04 Nov 10

Hey, blogspot readers, it's an extra special On The Town review just for you! Tonight, SouthSide's latest adventure took her to a rockin' sports/music bar, Joe's (On Weed St) for Molehill's performance. This local band was the lucky opening act for rock/reality celebrity, Brett Michaels, during his Custom Built tour show in Chicago.

Molehill was already in full swing rockin' the stage when SouthSide arrived. This band's rock sound is quite hard to pin down because it fused a lively mix of pop/alternative with a hint of the Brit blues rock (off the keyboards) which kept this audience groovin' to the rhythmic beat and thunderous crescendos of guitar riffs. That wicked organ rhythms was what immediately had this reviewer hooked onto Mole's music. She enjoyed how this band's sound inspired passion and fire ...at times epic sounding within the song intros. For example, one particular song featured heart-pounding thunder off the guitars with lightning clashing off keyboards. The instrumental combination had plenty of fire and sound before even adding the lyrics. Molehill's music can have this gentle calming tempo while on the hand, it can hit you this loud boisterious effect at the right moment for that burst of explosive emphasis. Yet, this band's music wasn't "serious" all of the time. They're all about having fun too, blogspot readers. With catchy guitar hooks and energetic organ rhythms, Molehill exploded to life rockin' out their performance. SouthSide highly recommends grooving your way to their next show happening tonight at Elbo Room peforming as part of the Chicago Roots Collective Festival. Plus they will be travelling to Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. before heading to Madison in December. For more information and tour details, visit http://www.molehillmusic.com or http://www.myspace.com/enterthemolehill.

In all fairness and honesty, blogspot readers, SouthSide's not a fan of Brett Michaels, his music or his reality television shows. That being said, this reviewer was somewhat not enthused by this rock/reality celebrity's performance at Joe's. After spending forty-five minutes waiting for his show to start, Brett certainly gave what his die-hard fans were excitedly anticipating. However, for SouthSide, she wasn't sold ...not feeling him or his music within the first hour spent listening to old Poison songs and covers. She was looking forward to hearing his new stuff before having to leave for the evening. Opening with old favorites like Talk Dirty To Me, Look At What The Cat Dragged In and Unskinny Bop, there were moments in which this reviewer enjoyed his set - when Brett was singing acoustically for Something To Believe In and Every Rose Has Its Thorns but in SouthSide's opinion totally lost the heartfelt meaning of the lyrics when adding the rock side of the band to each song. With acoustic guitar in hand, the music brought out the natural vocal range of his voice though sounding a little hoarse and winded between songs. Still Brett rocked the stage with energy and showmanship for this crowd reminiscing with old cover standards like Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama, Sublime's What I Got and Loggins & Messina's Your Mama Don't Dance (which was the highlight for this reviewer featuring cool harmonics and an awesome audience participation in a round style near the end). Fans of Brett Michaels should check out http://www.bretmichaels.com/ for more tour dates and information.


Until next time, support your local scene,
SouthSide