We've Still Got the Taste Dancing on Our Tongues

Sometimes I really love living in Chicago.  In a city this big and this diverse, there’s always something to do.  Case in point: last night, when I braved the Lalapalooza crowds and tourist hordes to head north to The Empty Bottle, one of Chicago’s best music venues.  Small, dark, and entirely unpretentious, The Empty Bottle hosts some of the best music in the city.  From awesome electronica to hard country honky tonk to whiney indie music (my fave!), they regularly books acts that leave you feeling like the $15 (and often less) you paid to get in was more than worth it.

This is my favorite photo from the concert, strangely enough. Wild Beasts, wild light...love it.

After disastrous transportation issues and way too much time smushed against festival goers on the “L”, I arrived to hear an amazing set of songs by solo artist Lone Wolf.  That man has some pipes!  Standing right against the stage, I was close enough to count the freckles on his little cheeks.  The intimacy of the venue and his frank rapport with the crowd made me feel like I was in my living room with my extremely talented pal playing acoustic guitar for me.  It doesn’t get much better!

Or so I thought.  Lone Wolf was the opening act for Wild Beasts, who stunned the ennui right out of me (if there ever was any).  I was expecting to be impressed, but the experience was so much more- something between surreal and spiritual.  The power of music to transport and uplift constantly amazes me, particularly when you’re in a room with a lot of half-drunk, sweaty, cat-calling people.  The combination of haunting vocals and complicated notes, of depth and lightness that filled up such a small space made me want to lie down, close my eyes, and not get up until I was tired of magic.  Because that’s what it was- magic, at least in the sense that it changed the way I saw the world (and even took me out of the world) for the time I was listening and even for a while after.  Do you feel like that about music?  Is there a band or a show that has made you feel so inspired (and I mean literally filled with animating breath)?

Here’s what I wore to leave the world.  It’s comfy, happy, and (dare I say?) flattering.  It was perfect for floating around in my own head while I got lost in music.  Amidst mostly neutral-colored fans of animal-themes acts, I felt like a flash of sun…or at least 70′s optimism.  :)

We've Still Got the Taste Dancing on Our Tongues: dress (Anthropologie, $20), belt (Target, $12-$15ish), sandals (Target, $12), bag (Urban Outfitters splurge, $60), ring (H&M, $3), necklace (H&M, $3).

I don't know why, but I'm really obsessed with the Wind Baby. I'm not very far along here.

Across the street a woman bottomed out in her wheelchair and let out a stream of curses. It was awesome and burnt my nice-girl ears.

About these ads