Concert Review: Mucca Pazza @ The Empty Bottle on 4/9/2009

Imagine a bunch of ex-marching band geeks coming together for a reunion with a lot of drinking, and a lot more life experience than they had at age 17 and you will find Mucca Pazza. The Empty Bottle was as hopping as I've seen it last Wednesday for the Chicago based, 31- piece, marching-band extravaganza.

Opening with gypsy rocker Jason Webley, the stage was set for more than just a concert, but an experience. Covering Neutral Milk Hotel, directing the audience to participate as the strings and horns sections of another song, and then guiding everyone in 12 twirls to being wasted, The Empty Bottle was transformed from a Chicago, garage rock main-stay to the seedy underbelly of an early, 20th century, Paris bal-musette. Webley's aura was other worldly and acted as the perfect precursor to what can only be described as sheer spectacle.

Enter the trombones, saxophones, trumpets, drums, and cheerleaders, infiltrating the audience and enveloping the entire joint in sound. Jubilant yet dark, Mucca Pazza's marching band gone wrong motif hearkens to the current popularity of gypsy rock in the vein of Golgol Bordello and Devotchka. The nostalgia of their theme, twisted by sheer nerd-dom and the love of play is contagious and the audience was further transported. Away from the Empty Bottle and into an atmosphere of their own making, Mucca Pazza demanded that we engage in their world. How can one ignore a tuba player in full marching regalia ooompah-ing out a tune right next to him?

The dramatics of their act seem to be as important as ever this day in age, when we are all seeking imaginative and escapist entertainment. Mucca Pazza offers it up, a portal to another time, to days past when the was future still so far ahead of us. I left the Empty Bottle last Wednesday, sated, yet feeling that I was on the brink of something. Watching strings and electric guitars and bass drums beat rigorously around the small space, I couldn't help but be touched by the innovation that is the music collective and what the need for community with other artists can produce. One might say I "drank the Kool-Aid," but why not? Mucca Pazza has fully earned the reputation that precedes them and their performance April 9th was no exception.

Published on Mon, 13 Apr 2009 09:56:51 www.thedelimagazine.com/chicago

Very Truly Yours Concert Preview

Very Truly Yours at first listen can be likened to riding a wave of nostalgia. Sweet, lilting, late summer pop-songs give away the band's August inception and make a body yearn for a warm and hazy afternoon. Reminiscent of early Belle and Sebastian, the band sets the scene for their sound in story form on their myspace page, writing:

"One day a girl found a message in a bottle. The message was from a person she'd never met in a place she'd never been. Every day, the girl would read the message and every night she would write a song. She would imagine all the things the person would do, the things they would see and the sounds they would hear. This went on for some time until one day the little girl took all of the songs and put them in a bottle. She went down to the ocean where she found the message and wrote a letter telling the person about all the songs she'd written about them. She signed the letter "Very Truly Yours" and threw the bottle into the ocean, hoping it might one day it might reach that place she'd never been and find the person she'd never met."

Opening for The Pains of Being Pure at Heart at Schuba's in February and recently catching the eye of The Sun Times', Jim Derogatis, Very Truly Yours has created quite a buzz in their 8 months as a band. Catch them this Thursday, April 9th at 9pm at the Bottom Lounge with Peter Adams and Nathan Xander. Show is 21+ and tickets are $5 in advance, $8 at the door.

Published on 4/8/09 at www.thedelimagazine.com/Chicago