Music With Meaning 7

Night 1 - Campy Soft Porn Vs. Deep Punk

We just got home from the launch night of Music With Meaning 7. We smell like cig smoke, stank of cheap beer and our ears are ringing like bells on X-mas morn. Yep, it was a sweet night. It all started with the Liar's Club. We had only been to the spot once before, oh 4 years ago, in a drunken swagger, with some mates looking for some grunge chicks. Needless to say, that long-gone night was a blur. Tonight the musty club on the border of Lincoln Park and no-mans-land seemed to be beaconing a maddening bally-ho in a summer-is-here sort of way. It set the stage.

Altgeld Forgotten brought the nostalgic mosh-pit vibe. Maybe it was the how-to moshing video on the tube? Maybe it was some form of manic love for bygone-angst, leaking out of the former weekend junkies, former black-leather madmen - now - cubicle workers, 9-to-5 servants, rebeling against their oppression of the moment. But we saw it - a mosh pit - yes indeed, a 4-5 person mosh pit formed. Not upfront, not centerstage for all the see, just in the middle-back. Returning to yester-year. (this was Altgeld Forgotten's first show, sort of. They played Music With Meaning 1. Yep, 6 years ago as Orefisaurus)

Paper Bullets had to compete with the tube too. Some sort of campy-seventies-soft-porn was crying for attention, but Paper Bullets drown it out with force. Paper Bullets dropped punk without any abrasion or exlusion. It felt somehow delicate yet deep. Oh, it was certainly deep. Traci Trouble is deep. She fronts the band like a goddess of bottom-feeding Biker-dudes. She takes control. The band is individualistic, but she is a power. Chris Ott on drums...like a speed-freak-schizo about to break his skins. If you want to get amped, this is your band.

If this was night 1... i can't wait to see what the upcoming nights hold!

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