Not the tasty line up of the last three years (no Andrew Bird, no Kevin Aviance, no Tom Yore, no Tubes, no Safri Duo), this year’s Market Days seems barren of surprises and as suspiciously bland as any number of other street festivals (Elevation?). But if you look (really, really) close you’ll find some sweet surprises.
1. Strain Busy Sky: To these ears one of the best bands out of Chicago live and otherwise. Yeah, S.B.S. is punchy and has bite and they play with a stinging resonance and cohesion that’s rare. And yeah, their Racing the Sun CD is pungent rock/blues with enough lop-sided clowning (they manage to rhyme Bon Jovi and anchovy with a straight face) and un-nerving edge to wake Jackie Wilson. Frontman Phil Trocchio is something unique unto himself. A bona-fide old-school soul man who is both ungimmicky and emotionally naked to the point of vulnerability.
2. Apartment: A nifty art jazz pop band skewed, thanks to mouthpiece Caila Lipovsky’s demented persona toward insanity. But this isn’t the Marilyn Manson straight jacket trip. Lipovsky’s weirdness is subversive with one foot on the ground and the other in some strange reality. Think of Blanche DuBois after she found the pleasures of crack. Better still is that Apartment won’t let you in on the joke—they play it straight. The one time I saw them in a nightclub Lipovsky hurled herself off the stage, running into the audience shrieking with spontaneous fury. Be interesting to see what she does onstage in the light of day.
3. Will Hoge: The best booking of the Fest. A Tennessee rocker equal parts sucker, sincere angel, and sentimental fool, Hoge’s entire oeuvre consists of songs enacted at 4 a.m. on Heartbreak St. Needy love (‘Not that Cool’), irresponsible sex (‘Be the One’), broken hearts/dreams (‘Carousel’)—I doubt Hoge has a clue that his rock and rage has anything to do with Halsted’s history of delusions and smashed dreams. His new Black Bird on a Wire is full of juice, wit, and romantic agony. And with his whiskey-tinged rasp, great drinking/crying songs don’t get any better.
Heads Up; Andrew Bird plays Martyr’s Aug. 8.