by Alex Danger Stewart
Who: The Braves, Joie De Vivre, Heather Perry & The ____’s, Warren Franklin
When: 11/14/09, Night time
Where: CJ’s in Rockford, IL
When it comes to Rockford music, the Braves are one of those bands. Everyone in the Rockford music scene (and for all intents and purposes, the Rockford scene means the Downtown scene. I know there are bands playing original music at Oscar’s or Cousins, but c’mon. Eww!) has either spent many, many nights playing with the Braves, or came up watching them.
As a Byronite I’m probably much newer to local music than most. I completely missed the entire Divine Cup era that all of my peers speak so highly of (I swear it wasn’t my fault. None of my friends had cars until like 2004 and we weren’t cool enough to know anything was happening). My local music intake at the time was from whenever a Rockford band would take the hit to play for free at Byron’s only all ages venue, The Friday Night Club (gotta love church youth groups) and whatever music my high school friends were playing. My interest was certainly raised when Nate Kirschmann started teaching at Byron, but the largest crowds were still assembled for Killing Abraham and that time Patty D was in an emo parody band (they played Story of the Year and Thursday covers because none of them had a clue about who the fuck The Promise Ring or Mineral were). Where am I going with this? Oh yeah, the Braves. I wasn’t around for shows at the Divine Cup or the Pit, but I began to take a strong interest soon after and I can remember many weekends where one could go to Minglewood or the ELB and see The Moment, This is The End, and the Braves on the same bill. As awesome as it was to fill 250 people into the tiny Minglewood space for the Felix Culpa and Colossal (I swear the Braves played that night too), there were so many nights (and by that I mean at least 6) when they would stumble back from whatever bar was closest to the all ages venue and play for 12 people. Those shows, when half of the people watching were in other bands and I was too naïve to figure out that Joe and Phil were flailing around onstage because they were mostly drunk, were some of my favorites. As fantastic as the later, janglier, Teenage Fanclub era of the Braves was, this was the period of the band that most people remember.
Which brings me to the end of the longest disclaimer I have ever written. Anyone who was at CJ’s on Saturday night to see The Braves was viewing the events through a veil of nostalgia, myself included. Whether the objective quality of the performance was equal to our impression is debatable. That’s totally ok. It’s kind of how all reunion shows work. As I write this, a few thousand Pixies fans are at the Aragon Ballroom thinking about how they got a squeezer while listening to Doolittle instead of actually listening to the band play an album blunted by 20 years of life. I was never cool enough to have Love & Mercy soundtrack a BJ. I did, however, spend some of the set thinking about a time when I was lucky that my dad worked downtown so I didn’t have a mom who wouldn’t let me go there at night because it was too dangerous (unlike many other Byron kids).
I suppose we’re getting ahead of ourselves, chronologically speaking. Back to the beginning. All around sweetheart, Warren Franklin was the first to play. I’ll be reviewing his brand spankin’ new album, Stray, in the next couple of days, so I’m going to save most of my music related comments for that. Instead I’m just going to talk some smack. Warren’s girlfriend is substantially cuter than he is. What’s up with that? It’s probably because he’s a super nice guy.
Joie De Vivre played 2nd for the first time in quite a while. I was caught off guard because I’m accustomed to being more intoxicated while listening to them. JDV is usually like, “Ooh look at us, we play later because you can get our CD in Japan,” but apparently this hadn’t been the case. Regardless of my lack of preparedness, Joie De Vivre did something that was slightly shocking. This rag-tag bunch of scruffy looking misfits has turned into a tight, well oiled emo machine. Playing with their infrequently appearing one man horn section, Paul Karnatz, they built songs around easy grooves and open emotions; letting tension explode into anthems at just the right time. It was disconcerting. Most disconcerting indeed.
Soon after Joie finished their set, I went down the street to the Carlyle Brewing Company. They have very good beer. And it was only $4 a pint, which is surprisingly low for a microbrew. Good times. Because of this detour, I missed Heather Perry and the ___s’ set. Lots of their relatives came to see them so I’m sure they had fun.
At long last, the Braves took the stage. What can I say? To quote one Brandon Lutmer, “It was the Braves of my high school years.” Drawing mostly from their second album, Love & Mercy, the classic five piece lineup of the Braves threw down. In retrospect, there was no reason to think that it would somehow feel different now than 4 or 5 years ago (these guys mostly still play in bands with one another. See Crankupmadonna and the recently defunct Table and Chairs), but it was a most pleasant surprise. I just kept smiling because that’s what the Braves do. They make me feel good inside. I initially felt some need to give a more in depth analysis of the music and compare them to Wire and Sebadoh and whatever past indie icon you wanna throw in, but it seems unnecessary. If you like the Braves already, you get it. If you don’t, you don’t. I do, I do.
Alex Danger Stewart is a contributing writer to Sock Monkey Sound and will be appearing on Episode 17. Please, no flash photography allowed.
