Take Me Down to Headache City

By Sarah Dahnke in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 2, 2007 6:55PM

You might think you don't want to go down to Cal's on Wells tonight, but trust us, you do. Two of Chicago's most buzzed-about garage pop bands, CoCoComa and Headache City will set up shop tonight, and our prediction is that the combination of both bands on one bill may actually cause the world to implode, or at least the southern half of Wells Street. You kind of don't want to miss it.

Ok, so Headache City and CoCoComas consist of overlapping band members (Lisa Roe and Mike Fitzpatrick play in both bands), and they can both easily be classified as "garage punk" bands. But they sound significantly different. Headache City is the type of band lazy music critics can easily compare to the Pixies. Their songs are short, fast, structured and very heavy on male vocals. But something you won't notice unless you see the band live is how Lisa may in fact be the most energetic drummer since Animal from The Muppets. More impressive is that she supplies back-up vocals in almost every song, while simultaneously going into full-body drum convulsions.

CoCoComa on the other hand sounds like a shit storm, in the best way possible. Their music isn't as tight and calculated as Headache City, but it's usually a hell of a lot more fun, which is probably a result of the fact the band started as a "ah, fuck it" kind of side project. A few lucky people were present to see the band at one of the Empty Bottle's free Monday shows, and it may be safe to say that no one in the crowd that night has quite recovered from the attack of awesomeness. In fact, Pete Toalson, program coordinator at the Bottle, told Time Out Chicago recently that not only did the show sell out and the band "devastate," but "people are still talking about it."

If you miss this show, which you shouldn't, both bands are scheduled to play a handful of shows in Chicago this summer before hitting the road for a fall tour. So you might get a few more chances to witness the bands live, that is, unless we were right about that whole world implosion thing ...

Headache City and CoCoComa play with Turpentine Brothers at Cal's, 400 S. Wells, tonight at 9 p.m.

Headache City fisheye photo via ElectrikCandyland.