by Alex Danger Stewart
What: The Clams, Abbot Smile, Woo-Man and the Banana, KAM!

When: January 28

Where: Subterranean, Bucktown, Wicker Park, Chicago, IL

Why are you so damn slow? It’s a complicated answer. Also I had school work and a surprisingly socially active weekend. Get off my back.

I’m not entirely sure of what today’s date (The 5th maybe) is but I went to a very good show last week. Desperate to avoid my RA’s attempts to force socializations, I made my way up to the scenic Wicker Park neighborhood for a night of local rock. I didn’t go completely blank and uninformed. I’ve seen the Clams once before at CJ’s Lounge in Rockford and I’ve enjoyed Clams guitarist/bassist Brett Daniels many times in his other (ed note: former band) band, White Moose. Once I arrived I was slightly disappointed to find that the Clams were headlining. It’s not that I don’t like hearing new bands or wasn’t willing to wait around for the Clams to play (I had already shelled out $8 at the door. Get it? Shelled? Clams? Oh my). But I don’t really like new things. If I could, I would see the bands that I like play exclusively with each other all of the time. Plus I wasn’t really in the mood for Psych-Pop. Since I started going to school here last August almost every new Chicago band I’ve seen has drawn from the same tradition of garagey, reverb drenched, fuzzed out, shoe gazey pop. It’s as if a whole generation of bands (and by that I mean like 20 people) all bought the Jesus and Mary Chain’s Psychocandy and the Nuggets box set and decided to start bands. Not that I’m complaining. I love both of those releases and prefer the previous adjectives to most others. But sometimes I’d like to hear some variety. Continue Reading