A Night For The Years
There’s a certain level of excitement that comes with the arrival of a concert that you’ve been looking forward to seeing for weeks. April 23rd brought one of those nights to Chicago’s very own Beat Kitchen with the record release show of Urbanites’ The Years, along with supporting acts Antennas Up, The Hudson Branch, and Blane Fonda. Unfortunately, we know not all of you were able to make it out that night, but luckily the Stories From A Scene staff was in attendance, ready for both a night of fun, good music, and a little bit of work for our loyal readers.
Antennas Up started out the night, a fun electro/rock band from Kansas City, MO with a contagious amount of energy. While some bands will let you get away with standing still and staring at them for their entire set, Antennas Up knows how to make their audience want to get up and dance. They’re the nerdiest of your new favorite bands, fully embracing the neon 8-bit aliens on the drum kit and the plastic astronaut helmets they donned for a drum break in the middle of their set, but the songs are intelligent, fun, and dance floor ready. Whether the subject matter be the normal song about relationships or or the more out there space travel, such as “5p4c35h1p” from their self-titled debut album, you’ll be hard pressed to find another band quite like Antennas Up.
No strangers to the Chicago stages, The Hudson Branch, from nearby Crystal Lake, IL, took the stage next. Compared to Antennas Up, their sound is far more mellow and melodious, but a sweet transition and good fit for the night’s lineup. Having previously played with Urbanites at the Metro, it was no surprise to find them on the bill. Lead singer Cobey Bienert’s soft and charming voice makes the group a rare find, but it’s the lyrical expression that distinguishes them from the rest. The Hudson Branch has a delicate and genuine likability about them. Their 2009 release, Tightrope Walker, can be found on iTunes.
There’s always that band that, when explaining the night to your friends later, all you can say is, “You had to see them for yourself.” Blane Fonda, the third band of the evening fits that explanation perfectly. When you see face paint, jumpsuits, and lasers you usually expect the gimmick to cover the band’s lousy music, but not for these guys. They are listed on their MySpace as being grime/glam/regional Mexican, but in all honesty, it’s hard to exactly pin Blane Fonda down. The Beat Kitchen show was their one year anniversary show, so their set was interspersed with the passing out of pink party hats and kazoos, happy birthday songs, and numerous mentions of cupcakes.
After three entertaining bands, it was finally Urbanites turn to take the stage. If you saw our earlier post, The Years - Urbanites, you are well aware that this is the official release show for their new album, The Years. While they were unable to have the official physical copies of the album for sale at the show due to difficulties with the distributing company, Urbanites still put on a solid and enjoyable show, interspersing their new material with old. It requires a special talent to be able to put an entire crowd under the spell of music, but Urbanites has it in spades, owning the crowd from the first notes of their opener “Restless” to the final fading echoes of “Set Me On Fire” to conclude the night.
Urbanites have also put their new record up for free on their website, so grab it while you can. Trust us when we say, this band will go far.
Written by: Claire & Steph
