15 Jun 14

Hey, blogspot readers, after cruising the final day of Taste of Randolph, it was time to rock out her Sunday evening at Elbo Room. Tonight, this popular Lakeview venue (celebrating 25 rockin' years) welcome its stage to bands like The New Sex and Drugs, Attic Light (from Kansas City, MO), and The Orions featuring Eldren (from Denver, CO) opening the lineup.

SouthSide highly recommends checking out this energizing psychedelic vibe and music by Eldren (http://www.eldren.com) who were suppose to perform an acoustic set on the stage upstairs but were allowed to perform downstairs when The Orions almost a no-show. She can't imagine this band being acoustic and/or how they would sound acoustically, blogspot readers, not after seeing a performance like this. Yet, this reviewer does know one thing - Eldren knows how to rock out a stage. Featuring a keyboards, violin, trombone as well as guitars, drum and a female back-up vocalist, this band opened with vibrant blasts of sound and (sometimes) sweet four-part harmonies and didn't stop the filling the basement lounge with such of an eclectic vibe until the very last song (of a short set) was finished. SouthSide hopes this band comes back to Chicago to jam again.
Moving from the eclectic energy of psychedelic music to the melodramatic sound, The Orions featured music to which you found yourself mellowing out under a state of melodic punk rock and deep vibrato male vocals, blogspot readers. Though this reviewer wasn't totally into the band's performance, she did enjoy the strangeness of its unique music fusion and style when performing songs like "White Night", "Go Away" and "By Yourself". At times, this reviewer found herself drawn to the dark, moody sound by The Orions especially whenever front man Federico wowed the ears in his low baritone voice  which is quite unusual to hear with a punk band. However, it complements the band's merging of the melodrama with the melodic guitar rhythms. It will give you shivers when he pours a little emotions into the lyrics during "Let You Know". But it wasn't moody all of the time with this band. The Orions did liven things up when performing their closer "Asteroid", blogspot readers, for rockin' finish. She recommends checking out this band at their next performance but in the meantime, visit http://www.facebook.com/theorionsofficial for more information.

A few things come from Kansa City ...jazz, BBQ and now Attic Light, blogspot readers. There's more to this band than energizing fusion of rock-n-roll (with funk and more) that featured hard-hitting guitar riffs. There was a whole lot of sexiness going on from front man Nathan too. Sexiness ...it's an art form and very essential when trying to promote your band's stage presence to a new audience. Believe, SouthSide when she says that Nathan exceeded the legal limit of sexiness throughout the entire Attic Light set. Within a heartbeat, the temperature just went up a notch or two (even with the A/C on) and it was merely just the first song! Performing songs like "Spotlight" and "Help Me Darlin'", Attic Light performed a disturbing yet dark variation of Soft Cell's "Tainted Love". Disturbing because the band stripped away the song's original 80s sound thus adding a piece of their music to the cover meanwhile dark because the gritty guitar riffs gave the song a rougher sound and edge that sent a couple of chills down this reviewer's spine. Despite performing a short set, Attic Light packed every minute of their performance with blasts of sexy, funk rock music until the end with the song "Market" off the band's upcoming album Different Shades of Black (to be released June 24). SouthSide highly recommends seeing this band perform live before listening to the album. It's to help you get the vibe and hear the music of what Attic Light is about - sexy rock-n-roll. For more information, visit http://www.atticlightmusic.com.
Now closing out this lineup was a local band featuring punk rock and "drugs" roll, blogspot readers. And though liking, the band's gritty pun sound, she had a minor problem with their performance. Its guitarist/front man was using song notes to either sing or perform the songs on their set list. It wouldn't have been a problem if merely using the notes during a couple of songs. However using them while as the headlining band, this reviewer finds it a bit disturbing. Don't get her wrong, blogspot readers. She did find certain parts of The New Sex and Drugs performance enjoyable. For example, SouthSide liked the angry punk sound rockin;' the stage during "The Dope" or the whimsical song titles like "Burger Flipper" (dedicated to those who flip or have flipped burgers) and "Cool Kids Get High". Yeah, some points you did feel a little "Dazed and Confused" along with the band's intense love and infatuation with drugs especially when singing "Let's Get Wasted". But there was a point during the set when the band had its brief moment of sounding off balance during "Fight 'Em". She came to the conclusion that it was probably an off night for The New Sex and Drugs ...every band has one of those nights at some point of their music career, blogspot readers. It looked to be that kind of night for this band. She still recommends checking out this band at their next live performance ...hoping they'll have a better one than they did at Elbo Room. For more information about this band, visit http://www.thenewsexanddrugs.com.


Until next time, support your local scene,
SouthSide