It's Taxi Season

By Lizz Kannenberg in Arts & Entertainment on Jan 25, 2008 6:51PM

Chicago's commercial rock community has always excelled in mixing and matching the various ingredients in its talent pool, and usually the results are greater than the sum of its parts (see Treaty of Paris as a prime example). Call it a mark of maturity or just settling into a groove, but there are some strong post-mall punk splinter groups making a statement in the city.

Chief among them is American Taxi, a gang of accessible, ready-to-wear, all-ages-friendly punkers who have risen from the embers of suburban pop punk godfathers Lucky Boys Confusion. Left to their own devices, LBC's Adam Krier and Jason Schultejann bring their vast, van-weary experience and Clash-spattered throwback reggae punk to the forefront of Taxi's sound.

It's a hard-driving, hard-living, singsong style that was often only a backdrop in their previous group, but steps into the spotlight as a fresh take on teen-happy modern rock.

American Taxi plays the Beat Kitchen tomorrow night, 7:30 p.m., $10, all ages