PHOTOS: Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness at HOB Chicago 3.24.17
The final installment of photos from the Zombies in America Tour is here! Check out Emily Nava's brilliant shots from headliner Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness's set. Also be sure to check out Emily Nava's photo galleries of Andrew's tourmates Night Riots and Atlas Genius if you haven't already!
Check out all of Andrew McMahon's upcoming tour dates here. (Psst! Chicago, he'll be back for Lollapalooza). You can also listen to the latest album Zombies on Broadway here:
PHOTOS: Atlas Genius at HOB Chicago 3.24
Yesterday, we shared the full photo gallery of Night Riots from their stop in Chicago during the Zombies in America tour. Today, check out the full photo gallery of their tourmates Atlas Genius, shot by ANCHR photographer Emily Nava.
Check out all of Atlas Genius's upcoming tour dates here, and stay tuned for photos of Andrew McMahon's set tomorrow! While you wait, listen to Atlas Genius's album Inanimate Objects:
PHOTOS: Night Riots at HOB Chicago 3.24.17
Last Friday, ANCHR photographer Emily Nava headed out to the House of Blues to catch the Zombies in America Tour, featuring one of our favorites, Night Riots. Check out her photos from their incredible live show now!
Photos by Emily Nava
Catch Night Riots in a city near you by checking out their tour dates here, and stream their latest album Love Gloom below!
PHOTOS: Conor Oberst at Track 29 3.22.17
This past Wednesday night, ANCHR photographer Liz Mouw caught a stunning performance from Conor Oberst in Chattanooga, TN. Check out photos from the night in the gallery below.
Photos by Liz Mouw
A Thursday Trifecta With Jude Shuma, Molly Burch, and Tim Darcy
Kicking off a night of three incredible sets, Chicago’s own Jude Shuma took The Empty Bottle stage around 9:30 on Thursday evening. His 30 minute set kicked off with his most played track “Float,” (which--shameless plug--you can hear on the CW's new show Riverdale). After playing some older, familiar tunes, like “Subterranean Feelings,” Jude tested out some new songs from his upcoming album, Sugar Mountain. The new songs already sounded incredible live, and they went over well with the crowd.
Molly Burch captivated the crowd next, hooking them in with her 1950’s-style crooning and a refreshingly retro sound. The seven-song set started with the title track of Molly’s debut album Please Be Mine, the crowd slowly swaying along to the hauntingly beautiful chorus. The next song, “Fool,” picked up the pace, with Molly adding a powerful edge to her alluring vocals. As Molly and her band completely enchanted the crowd with more songs from the album, like “Wrong For You” and “Try,” the music translated incredibly well from the album to the live sense. The fact that Molly recorded the album in a live setting in just a couple days kept the album so authentic and added a real vulnerability to the music. That same sense of sincerity and vulnerability came across in Molly’s stage performance, as well.
Ought-frontman Tim Darcy and his extremely talented two-women band took the stage next just after 11PM, playing a set mostly comprised of songs from his debut solo album Saturday Night. Tim got the crowd moving right away with the up-tempo, building tune “Tall Glass of Water,” immediately following with “Still Waking Up.” About half way through the set, Tim mentioned his album and thanked the audience, pointing out how wonderful Chicago crowds are all of the time. “New York is good 80% of the time,” Tim continued before moving into the instrumental track “First Final Days.” As the night of good vibes and great jams continued, Tim also mentioned that he and his band had been on tour for 5 weeks with Molly Burch, shouting out her, his band members, and his crew. The set drew to a close with a brand new song that Tim recently wrote while on this tour. Introducing the new song, called “Sledgehammer and The Rose,” Tim says he wrote it about an experience in Toronto, when some guy spit in his face when he was already having a bad day. The set wrapped up with the mellow “What’d You Release,” before the band left and returned for an encore.
If you missed this night filled with genuine talent and incredible musicianship, make sure you stay in the loop with all three artists! Check here for any updates from Jude Shuma on his new record and upcoming shows. Molly Burch returns to Chicago as soon as April 7th, supporting Sallie Ford at Schubas, and you can grab tickets for that show here. Lastly, keep up with Tim Darcy's latest tour dates here, and listen to his album below!
PHOTOS: The Walters at The Metro 3.16.17
Last week, The Walters put on a killer show supporting The Orwells at The Metro. Check out some photos ANCHR photographer Jen Machuca snapped during The Walters' set below, and head here to read more about the show.
Tei Shi Enchants a Sold Out Metro
It’s 7:30 on a snowy, Monday night in Chicago (the first snow there’s been in months), yet the house is still packed as Tei Shi saunters onto a dimly lit stage at The Metro. Starting off her diverse and captivating performance with her latest single “How Far,” Tei Shi instantly won over the sold out crowd with her angelic vocals. In the opening song particularly, the heavy bass of the song created a beautiful juxtaposition with her soft falsettos. For the second song of the evening, the 2014 single “See Me,” the stage brightened up, illuminating the singer and her band. After wrapping up this slower, hypnotizing tune, Tei Shi told the crowd “I’m super excited to be supporting MØ, this is our first night with her.”
Tei Shi starts off the third song of the night on the microphone situated stage right, adding some dynamics to her performance. Based on the lyrics of this new song, which alternate between “breathe, I breathe, I breathe” and “creep, I creep, I creep,” along with other verbs that fall into that rhyming pocket, this new one is most likely called “Creep,” which is also track three on Tei Shi’s upcoming album. After playing another recent single, “Keep Running,” which was released this year, Tei Shi mentions the new album. “This is all brand new music that we just started playing. It’s all going to be on the new album. We’re gonna do another one,” she says, introducing another bass-heavy tune with a catchy dance beat. Based on the lyrics, this new one appears to be track 9 from the album Crawl Space, called “Justify.” This track, along with all of the new ones, had such a cool vibe, and the band executed each song perfectly, especially Tei Shi with her incredible vocal performance.
