Intonation Music Festival - Day Two Recaps
By Julene McCoy in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 27, 2006 12:16AM
Chicagoist awakened Sunday morning to grey skies and rain. Luckily, Day Two of the Intonation Music Festival was anything but dreary. Following are some recaps of the performances that we liked best (and, boy, narrowing that down was a hard decision).
Before the clouds even had a chance to dissipate, we were blown away by the Tyrades. Finally, a pure and simple punk band. We loved Jenna Tyrade's screams and the whole band's assaultive attitude. Day Two's openers set the bar for the rest of the day with their dancing, screaming, and breaking of instruments. As it says in our notes, "F*ck Yeah - Punk Rock!!!"
The Constantines, out of Toronto, are a band that we think all of our friends would be happy to go see. With the country cadences of "Soon Enough", the soft vocals and more psych-leaning "Hotline Operator", and the punkier sound of "Draw Us Lines" - there is something there for almost everyone. Playing their 500th show Sunday, we hope they don't get lost in the crowd of indie rock coming out of Canada.
Quite honestly, Chicago's own Rhymefest blew us away with his everyman lyrics. Rhymefest has been more behind the scenes helping co-write songs, but is hoping that the belated July 11th release of Blue Collar will finally get him to where he wants to be. "Bullet", "Fever", and "Brand New" all perpetuate the buzz regarding how Rhymefest raps about the everyday lives of the regular, working class people. At times the lyrics are political, but politics really do affect our lives more than we'd like to admit.
Jon Brion gave us a glimpse into his shows in LA by bringing up a couple friends to help him play. For Sunday's set he brought up Benmont Tench (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers) on piano and Glenn Kotche (Wilco) on drums for several songs in order to give his hard-working sampler a rest. For some reason Brion doesn't come off as self-indulgent when he's the only man up there, unlike Jack White's attempts at the same thing during the last White Stripes tour.
A few more thoughts on the other performances of Sunday: The Sword was our favorite of the metal acts because of their lightning quick play. And, nothing bad can be said about Robert Pollard's set, nor Lupe Fiasco's. Sunday had a few lulls, but mainly the line-up kept us finding ourselves lost in the music. Bloc Party ended it with all the pretty lights and smoke necessary to put the final note on this year's Intonation Music Fest.