Abraham will do.  At the Empty Bottle this night, it meant he stripped down to his underwear, crowd surfed (or attempted to), and slid down the railing on his naked belly.  Oh, and he hugged me with his sweaty beer belly and rubbed my head.  He also screamed a lot.  For a fan of this long-running band, its current iteration is a lot of fun.  I'm a noob when it comes to FU, but I love the new album, and the show was a lot of fun. Others in attendance didn't share my enthusiasm.