Posted: by The Alt Editing Staff
It was a minor miracle that I got there, but I made it to the mahogany wooden interior of Schuba’s Tavern. Such is the power of love, both for my friend who agreed to drive me from Iowa City to Chicago because she wanted to see her girlfriend and for the label putting on the event. Philadelphia-based tape label Julia’s War took over Chicago, sending to the city five of the bands on its excellent roster with Glaring Orchid, Ruth in the Bardo, Melania Kol, Her New Knife, and Hooky.
The first to go on stage was Glaring Orchid. Beforehand, they were being directed to pose at various spots across the empty, lit-up stage floor as a photographer was taking their band portraits. Now they stood up in front of a packed, sold-out hall full of people in glowing anticipation. Glaring Orchid themselves are masters of the loud and quiet type of song structure in a shoegaze, constantly oscillating between the two. It had this effect of feeling like the songs were constantly building up and exploding out without a lulling moment. With each burst the members of the band would put more of their bodies into movement of the songs. They clearly were having fun, and honestly that’s one of the most engaging parts of the band’s set, when it doesn’t look like a chore for them to play.
Ruth in the Bardo went up next. It was just two of them, Ruth Trupiano sitting down behind a microphone and an electric guitar, Pear McKennen seated across from her playing cello. Their performance was a stripped back, folk emphasized version of the sounds on their 2023 album Ars Poetica. The phrase “this is a new song” was uttered about half the time before they began playing. Between each song Trupiano nervously filled up the silent space between songs with rambling banter with the audience. She said that it was because of nervous feelings around the whole situation, and the set sounding bad from her guitar falling out of wack.
But from my position it didn’t feel that way at all. Their whole performance felt deeply earnest with the tender wavering in voice and sound. The two of them felt directly connected, staring directly at each other when playing. Right before the last song, Trupiano addressed the audience. She talked about growing up in the South, being trans, and finding an escape from the environment of hostility by moving to Philadelphia. She dedicated it all to her trans siblings who weren’t able to make it out alive.
The energy progressed immediately afterwards with Melaina Kol and their digital freak folk sensibilities. Logan Hornyak, the man behind the bedroom project, was also seated on stage but looking towards the crowd. With a full band accompanying him, the sound of Melaina Kol live expanded into more dense indie rock style compositions compared to the more lofi bedroom produced sound of the recorded material. A sampler sat on a stool in the front and center of the stage. Despite the prevalence of the full band, they were still organized around what sounds were emitted from the sampler. It helped the vibe of the songs stay more in line with the essence of the raw bedroom recordings instead of morphing entirely into their own thing that happens with a lot of other projects expanding into the live world. It was propelling while still feeling light and blissful.
Emerging next in the dimly lit room was Her New Knife. Spotlights backlit the members of the band so that only the white edges of them outlined their black silhouettes that leered shadows across the floor. They carried themselves with a quiet detached seriousness, which with the dark but stark image attributed to a kind of menacing stage presence. They opened with the song “kittyriff” and played mostly the songs from their new EP chrome is lullaby. Each track translated live sounded nearly identical to the recorded version, which is impressive with how varied in tone the songs are. The grinding bass and discordant guitar chimes were all preserved in the old dance hall.
Guitarist Ben Kachler played with a stoic stillness, often playing with his beanie obscuring his eyes. That contrasted with Edgar Atencio heaving his body downwards into his instrument in the parts that broke from the verses. Sporadically through the set, the band would whip pockets of the audience into pushing mosh pits. Their last song “12r” had enough vigor to connect these isolated little pockets.
It seemed for a moment that most people at Schuba’s that night were there for Her New Knife, because after they had finished playing, the room emptied out significantly. One guy my friend and I were talking to said that he came to see Her New Knife because he missed their opening set the last time they were through and was excited about the hype they were getting. He wanted to see what was up. In return my friend and I were hyping up Hooky to him.
Most of Hooky’s songs have a deep, reverberating sentimentality embedded into them. They hit a certain way that pulse right into your heart on grey rainy days that drip down and sprawl you across the floor, or on silent summer nights spent looking at the solid black sky dotted with the bright stars of streetlights and shadows of powerlines as your thoughts escape into the air. It’s very contemplative with the playful notes tinged by isolation and an air of loneliness.
In Hooky’s live set, the same elements completely flip the performance’s mood. They opened with “EROWID” but instead of crushing down, the song radiated outwards all while the beats felt more spirited. It was like this for other songs like “Heart Eyes,” “Buddy,” and “Pix” where they didn’t as much sting with sentimentality but instead flowed in euphoria. That feeling was infectious, and it had my friend and I in profuse effervescent joy. Everyone had also seemed to have heard the first song and immediately decided to come back.
It was impossible not to be enthralled by what was being played. Scott Turner stood stumming transuding guitar chords and sang into a mic that pitched and warbled his voice. Right beside him Sam Silbert was hunched over his DJ controller furiously whipping his head around to the beats like a dog shaking off water. He continuously kept on throwing his hat and glasses back onto his head only for them to immediately fly off again. Notorious for his unrelenting energy, a couple times he would spin around on the floor or throw his own body into the wall on the stage while still playing. Turner paired this by stumbling across the stage in between verses. Everyone in the room was in love with it all. When they announced they had three more songs and someone in the audience pleaded for a million more songs, Silbert and Turner both leapt up and execute a perfect midair high five exclaiming “one million more songs.” They only played three more, but walking away from seeing Hooky live felt like it played a million more times on.
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John Glab | @glabglabglab_
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