great time last night. highlights were definitely HLH and Spunk. Surprised no one has made mention of the breakdown in Scheme (I believe it was Scheme) where Matt started scatting with his lead organ, which he probably shouldn\'t do (or start practicing a lot) because he\'s lacking the scat skills and looked awkward the entire time, and then the whole band went into a vocal jam while Ron continued to play bass.. it actually dropped into a straight hip-hop beat with Matt literally rapping (this was pretty cool), Tim backing up with some rhymes and beats, and Adrian throwing some higher pitched sounds in. If I remember correctly that all went down after Adrian\'s drum solo in scheme. I could be wrong though, but nonetheless, it did happen.
The show opened shaky though, and the sound was 100% to blame. The bass was drowning out almost everything, especially the drums and keys. Tim still came through a bit but the mix was way off until HLH. The sound guy didn\'t appreciate me and my buddy telling him the bass had to come down but it was absolutely obvious in my opinion. It ended up working out though, and the sound quality actually went from horseshit to phenomenal during HLH.
Speaking of Harry, absolutely absurd! They stretched it out and peaked gloriously, brought it down gradually and spaced out the unfinished close. Just great shit, I can\'t wait to listen to it again. Slow Tricky Ways is the way to go, imo. It was definitely appropriate for Chicago. I think Tim\'s voice actually sounded better than it being uptempo and I\'m just generally a bigger fan of classic, blues lead-guitar pace, especially with Tim\'s limitless skills. Matt sounded okay in TW.
Question Mark was a big surprise and I loved hearing it live. Standard, I guess, but a tune I never expected to hear and I\'ve always loved it on Deuce. Score is always tasty, works as a boogie-channel every time. But I did notice that Ron seemed tired and continued to through the rest of the show. Don\'t get me wrong, he still sounded good, he\'s a professional and a damn impressive one at that, but I\'ve seen him much more into it than last night which usually works for more creativity and thump. Tim and Adrian were feeling damn good though.
Then cam Spunk. I don\'t know how long Spunk was but I completely forgot what was going on and got lost in some incredible shit for a looong time. Perhaps the rap breakdown was in Spunk actually, I don\'t know, but they went to places I\'ve never heard them, or anyone for that matter, go. When it dropped back into a specific lick of Spunk I was shocked and fell back to Earth feeling "goose-pimply alll over". Unbelievable, it\'s just hard to describe what was going on. Fuck, as I\'m thinking this I remember a jam where Matt\'s piano laid down the perfect tone for something drawn out and beautiful. Scheme perhaps? Shit, everything is getting twisted now. Scheme, anyways, was an absolute treat. People say "heard one heard em all"... I say "I wish to hear them all". The song will never get old to me, it\'s a lyricless anthem that puts me in a fucking fantasy world every time. I feel like I should be climbing a glowing copper strato, barefoot as the sun smerks at me, all the while Scheme pumping through a lush jungle-land below. Ha, that\'s ridiculous, but I love it every time. Adrian tore up his drum solo per usual.
The encore was solid closure, but not gonna lie I was hoping for more being that the bar didnt close for at least another hour. I guess I\'ll just have to settle for 2.5 straight hours of goodness.
Overall, the show was great as always. To be honest, I think Matt is a necessity to the band being that keys are a necessity to this band. The layer of the organ really allows jams to get where they need to go. I think he is clearly talented, but I\'m not going to say I was that stoked on his overall stage presence and solos as an individual. Things seemed unnatural more than a few times, especially when he stepped up to the mic. He fits in well for awhile, and others not so much. I do, however, love the fact that shit in general seems more experimental. And, once again, the organ is just so good to hear underneath the Trio. I\'ll give the show a 7.5-8, knowing they have potential to own last night in Madison and really hope they do. I also need more Oestricher to get past the awkwardness I felt watching him last night.
btw, Tim had some good banter last night, one quote about Oprah Winfrey (during Spunk? I think) that I can\'t recall specifically but was funny, and he congratulated Chicago on finally getting Fat Tire and then took a gulp of his Fat Tire.
