Living in the City By The Lake has many perks and a vibrant, independent music and art scene is one of them. Hardly a week goes by without new contemporary music of all stripes played in every place from concert halls to seedy bars. Last weekend was especially fine since acosta and myself were able to take in some culture and finally get a chance to see the much loved vdov favorites Akron/Family. We also stumbled into the official Chicago SxSW pre-game send-off for the Midwest bands that are now hitting the stages at the country’s most venerable independent music festival. Both shows were quite interesting but quite different. The venues are seemingly similar but it belies their differences. It gave a good insight into the strange topology of the independent music scene in Chicago and elsewhere.

The Akron/Family show took place at my favorite Chicago venue (and the source of most of vdov’s Chicago music reviews), The Empty Bottle. The show started rather late for a Friday (10:00) and was opened by one of the bartenders’ bands “Robert AA Lowe & Ben Vida.” It consisted of a kind of tantric duet that made heavy use of brass bells, tape loops, mudras, and nearly Gregorian vocals. Their entire set was one solid sound beginning with the tinkling of bells and ending in a multi-toned layer cake of sound. The only drawback was the chanting might have dragged out a bit too far toward the end. However, no one can doubt this duet’s intensity. Toward the end of the set the afro-ed and mustache-ioed “lead” singer was literally leaning off the stage with his shoes half grounded and half jutting into thin air and standing nearly ten feet tall.

After Robert and Ben left the stage there was a seemingly interminable setup for Akron/Family. However, the Akron bassist Miles Seaton (clearly the showboat of the quartet) entertained the crowd lip synching and dancing to Michael Jackson songs that the band clearly requested to be played between acts. The playful pop intro quickly vaporized when they hit their first notes, jaunting off into the newly christened territory of “Freak Folk” which the band explicitly referenced as home. However, Akron/Family differs in sound from other Freak Folksters like Joanna Newsom or Devendra Banhart in that they have a much more robust sound and do not shy away from more bombastic rock sounds. This is not to say that they don’t have their quiet and almost precious moments on stage. Perhaps the highlight of the show was “Love and Space” from their recent album Meek Warrior. During the song as the band members gathered together around one mic they literally had the entire Empty Bottle (even way back at the bar) whisper quite chanting the backup lines of “Love and Space” while they solemnly harmonized over it. It was an impressive feat to see a crowd that engaged in a band, that enthralled.

I would say that the attention was entirely deserved as they were clearly comfortable with their instruments and each other, taking cues from one another on the fly and bringing strange sounds out of their otherwise normal instrumentation through various manipulations. For example: the drummer/vocalist/banjoist Dana Janssen drew an upright bass bow across the edge of his xylophone keys to produce crisp lasting tones that were looped back into their four pat harmonies and Seaton (the bassist) literally made a call on his cell phone during the show to use the magnet in its speaker to induce strange sounds from the pickups on his bass which he endlessly overlaid and looped on each other creating a strange harmony of noise. They ended the show with a strange sort of neo-Aquarian joint, literally handing out percussion instruments and recorders to audience members and dragging them onto the stage for a seemingly interminable jam which is the only time where I may have lost interest. Truly hipsters are the hippies of our age. My only regret is not making it back for their second night on Saturday. Akron/Family is by far the most engaging and seemingly mystical bands I have ever seen (not quite and mystical as Wooden Wand but more engaging), a truly unique and exciting live show. Even the ever aloof acosta was drawn in. I would recommend it to anyone if you find them playing in your area.

[Look for part II of this review soon, where acosta and I venture to a new venue for vdov and take part in some of the "official" indie scene of Chicago]