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Piebald should fire their booking agent for making them headline over Spitalfield in Spitalfield's hometown. This was made completely evident when between the end of Spitalfield's set and the start of Piebald's, Chicago's Metro went from being almost bursting at the seams to barely half-full. Those who left early, however, missed a stellar performance by Travis Shettel and company.

The Format opened the night up to about the same size crowd as the night ended with, playing a half hour's worth of their alt-country/pop numbers, this time with a full band [6 members deep]. They were much better than when I had seen just the two frontmen play acoustic with Duvall and The Stereo last August, but still didn't do too much to win me over. The crowd's apathy was virtually non-existant, however, with loud applause echoing through the Metro at the conclusion of their set.

California rockers The Jealous Sound were up next, and were definitely the odd men out on the bill. The band's set included favorites such as "Naive," "The Fold Out," and "For Once In Your Life," but crowd members familiar with the material were definitely in the minority. I came to the sobering conclusion that if the Jealous Sound were four fresh-faced teenagers in tight t-shirts and fashionable jeans, this young Chicago crowd would have eaten them up. As it stands, they are four thirtysomethings working their butts off for little to no recognition from crowds sometimes half their ages. People need to recognize the Jealous Sound's immense talent and knack for writing incredibly hooky pop songs before they drift off into the distance like so many other unappreciated bands before them.

Hometown heroes Spitalfield took the stage next, and showed their battle scars from being out on the road 11 out of the past 12 months. The band blazed through a number of tracks off Remember Right Now including "Five Days And Counting," "Stolen From Some Great Writer," and crowd favorite "I Love The Way She Said 'LA'" before wrapping up their set with "Make My Heart Attack." The quartet also plowed through a brand new, untitled song that was a bit heavier and more challenging melodically than their previous fare. This bodes well for the band's future, to be sure. An interesting observation about Spitalfield's fanbase; it seems to be all-inclusive. Both sexes seemed equally represented, and a decent amount of the crowd weren't WASPs. The majority of the crowd seemed to still be of high-school age, a fact made obvious when singer Mark Rose addressed the crowd, asking "Who just got done with finals this week?" and a sea of hands shot up. One slight negative to note, however - Rose's sweet tenor voice sounds like it's at the end of it's rope. If this band doesn't get some time off, and soon, I'm afraid Rose's throat might end up with the same fate as Piebald singer Travis Shettel's - under the knife.

In between Spitalfield and Piebald's set, you could just watch the tweens pour out of the Metro as if the show was over, allowing the college-age attendees front row spots finally. As Piebald took to the stage and opened up with All Ears All Eyes All The Time opener "The Benefits of Ice Cream," it was painfully obvious that the booking agent made the wrong choice having Piebald headline. The floor of the Metro looked half-full at best, and the balcony crowd was virtually non-existant. It was definitely their loss, however, as the Boston-by-way-of-LA quartet delivered the rock with favorites like "American Hearts" and "Just A Simple Plan" as delving even deeper into their back catalog with "Rules For Mules" and "Location Is Everything." The rest of the set was rather equally split up between "We Are The Only Friends We Have and All Ears..., with the crowd being equally into both.

As their set wrapped up with "The Stalker," the band found themselves with 15 more minutes left in their set, so they opened the floor for requests. The obvious "Grace Kelly With Wings" was yelled and played, followed by the 1-2 punch of "The Monkey Versus The Robot" and "The King Of The Road." The band's quirky pop carried over surprisingly well for this writer, at least, and their new material [especially those utilizing piano] worked in a live setting. Too bad so many kids made the foolish decision of catching the early train.

EXCLUSIVE LIVE VIDEOS
Piebald - The Benefits Of Ice Cream
Spitalfield - Kill The Drama
The Jealous Sound - The Fold Out

EXCLUSIVE LIVE PHOTOS
Piebald
Spitalfield
The Jealous Sound



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    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, November 25, 2005 at 12:34 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    i'm a fool for you http://www.casino-los-angeles.com/doliyoli/casino-directory-2005. html

    Posted by sleepwalk on 2004-06-15 14:22:06
    My Score:

    The Jealous Sound are awesome, but their live show is lacking a bit. Piebald, however, put on one of the best live shows EVER. Seriously - they are up there next to Rx Bandits.

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, June 11, 2004 at 1:48 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    the jealous sound is fuckin awesome.

    Posted by megan on 2004-06-10 10:42:52
    My Score:

    This show was a great time! The Jealous Sound, wow. They keep getting better and better.

    Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, June 9, 2004 at 11:28 AM (EDT)
    My Score:

    how old is the person who thinks spitalfield has better lyrics than jealous sound? and i'd like to know a band or two that you think does have good lyrics if you think jealous sound doesn't.

