Re-Viewed: Morningwood / The Sounds
By Julene McCoy in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 21, 2006 7:23PM
Last night, after being inspired by ourselves, we headed over to the Metro for The Sounds and Morningwood show to see if these girls really do just wanna have fun.
Morningwood was up first. Upon taking the stage Chantal Claret bade us all good morning and proceeded to dance all over the stage to "Nu Rock" an anthem that proclaims that the rock revolution begins now. Chantal's uber-rockstar antics began in earnest during "New York Girls" when she jumped into the area between the stage and the barricade, grabbed a boy by the head and forced his face right between her breasts for the duration. Before "Body 21" Chantal asked us all to start a grind pit and she jumped right in riding a guy horsey back through the dancing crowd.
Filling out the set was "Nth Degree" where the band got their workout on ala the video. And, no Morningwood show would be complete without Chantal proving once and for all that she can get anyone to do whatever she desires by having two girls grace the stage during "Take Your Clothes Off" and handcuffing the two lovelies together while placing herself between them for the undressing. Nothing like a partially clad three lady grindfest or, perhaps, a Chantal sandwich. Morningwood ended it all with "Jetsetter" complete with a cheerleading routine with poms from Chantal.
While waiting for The Sounds to come on, we started to fear that nothing could top the energy of Morningwood, but no sooner did that thought cross our minds when the lights went down in the house and we heard over the speakers, "Just a small town girl, livin' in a lonely world..." The entire crowd erupted into song. Right after the drum solo between verses, the stage lights shone onto The Sounds banner at the back of the stage and the band entered to a screaming crowd and began it all with "Queen of Apology". The Sounds played a couple new songs including "Song With a Mission" which contains some rockin' cowbell. Maja interacted with the crowd by stage diving and sitting on the edge of the stage when she wasn't dancing around in her heels and tiny black dress.
The comparisons to Blondie rang true for a couple of songs like "Mine For Life" where Maja does a pseudo-rap at the beginning of the song and the rolling bassline and synth harken to the New Wave era. The slower "Rock n Roll" and "Hope You're Happy Now" ended out the set before they came back for the encore. "Dance With Me", "Fire" (a crowd fave) and "Ego" were the choices to rock us to the end of the show.
The night was alot of fun because the crowd was totally into it, the bands gave it their all and put on a show that would be just as perfect on an arena stage. It was the ladies taking control and getting exactly what they wanted. It's about time! The revolution has begun and The Sounds and Morningwood are leading the way. Chicagoist doesn't think we will have to go back to staring at our shoes for quite a while with music like this becoming the norm.