Riot Fest 2007 boasted 21 punk bands over the weekend, including Chicago’s legendary Naked Raygun and the original lineup of Bad Brains. In its third year, the annual event celebrates punk in all its forms, from psychobilly and pop-punk to hard-core. And Saturday drew a couple thousand attendees as diverse as the music to be found, mohawks alongside hipster cuts, children and adults in the mosh pit.
Naked Raygun, who reunited for last year’s Riot Fest, are back in full swing. The group’s current lineup — singer Jeff Pezzati, drummer Eric Spicer, bassist Pierre Kezdy and guitarist Bill Stephens — tested some well-received new songs in the fury of Saturday’s show. But it was the fiery classics, such as the surging bass and metal guitar-tinged “When the Walls Come Down,” or the audience scream-along “Entrapment” that caused the most frenzy. Pezzati evoked tension and passion with equal aplomb, from melodic sing-along moments to venomous rants against societal ills.
While Pezzati seemed a more laid-back frontman, Stiff Little Fingers’ Jake Burns rollicked and danced about the stage during its set. “We’ve done this for 30 years,” said Burns, but the group’s energy rivals newer bands. The danceable melodies of “Barbed Wire Love” elicited an almost giddy response, as the audience clapped and swayed to the rhythms.
7 Seconds was straight-ahead hard-core, a ferocious set with a positive message. While there wasn’t much sonic variation, “In Your Face” and the group’s cover of “99 Red Balloons” were highlights.
–Althea Legaspi
KT Tunstall at the Vic
Tunstall was happy to play the role of relationship counselor at a sold-out Vic Theater on Saturday. “If you’re on a date and it’s not going well, hopefully this will help you,” she offered while introducing “Stoppin’ the Love.” The tune, like many on the Scottish singer-songwriter’s recent album, “Drastic Fantastic,” was consumed with matters of the heart.
Dressed in black-and-white striped leggings, white boots and a glittering mini-dress, Tunstall looked as if she might have sprung to life from a cartoon. Unfortunately, many of the songs in her 80-minute performance were equally two-dimensional. Tunstall reveled in the shared human experience, singing about everything from the trifling matters that bog down day-to-day life (“Miniature Disasters”) to remaining true to oneself (“Hold On”) to dealing with heartbreak (nearly everything else).
These were songs designed for life’s dramatic moments, pairing generic lyrics (“You can never bring me down,” she howled on “Hopeless”) with surging choruses (“Suddenly I See” and “Black Horse & the Cherry Tree”). It’s the main reason her tunes have been incorporated into shows such as “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Ugly Betty” — they’re instantly recognizable and easily relatable.
But for all her flaws, Tunstall was engaging and egoless, joking with the audience in her light Scottish brogue as if she were trading stories in a local tavern. Supported by a drummer and two backup vocalists, the singer fleshed out her minimalist arrangements by incorporating pedal-operated loops, thumping on her guitar and, on a memorable “Ashes,” mimicking a trumpet with her voice.
–Andy Downing
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Tony Andriacchi at the Skokie Theatre
In a way, Saturday night marked Andriacchi’s second comeback.
A couple of years ago, the formidable Chicago singer returned to the stage after more than a decade-and-a-half away.
His career was just starting to gain new momentum when, earlier this year, he was sidelined by vocal-cord problems requiring surgery.
But some artists can’t be stopped, as Andriacchi proved before a sold-out house at the refurbished Skokie Theatre. Performing for the first time since his treatment, Andriacchi sounded in fine voice and, more important, offered one illuminating, unconventional song interpretation after another.
He opened his marathon concert, which stretched more than 2 1/2 hours, with a wholly original version of Hoagy Carmichael’s “Skylark.” By elongating its melody lines and making the most of every syllable, Andriacchi revealed the inner workings of the tune. Yet even at this dreamy, unhurried tempo, the piece never lost rhythmic momentum.Though practically every singer in the pop-jazz tradition owes some debt to icons such as Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett, Andriacchi has pulled further away from their influence than most. He proved it when he dug into their repertory, singing “The Best Is Yet to Come” with a sly understatement that ran counter to Sinatra’s euphoric recordings of this tune; and by dispatching “How Do You Keep the Music Playing” even more slowly and introspectively than Bennett.
Apart from an error in lyrics that Andriacchi stated and repeated in “Witchcraft,” this was an evening of impeccable singing, earning its many standing ovations.
–Howard Reich
Tinariwen at Old Town School
Tinariwen bassist Eyadou Ag Leche did a brief bit of posturing midway through his band’s sold-out concert on Saturday at the Old Town School of Folk Music. He’s entitled to make his share of heroic poses, as this Malian group has become perhaps the world’s most unlikely rock stars, and certainly the most deserving of the status.
For more than 25 years, these nomadic Touareg musicians have used electric guitars to fuel their songs about tribal battles against the Malian government along with the struggles — and joys — of life in the Sahara Desert. Since 2000, Tinariwen’s audience has grown exponentially in Europe and North America while a more peaceful situation in their homeland has made recording easier, the results being its terrific 2007 disc, “Aman Iman.”
The group’s show on Saturday seemed low-key compared to its triumphant performance at the school’s Folk and Roots Festival in 2006, as singer/guitarist Ibrahim Ag Alhabib is not traveling because of illness. But a smaller Tinariwen remains spellbinding, especially guitarists Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni and Touhami Ag Alhassane’s sparse, interwoven lines. Alhousseyni’s occasionally haunting vocals offset the groove that percussionist Said Ag Ayad built above a roomful of eager handclaps.
–Aaron Cohen
Keith Urban at Allstate Arena
Five songs into his set on Friday night, Urban left his five-man band behind. He sauntered out on the catwalk alone, with just his Australian Mini Maton guitar, and sang “Raining on Sunday,” one of his biggest hits of 2003.
And it was the lack of backing instruments, lights, smoke and videos that made it his biggest hit of the night. That tiny parlor guitar, and his haunting voice, were all Urban needed to prove to the nearly sold-out crowd at the Allstate Arena that there’s deep talent behind those rough-around-the-edges good looks.
Urban even turned sound problems into a little bluegrass number. “We gotta keep singin’, ’cause something’s goin’ wrong,” he sang as he picked. Once that was fixed, though, Urban was free to roam the arena. At one point he left the stage for a visit to the first tier of section 103 and sang “You Look Good in My Shirt.” That’s what the Urban fans wanted. The other one, who jammed endlessly (and not too distinctively) on his electric guitar was not as well received.
But he found a way to balance his musical personalities, and while Urban gets flak from country traditionalists for rocking too hard, his show demonstrates a true respect for the roots of the music.
–Alison Bonaguro