Sarahindie

The In Crowd: Huh. Bands are still trying to use the Paramore/Hey Monday formula. It’s a little hard to take teenage punks seriously in what feels like a post-pop-punk world, but they’re tight and the teen girls in the audience seem to be liking it. The song that I presume is the single, in that some people seem to know it, is heavy on the synths. This sort of bubblegum punk is what I expect Disney princess Selena Gomez’s Bamboozle-playing band The Scene sounds like, but I’ve never gotten around to actually listening to their music.

After the set, they start handing out 8×10 glossies of themselves. That is a promotional format I have not seen since my NSync days.

This gig is sponsored by the new Slurpee, so we got free slurpee coupons! That’s pretty great. Also, the dj is playing some of the funnest mashups and remixes I’ve heard in a long time.

I’ve lived in Chicago for 25 days and this is first time I’ve ever seen someone in the second row in a pit flag down a cocktail waitress for shots.

Gym Class Heroes: It’s nice to see a band who is a little down on their luck to still have fans who really care and to see that the band still appreciates them. GCH haven’t lost the infectious charm and joy that has always permeated their performances.

Miiiinor criticism: When there’s already six of you on a stage this small, the hype man’s flag is just dangerous.

Also, the band has made some weird personal decisions. Frontman Travie McCoy is looking a little thin and serious. Hypeman Marc DeJesus is like 40% hair now. Bassist Eric Roberts is wearing sunglasses and a leather vest, plus greasy hair like it’s Halloween he’s Tom Cruise in Cocktail.

Sidenote: I hate when bands tell me to put my hands in the air. I have no idea to do with them once they’re there.

Travie asks us to dance and a girl in front of me starts a pretty serious Running Man.

I have never been at a show that was this lightly attended (over the course of the night, we go from about half full to three-quarters, and tickets were only $7.11) but had such an intense front few rows. This band, or at least Travie, is still super important to about 150 people, interesting to about 300, and has kind of fallen out of the public imagination beyond that.

This is my first time hearing their new song, “Solo Discotheque”, and it’s sort of a juvenile version of “Dancing With Myself.” In the sense that I think it’s probably about a real girl,  but it sounds like it’s about, how shall we say, “nocturnal emissions.”

There’s a 55ish dad in a Hawaiian shirt who is getting down. I love him.

Verdict: GCH is back, if you care. Statistically, you don’t.

Jess points out upon entering that this is the most legitimate venue in which we have ever seen Empires. It’s pretty impressive! There’s a bar and a balcony and all. We end up standing right in front of a group of fans who drove up from Tulsa, which makes us feel less lame.

After the band plugs in their shit, the smoke machine starts up. I hope they are going to turn off. It makes it, y’know, hard to see the band. Why don’t bands understand that smoke is just for making light effects look cool. I did not come to see lighting effects.

It’s so foggy by the time the band comes on that they have trouble picking their way between the speakers. Only Empires.

My favorite audience member is a sort of Chicago dudebro in a striped Oxford in the third row who sings along with all the accompanying facial expressions and hand motions like he’s actually on stage. He clutches his dudebros and they all sing and it is adoramazing.

Sartorial notes!: Both Max Steger and the current bassist are wearing leather jackets. It’s not really that cold in here. Sean Van Vleet and tour manager Mike Kodak are wearing the same rolled up Oxford-and-jeans combo as always. Tom Conrad is wearing what looks like a supersoft pullover. Ryan Luciani has a short sleeved white Oxford happening, along with a short haircut that makes it look like he’s working at a country club for the summer. Remember that season of Saved By the Bell? It’s like that. I dig it. Super crisp and clean.

In the last year or so, Tom has really let go onstage, going from a sort of detached thousand-yard stare to throwing himself into his instrument. It really adds something. I think I always want a band to look like they’re having as much fun as me or more.

They do throw a couple of songs from prior album Howl in, despite a promise that they were retiring all those songs at the show on Black Friday. But they serve up a really great version of “Warning Mark”, gritty and a little scuffed up so it fits in with their newer stuff. It serves as a reminder of how they’ve gone from the squeaky clean rock of songs like “Believe” on the first album to the new downright creepy stuff like “Hello Lover.”

I have never seen a “NO FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY” sign as ignored as the one here.

Set List
Bang
Damn Things Over
Voodooized
Shame
Hello Lover
I Know You Know
Warning Mark
Something from the next album? Called Hells, apparently
Midnight Land

Spit the Dark (A one song encore? Oh, Empires.)