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Indie bands rock four-hour House show
Plaid shirts and hand-clapping were a prerequisite for all those attending “Indie Rock Night” at The House Café on Monday.
Champaign’s own Headlights headlined the four-hour show. The band is on a nationwide tour promoting its brilliant new album, “Some Racing, Some Stopping.”
Even though they have been up and down America, playing in big cities such as Los Angeles and Toronto, DeKalb has always been a favorite place to come back to for Headlights.
“The House is the s---; we love it here,” said guitarist and vocalist Tristan Wraight.
When Headlights took the stage at 11 p.m., the audience seemed more concerned with when the next smoke break was. However, once the first hypnotic chords of “Get Your Head Around It” began, cigarettes were replaced by clapping and swaying.
Headlights’ nearly hour-long set was filled with a slew of songs from their new album. “So Much For The Afternoon,” a song backed only by keyboardist and vocalist Erin Fein’s lovely “oohs” and “aahs,” was the high point of the set as it demonstrated the band’s always impressive unity.
As midnight approached, Wraight announced the last song of the evening, much to the crowd’s dismay. After audience members began putting their fingers up, signaling they’d like two, five or even 10 more songs for an encore, Wraight said they were semi-negotiable. Headlights played two more songs to end a great set.
Also on the bill was Oklahoma’s Evangelicals, the band touring with Headlights. The set was filled with artificial smoke and totally ripping riffs, and the energy in the crowd was at fever pitch. While members of Headlights jammed in the audience, singer and songwriter Josh Jones backed up his claim on Pitchfork Media when he said that their music is “a mix between Marvin Gaye and ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show.’”
On “Skeleton Man,” Evangelicals were joined by Headlights members Fein on tambourine and Nick Sanborn on accordion. This last song of the set was electrifying as smoke clouds and strobe lights were timed perfectly to an explosive musical breakdown.
Company Of Thieves also played in what was the most intimate performance of the night. Vocalist Genevieve Schatz harmoniously roared through every song with her incredible vocals. The night marked the eve of her 21st birthday and guitarist Marc Walloch presented her with a bottle of wine.
Schatz’s vocals are incredible; she sings like a classical crooner of years past, but with a passionate edge that sets her apart from the rest. The bands’ cover of The Smashing Pumpkins’ “1979” may have stolen the show.
Opening the show up was the all-female trio, The Patience. Though at times the band was not in total unison, they sure paved the way with an insane amount of energy and excitement. A song that was “written under the influence of fun,” and seemingly about robots, was incredible - it had the audience moving their feet and bursting into laughter.
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