After playing another new song, presumably “Crawl,” which is track 12 on the new record, Tei Shi transitioned back into an older song, 2013’s “Nevermind the End,” a building, layered track full of ethereal vocals. The set winded down with Tei Shi saying, “We’ve got two more songs for you guys,” and expressing her gratitude to the crowd before playing one more new song. The new song features a fierce chorus and lyrics that say “you don’t know me, but you say you do,” which could be track 7 on Crawl Space, “Say You Do.” The stellar set ended just before 8:15 with one of the singer’s best known tracks, “Bassically,” the crowd cheering with recognition as the opening notes rang out. Tei Shi’s amazing performance closed out with her giving 1000% during this last song….she absolutely sang her heart out during this song’s powerful and piercing chorus. As she and her band left the stage to massive applause, it’s clear that Tei Shi has warmed up the crowd on this cold, Chicago evening.
If you’re out at SXSW this week, Tei Shi will also be there, and you don’t want to miss her incredible live show. She also just announced some new tour dates in May (below), but you can keep up with all of her tour dates here.
You can also preorder Crawl Space here, which is going to be an amazing album, based on the live preview of some of the tracks. In the meantime, get ready for the album by watching the video for "Keep Running."
Goosebumps, Tears, and Laughter: An Evening With YEBBA and Rag'n'Bone Man
The crowd at The Bowery Ballroom on Thursday evening was blessed by not one, but two performances from soulful and powerful singer-songwriters.
The evening kicked off at 8:30 with the Harlem-based YEBBA, who slayed her short, but sweet mix of covers and original songs. "You probably don't know me, so I'm gonna sing some songs you do know," YEBBA said before transitioning into a stunning performance of "Killing Me Softly." The set moved on with an amazing rendition of "American Boy," featuring an accidental mic drop (or throw), which YEBBA smoothly recovered from. While the cover songs still let YEBBA's incredible vocal ability and raw talent shine through, the real magic happened when she sang her original songs. Emotions coursed through the entire crowd as YEBBA sang her first original song of the evening, which she introduced as a song about losing her mom only 5 months ago. By the end of YEBBA's emotive execution, some of the audience members were in tears. Speaking of being brought to tears, even Ed Sheeran has said that YEBBA's next song, "My Mind," has brought tears to his eyes. Please stop reading this article and take a second to watch YEBBA perform "My Mind" at a Sofar Sounds gig:
Now that we've all been emotionally infiltrated by this song, we can get back to talking about YEBBA's last song of the evening, another original called "Light a Candle." She dedicated this one to anyone who has ever someone close to them, and the feels were real. Incredible doesn't even begin to describe the vibes in the room after YEBBA left the stage.
YEBBA at The Bowery Ballroom 3/9/17
About 30 minutes later, the two-time BRITS Award winner Rory Graham, AKA Rag'n'Bone Man, graced the Bowery Ballroom stage to play his first ever show in America, backed by his extremely talented band. Like YEBBA, Rory also started his set with a cover. Starting out solo on a guitar, he gave a breathtaking, goosebump-inducing performance of "St. James Infirmary" by Louis Armstrong. The nearly 90 minute, 18 song set rolled right along with the title track from the 2014 8-track EP Wolves. From then on, the audience remained hooked by the dynamic and diverse set.
The set progressed with a trio of new songs, taken from the debut full-length Human, including "Ego," "Your Way or the Rope," and "The Fire." Before each song, Rory gives a brief introduction, making the crowd laugh as he talks about always having to wait for his girlfriend before "Your Way or The Rope." While his stage banter may be funny, Rory acknowledges the depressing nature of most of his music, saying, "I didn't come to cheer you up" before playing "Lay My Body Down," a dark, building tune that was originally released on the Wolves EP and made it onto the full length.
Rory introduces the next song, "Perfume" as one he wrote with Ralph Pelleymounter from the band To Kill a King, and one that he hasn't played in three years. Hearing this song alone made the evening incredibly special, but the set rolled on with gem after gem, including a completely stripped back version of the next single, "Skin," featuring only Rory and his keyboard player. After such an intense, raw performance, that showcased Rory's immense vocal talent, he lightened the mood by mentioning he got high and wrote the next song "Grace." Rory continued to get personal with his song introductions, telling the crowd about his grandmother's strong matriarchal presence before playing "Life In Her Yet," and divulging about his close friend's battle with demons and addiction before playing "Odetta."
As the night steered past the halfway point in the set, the mood lifted back up with "As You Are," which Rory also had to point out was one of his two-three happy songs that he has. The band premiered the track "Fade To Nothing" from Human, which featured a killer drum outro, before moving onto the older tune "Guilty." The crowd energy reached an all time high when the bass line to Rory's breakout single "Human" kicked in, the entire crowd singing along. The first part of the set concluded with another solo performance from Rory, this time singing one of his older songs "Die Easy." As Rory winded down the evening with this bluesy, powerful performance, a hush fell over the entire crowd until the last note rang out. As he walked off stage, the immediate and urgent chants for an encore followed.
The band reappeared, and appropriately, the two-song encore kicked off with "Bitter End," another new track from Human. The magical night closed out with the anthemic "Hell Yeah" from the Wolves EP, which features Vince Staples. After Rory and his band humbly and graciously thanked the audience, they left the stage for good this time to explosive cheers and applause, and it was clear that the first Rag'n'Bone Man gig in America was a glorious success.
If you're heading down to SXSW, make sure you catch one of the following Rag'n'Bone Man showcases:
Stay up to date with all of Rag'n'Bone Man's live performances here, and listen to Human now.
