Paint the Town Orange

April 5th, 2008 - Church of Rock - Western Springs, Il - The Pharmacy w/ James Eric, Slutbarf, This Forest, Arkansas?, and more...

Review and Images by Chris Szostek

Screaming down Route 88 towards Chicago with a small idea as to the location of our destination, Jason and myself are barreling down the shaft of the lost. We had left around 5 and it's now reaching upon 7 (we had planned on being at the show well before). The maps are now useless as we have missed two exists and have no idea where we are. Ripping off the highway we start into a corporate center. I honk my horn at some guy in a bad shirt and a worse tie. He appears to be startled at the sight of us. Jason thinks he has the new directions via the internet phone and I ignore the man. We (very irresponsibly) make a hard turn about and get back on the highway with a trophy that I'll not share the details of.

After many more wrong turns we finally get into a nice subdivision and start looking at addresses. We pass a church and I make a joke about how we are supposed to be at the Church of Rock and thats probably it. After another block we realize I was somehow correct. Lovely. I finally get to park. It's been a blast so far, but I really was not expecting this.

The car is parked and we walk into a church basement, interesting....music? Let's see what the night has for us.

The basement has a stockpile of water, punch, Doritos's (I don't think I've had any in about 2 years) & a selection of vegan friendly nature bars. Very cool set up.

Oh, yeah...music, that's why we are here.

We have a lot of video of the show, but it's going to take another day or two too process it all.

Mr. James Eric started off the night with his guitar and vocal skills that are so powerful that he has to stand 5 feet away from the mic to be heard without destroying us all with his vision of triumph through adversity. Mr. James has a voice that you will listen to because you have no other choice. Btw, apparently James is really bad at keeping time, so when you see him, clap along in time.

The next band was "This Forest" and they were good, but not great (sorry guys, just give it another year). I don't want to sound like a jerk, but it just didn't really do anything for me. What I heard was noise punk that needs another year to mature, the crowd dug it, but I just was not feeling it. (Please keep in mind this was their first live show.)

Next up we have The PHARMACY.

The Pharmacy is an explosion of sound that hits you with something you have never heard before. They are a band not to be missed, I will go so far as to assume that they may have the hook of the next alt rock movement, they are at least on the cusp. Intensity does not do them justice. They sold the show. They are based out of Washington and are a lot of fun to hang out with.

Slutbarf is the one band that I don't know much about, but what I can tell you is that the band following the Pharmacy is the new PigFace lineup. They came on, with masks made of socks and dead rabbits? It was an onslaugt of drums and bass driven rock. Hi-hates set to high, coupled with an attack of "we don't care about your ears" music. I loved every minute of it.

The night was intense & I don't think Jason is going to let me drive anymore to shows.

Keep up on the OA for some video action from this show and future shows.

This is -C- signing off.