Sunday night in Chicago – after a long three days in Union Park, listening to the likes of Vampire Weekend, Feist, Hot Chip, the Dirty Projectors and so on and so forth, about 200 music lovers wandered over to Lincoln Hall to catch one last Pitchfork music festival afterparty. I just love this city.
Chicago-based foursome, California Wives, started off the night, warming up the crowd for dynamic duo Tanlines. The band has an immediately relatable, mellow-yet-danceable sound, and although most of the crowd hadn’t previously heard of them, they were soon rocking out with abandon. The local sweethearts played some of my favorites including “blood red youth”, “Guilt” and “Tokyo.”
They’ll be releasing their debut album on September 4th, so keep an eye out – I maintain that this band will go onto do great things (not that they’re not doing great things now, they’re just doing great things with a smaller fan base so you can actually get a clear view of them live.)
Tanlines took the stage next. There’s something entirely charming about bands that don’t quite have the ‘polished banter’ routine down. With most of the big names I’ve seen, they might be ‘smooth like a jellyfish’ between songs, chatting it up with the crowd, but you can tell they’re saying the same thing night after night. *Insert city name here.* Tanlines’ banter, on the other hand, consisted of a story about buying scalped tickets to enter Wrigley Field, an apology that they don’t quite have the ‘real band routine’ down, and thus forgot to bring any merch, and besides that, mostly just ‘Hi. We’re Tanlines.’ Yeah you are!
And in between this endearing banter with the crowd, Tanlines rocked out, with the crowd’s full wiggling support. Since most everyone was coming straight from Pitchfork, the crowd was tired and a bit gross, but if there’s any band that you can find some left in the tank for, it’s Tanlines. Percussionist Jesse Cohen lays down the most danceable electronic music that I have ever had the pleasure of hearing, and Eric Emm floats on top of that excellent base with dreamy, introspective lyrics, all merging together to become indie/world music at its finest. Per usual, the band saved the best for last, and busted out as their finale the piece that keeps me coming to their concerts time and time again.
As much of a stickler as I am about getting my eight hours, I would stay up until four o’clock in the morning to hear Tanlines sing that song.
And to top it all off they’re Martha Stewart approved:
http://ourfinds.marthastewart.com/2012/04/25/cooking-crafting-and-cleaning-playlist-april-2012/
I just fail to see how anyone can not love this band.
