The City Winery in Chicago (Racine and Randolph) is a fine new venue for seeing music. Their menu is more obscure (to my uneducated mind and palate) than the Hopleaf‘s but the intimacy and quality of sound are first rate.
Nicholas Tremulis opened the show and I was pleasantly surprised by how well an acoustic guitar, electric bass and two back up singers (don’t think I’ve ever seen that arrangement before) worked. I think he said one of the singers had worked with Ministry and the other Albert King. Whatever, the 7 or 8 show opening act was very good.
Ian Hunter‘s show was awesome. The Rant Band is pared down these days to Mark Bosch (lead guitar) and James Mastro (guitar, mandolin, etc. band leader) with Andy Burton (keyboards and vocals) Steve Holley (drums and vocals) and Paul Page (bass). They played 7 of the 11 songs off the new record When I’m President and there wasn’t a stinker in the bunch.
With a catalogue extending through the years like Ian’s it is tough to get everything in. My personal unexpected highlight was “Wash us Away” off of 2000’s Rant record. I’ve loved that one since I first heard it (think Faces at Rod and Ronnie’s best) and hearing it live was just special. I also got to hear “Saturday Gigs” live and that was, while expected, pretty damn cool too. The encore montage of “Saturday Gigs/Life/All the Young Dudes” was incredible. I would have loved to have heard the new gem “Life” in it’s entirety, but so goes a set list.
Thanks to Greg for going with me to the show and being brave enough to eat some of the Bianchi flatbread. 🙂
Be well, my friends,
“When you’re down remember that/it’s all water off a duck’s back/laugh beacuse it’s only life.”
