In Pictures: Rubblebucket At Lincoln Hall
By Samantha Abernethy in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 23, 2012 10:10PM
Rubblebucket threw a wild dance party at Lincoln Hall last night, and just when you thought the band was settling in to just play a nice fun set, things kept getting wilder. Lead singer Kalmia Traver connected with the crowd immediately, singing furiously, then blowing away on her saxophone. Traver ventured out into the crowd at least three times: once just to dance, once to high-five a robot and once following the trombone and the trumpet through the room.
The stage act borrows from performance art in a way some electronic acts have been doing. There were men operating giant silver robot puppets wandering through the crowd. At one point, a man dressed as a police officer came up on stage and chased trumpeter Alex Toth, pantomiming a little fight. It ended with the police officer dancing and playing a tambourine. And then the band came out for their encore and plugged themselves into vests covered in flashing blue lights.
The show doesn't need those distractions because the music can keep the show going on its own. Musically, the band isn't afraid to deviate from the source material, throwing in some extra jam sessions between verses. They threw in a great cover of Blondie's "Rapture" too. But Rubblebucket just kept pushing the envelope. They were relentless. We left Lincoln Hall wondering what the hell we just watched and when can we see it again. See our previous post for a clip from their DVD Live in Chicago if you want to see it.
The crowd was the best we've seen in a while. It was full, but not crowded; young, but not inconsiderate; in good spirits, but not drunk. By the end of the night it felt like we were all just friends dancing at a wedding reception. Every one was moving.
The crowd was sufficiently warmed up by the time Rubblebucket got on stage, too. Kellen & Me was a promising opener. He is a one-man band, singing and playing the guitar over looped samples of himself. The schtick of a musician playing with himself (there's no way to make that not sound dirty) can get sticky logistically, but Kellen pulled it off and had the early crowd hooked.
The best way to describe The Growlers is to say: They're from California. Their look, their sound... it's like they rolled out of a tent on the beach and rode their surfboards to Chicago. The singer mumbles and groans and, well, growls over familiar surf sounds drenched in psychedelic reverb. Their music is simultaneously dark and danceable. It'd make the perfect soundtrack for a film about ghosts going surfing. It was an understated performance with just a little soft swaying from lead singer Brooks Nielsen, while the crowd danced like mad. Nielsen barely even shrugged when a reveller jumped on stage to join him.
In the future, we'll be sure to add all of these acts to our calendars. In pen.