Getting Pulled In By The Undertow Orchestra
By Jocelyn Geboy in Arts & Entertainment on Feb 20, 2006 5:00PM
Last Friday night, we braved the deep freeze of February and headed over to the Park West to see the Chicago stop of the Undertow Orchestra. We were drawn by way of Will Johnson (also of Centro-matic), but we were familiar with Mark Eitzel (also of American Music Club), and curious about the music and musings of Vic Chesnutt and David Bazan (also of Pedro the Lion).
The Park West was sparsely attended this evening, and there were tables and chairs set down on the main floor. We had a front row seat to the proceedings, which seemed to be four friends hanging out, singing each other's songs and cracking wise. At one point, they paid thanks to their mutual friend and manager Bob Andrews (Undertow) who was in attendance. He was the one who had said that it would be his dream to see the four of them up on stage together. And so it was.
The evening's mood was somewhat reverent, as the crowd was pin-drop quiet for the whole evening. Being laughers, we sometimes laughed at things said on stage, and could hear ourselves echoing into eternity. It made for interesting banter, however, as the silent tension produced an energy that allowed for random tidbits about life on the road and their friendships.
There were songs of "death and transit," from David Bazan, and solo material from Will Johnson. One of the highlights of the evening was a song by Vic Chesnutt. He prefaced it with this introduction: "Those last two songs were autobiographical. The next song I'm going to sing in a character... Uncle Sam. The name of the song is IRAQ. Don't miss the metaphor. Deal?" The picture he had painted was so striking that we don't think *anyone* missed the metaphor.
Mark Eitzel can be somewhat of a question mark as a performer. Is he going to be moody? Throw a temper tantrum? Be reasonably sociable? He was in good spirits and even commented as such: "I'm happy to be here...it's fucking amazing. Well, I already had my nervous breakdown. " Will Johnson: "Yeah, you quit the band the first show. Actually, after the soundcheck for the first show." Mark: "Yeah, I had to take a loonnng walk." Will: "But you came back."
The night was filled with these sorts of friendly exchanges, jokes, laughs amongst themselves; talking about life on the road in a tour van was a theme. It was sort of like being voyeur to a bullshit session and then the music would kick in and everything else was sort of blurred for awhile. They each sang three songs, and then they rotated to sing three songs again. It was a night full of music, full of harmonies, full of guitars and full of ache. There wasn't a whole lot of joy from the Orchestra, but we left feeling glad we came.
Images via smussyolay.