Precocious Young Band Gives It Away
By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 18, 2005 5:42PM
The short-hand version: Eisley is primarily a group of talented siblings (a la Hanson) who will be appearing in Chicago to perform a free show at Double Door tonight.
The long-hand version: Eisley started garnering buzz after an appearance at the South By Southwest festival a few years ago. Much of the buzz was built on the band both being incredibly young and primarily composed of siblings. Much ado (almost a creepy amount of ado) was made of how cute the sisters in the band were and how their sound was so ahead of their young years. Comparisons to the Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev were made. Chicagoist was intrigued and followed the group’s progress as they released two EPs over the next two years. We assumed the group was polishing its craft before attempting a full length debut.
We were correct to a degree. The songs on the resulting Room Noises were self-assured and solid. Maybe a bit too solid. The songs were tight and it was obvious the group had spent quite a bit of time on the road (part of that time they were opening for little band named Coldplay...it must've been tough to start at the bottom like that.) Unfortunately the tunes lacked the wide eyed wonder and delicacy of their earlier EPs and the record as a whole ended up sounding generic and lackluster. Chicagoist was not pleased. We lost track of the group. We skipped their local shows. We felt cheated that the hype had, in this case, truly killed what we thought could have been a unique band.
Well, tonight we have a rare opportunity to possibly change our mind. Eisley will be performing a free show this evening at Double Door. This is a much smaller venue than any they have appeared in since the buzz started to snuff their fire and the fact that it’s free gives no one – Chicagoist included – an excuse to miss this chance to re-evaluate the band. The only catch is that tickets are only available here, so click away and print them out. And we, forever the optimist, will hope that Eisley can change our mind.