A G-Major Complaint...

By Margaret Lyons in Arts & Entertainment on Nov 2, 2007 4:12PM

Eeeeverybody's talking the Complaints Choir of Chicago this week — Daily Herald, Sun-Times, the Trib, Time Out, 848, even UPI — and with good reason. The Complaints Choir is rad! How do we know? Er, Chicagoist is in it. And so are a bunch of Chicagoist readers.

But we'd think it was awesome anyway! Really.

We've covered the choir before, but as a quick refresher: Finnish performance artists and husband-and-wife team Oliver Kotchta-Kalleinen and Tellervo Kalleinen travel the world organizing complaints choirs. Locally, Smog Veil Records' Frank and Lisa Mauceri hooked them up with the Humanities Festival and with musician Jeremy Jacobsen to serve as composer and choral director. Then local folk such as us emailed in complaints, gathered to organize and edit those complaints, and then rehearse the song Jacobsen wrote. It's been kind of a whirlwind — we've only had five rehearsals — but an astonishingly positive experience. There's talk of extending the CCoC's life, and if that happens, we will let you know.

The Complaints Choir is performing two sold-out shows at the MCA tomorrow at 1 and 3 p.m., and we have a show at the Empty Bottle at 8 p.m. on Saturday for a measly $5. You can also catch us at the Bean Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. Some of our favorite complaints in the song: "Buses bunch up worse than granny panties," "my dead grandmother always votes for the wrong candidate," "people eat, text and do their make-up while driving in the bike lane," "is war our only export?," and "too many people believe in the rapture to do anything about global warming." No, those weren't ours.

Screengrab from the Tribune.