So, I needed to drive to Chicago to pick up my brother and his wife at O’Hare today, and I saw that both Common Loon and World’s First Flying Machine were playing shows in the city on Sunday night. Hey, why not check them out since I needed to make the drive anyway? WFFM were playing an early show at the Orphanage, a church community center on 31st St., on the edge of Chinatown. It’s a cool performance space/art gallery.
The band that was supposed to play before them didn’t show up, and the band that was to come on after them wasn’t there by the end of their set, so it was a bit of an exclusive engagement. However, the septet sounded great, broke out a new song (a slower one inspired by the Shenandoah River), and they may have set a new personal best with eight band members on stage for a couple of songs:
Then, it was on to the Empty Bottle to see Common Loon, who were at the end of a four-day weekend jaunt that took them to DeKalb, Madison, and Milwaukee. The duo also sounded excellent, broke out a Madonna cover (“Material Girl”), and closed with the Ramones’ “Sheena is a Punk Rocker” for their encore.
The disco ball in the ceiling, which Robert Hirschfeld asked be cranked up, made for some interesting effects with my camera:
