Video: Trans Am / Zombi: "Tesco v Sainsbury's" / "Surface to Air, Part 1" [both live at Empty Bottle, Chicago]
Who wins the epic battle of the post-rock synth fiddlers? In their
Sex Change supermarket war "Tesco v Sainsbury's", Trans Am
earn conceptual points for incorporating a slice of Bacci pizza
(though this is Chicago, guys, where's the deep dish?). Drummer
Sebastian Thomson (a vegan, so no pizza for him either way) grabs
extra credit for coiled hits/stoic concentration, but what's with the
Greg Brady surfer/straightedge necklace? (To be fair, it sorta goes
with Phil Manley's bad McEnroe headband. To be fair...)
Pittsburgh duo Zombi, on the other hand, slay split-screen minus props: "Surface to Air, Part 1", from their last Relapse album Surface to Air, is a "spooky" graveyard jam, so it's coincidentally excellent that at certain angles the stage light morphs into a full moon behind foggy, bluish dual key man Steve Moore.
Today's lesson: Six out of seven times chance atmospherics trump extra cheese.
Thanks as always to Analog Monkey for shooting the shows.