Journey To the Regions Of "The Outer Minds"
By Michele Lenni in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 21, 2010 6:40PM
Saturday night at The Empty Bottle was a true journey into the regions of "The Outer Minds." If you were looking to get your face rocked off with the vintage sounds of piercing '60s-inspired garage rock and the staccato pounding rhythms of a Vox organ, then that was the place to be for sure. Zach Medearis and his band The Outer Minds took us on a voyage through past genres and beyond. A full stage comprised of three vocalists, one loud-ass guitar, organ, bass, drums and tambourine was a barrage of vociferous, yet finely tuned music that arrested the crowd and even had some of them dancing along.
For a band that has been together for less than a year, we were insanely impressed with not only how each song had us immersed in each passing bar, but also had us humming some of the songs from their set on our way home that night. Medearis and his gang are a tight group with an ability to fascinate the crowd and keep them involved even though they were the first band to take the stage that evening. Even though The Outer Minds are in no way reinventing the wheel with their vintage, a-la Question Mark and the Mysterions, garage sound, they do what they do extremely well and we think much like other Chicago garage rock band White Mystery, they will soon generate a lot of buzz in the months to come.