The Heavy Are, Um, Heavy

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on May 9, 2008 4:45PM

Coming on like Curtis Mayfield in a Mack truck, The Heavy are a UK-based fivesome that takes both their soul and their rock in equal doses. Frontman Swaby's vocals occupy that sweet spot between flawless falsetto and lascivious drawl. The band backs his sexy crooning with a melange of beats and instruments plucked from the '70s and shoved through a hip-hop shredder feeding directly into a tube-blown analog console. They can craft a suitably quiet come-on like "Girl" that dampens pants while delivering an honestly solid dose of soul, and then just as easily construct a massive wall of horns, caterwauling guitars, and thundering drums to propel a neu-Blaxploitation theme like "That Kind Of Man." Clothes will be shed at this show.

Opening is Rocktapussy, the new electronic project from Chess Hubbard and Jessica Gonyea (formerly of OFFICE). Judging by the snippets from their MySpace page the output sounds pretty much like DJ sets we've heard from either one -- not a bad thing at all -- but we're guessing that this tag-team duo has a few audience participatory tricks up their collective sleeve to amp things up and blow the show over the top.

The Heavy plays Darkroom tonight, 2210 W Chicago, 9 p.m., $5 after 11 p.m., 21+

Photo from the band's MySpace page