The awkwardly named Australian duo An Horse recently opened a string of dates in the US for Canadians Tegan & Sarah, which means that my friend Nick saw them several dozen times as he followed the tour across the country. Luckily, for him, he liked them quite a bit and was happy to see they were returning to the area, even driving to Chicago to take in another show. Since he is usually in the front row, I wouldn’t have been at all surprised if they started chatting with him from the stage. If they did recognize him they didn’t let on, though judging by their stage conversation (banter isn’t the right word for it) they seemed to consider us all their friends.
“I feel like I’m wearing a painting frock,” guitarist/vocalist Kate Cooper confessed almost immediately. Admittedly, she did look like it, her waiflike frame drowning in a brand new, size small plaid shirt. Despite the fact that she seemed involved in their set, she never quite forgot that she was outfitted for something other than a rock show and she commented on it frequently enough that drummer Damon Cox told her he would wash it in hot water after the show to shrink it. Throughout the night they almost seemed a little too cute to be a band, though I am guessing that went over well with the Tegan and Sarah fans. The crowd was smaller and less familiar than I expected (especially with Whatfor on the bill) but from the looks of it I’m guessing some of them had just come from the T&S message board. Their songs weren’t especially memorable, though they were certainly catchy enough, so it is nice that a band this nice will have a built-in audience wherever they go.
Nick had mentioned that he thought we should all go but it wasn’t until Whatfor was added that I was convinced. Probably the best known of the numerous Sleeping in the Aviary side projects, so many of them seem to exist for one show or recording session, Whatfor allows drummer Michael Sienkowski to step out from behind the kit and strap on a guitar, although sometimes he puts that down to stroll the stage crooning into the microphone. While SitA has its roots in old blues music and punk, Whatfor comes off like Radiohead’s Thom York singing Nuggets classics. Songs like “I’m a Bummer” and the super infectious “Every Time I Call that Girl” are as instantly memorable as “Dirty Water” or “Incense and Peppermint.”
Whatfor’s sing-along, clap-along “People” has also become a regular part of a SitA show and they had performed it as part of the 30 Minute Music Hour they filmed the day before. Andy Moore’s terrific WPT show has hosted many amazing bands but I am pretty sure they had never seen anything like the Sesame Street on acid puppet show that happened that day. Afraid to risk derailing the insanity by doing a regular interview, Moore instead interviewed lead singer Elliott Kozel with a sock puppet. It didn’t surprise me at all, I’ve always known Andy to be a spontaneous host, but it freaked Michael out enough that he was still talking about it the next day, telling the audience about the bizarre experience.
If only opener Pezzetino had been as interesting. Instead the singing, stomping, accordion playing Milwaukeean giggled her way through a set that I kept hoping would either get better or weirder. Going the Weird Al route or having better songs and a better voice would have made her seemingly endless set more entertaining. After listening for a half hour, I realized sadly that she wasn’t a very good accordion player either. Not that it mattered, seeing Whatfor made me happy enough.
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