    Posted by maverick on 2004-06-07 17:22:51
    My Score:

    Oh, FYI - all the pictures/videos should be back up and running. If there's any more problems, let me know.

    -Scott

    Posted by Anonymous on Monday, June 7, 2004 at 2:39 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    nice review, scott.

    the new spitalfield song was really good. i can't wait for them to record.

    piebald are fun. the new record took a little while to grow on me, but i am really liking it now.

    jealous sound... extremely boring live... but damn good songs.

    the format... missed most of their set. oops.

    Posted by Anonymous on Monday, June 7, 2004 at 11:32 AM (EDT)
    My Score:

    that dude thought the jealous sounds lyrics were bad, but is probably fine with the fact that piebald has plagiarized tons of lyrics from other bands and books.

    at least thats what they did on some of the older records. i havent paid attention to anything that worthless band has done in years

    Posted by Anonymous on Monday, June 7, 2004 at 10:07 AM (EDT)
    My Score:

    what's with all the four star reviews this week? is four the new five?

    Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, June 6, 2004 at 10:42 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    Four stars for Piebald and Spitalfield.

    I thought the Jealous Sound was easliy the worst band i have ever seen. Their lyrics were absolutly atrcoious. You know when a band opens up a set with a song containing the sparkling fresh line "..and if i die before i wake.." that you're in for quite a ride.

    "Will you be my friend?" God no, jealous sound. God no.

    Posted by maverick on 2004-06-06 20:13:33
    My Score:

    A note about the videos/pictures:

    My friend's server which is hosting them went down this weekend. I have to re-upload everything to his old server. The image galleries are all up, but give me a little time for the videos - FTP ain't the fastest thing in the world and these files are rather big.

    -Scott

    Posted by boba_fett on 2004-06-06 17:25:01
    My Score:

    fc five is good. that's right, i thank international spotlight for that.

    Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, June 6, 2004 at 5:15 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    Japan has some of the coolest bands ever and some of the worst bands ever, so watch what you get.

    Anyone here heard the Exclaim disc?

    -BSD

    Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, June 6, 2004 at 4:33 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    don't worry kids, the jealous sound are like rock stars over in japan

    Posted by boba_fett on 2004-06-06 13:00:13
    My Score:

    the jealous sound rocks. their stuff is gold.

    Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, June 6, 2004 at 11:17 AM (EDT)
    My Score:

    I saw the singer from the jealous sound at an against me show.

    Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, June 6, 2004 at 9:47 AM (EDT)
    My Score:

    this show was quality through and through. every band was had its own style to bring to the table.

    spitalfield did own the stage however. piebald should have played before them in chicago.

    Posted by LMChc on 2004-06-05 23:05:39
    My Score:

    Scott likes them Spitalfield kids... biblically.

    Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, June 5, 2004 at 7:16 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    none of the vids or pics work.

    Posted by kirbypuckett on 2004-06-05 19:14:44
    My Score:

    I'm thinking about getting a DV cam to film shows...

    Hmm...

    - Kirby

    Posted by Ted_The_Bellhop on 2004-06-05 12:10:48
    My Score:

    The reviewers take on The Jealous Sound was so right. I so this tour when it came to New York. The Jealous Sound were amazing but it seemed like me and two other people where the only people that really knew the words or apperciated them at all. They write some amazing songs and put on a great live show and without Knapsack(Blair's old band) alot of the "cool" bands wouldn't exist.

    Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, June 5, 2004 at 2:51 AM (EDT)
    My Score:

    did piebald touch kids at this show, too?

    Posted by BSD on 2004-06-04 21:32:46
    My Score:

    Haha I like how you guys slam SomethingCorporate, Yellow Card, Simple Plan, and all of those bands, but you think Spitafield is a decent band. It says it all about how much indie cred. means to you guys. Image is all.

    Posted by Jesse on 2004-06-04 20:18:27
    My Score:

    The Jealous Sound will never be as good as Knapsack was. Fuck having Blair sing. It was so much better with his raspy shouting.

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, June 4, 2004 at 6:46 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    Scott likes them Spitalfield kids... sexually.

    Posted by chumprocker on 2004-06-04 17:12:05
    My Score:

    and now my review!!

    the format is easily one of the blandest bands i have ever witnessed in my life. there was nothing descript about them at all, their songs all blended together and they were about as boring as reading a textbook about textbooks. musical nyquil.

    jealous sound was so-so. it was hard to get into them because there was ongoing sound problems (mics popping) and the lights were far too annoying. i still like this band though. i'd like to see them again.

    spitalfield surprised me a little. i was expecting something completely different out of them. i dont know why. they were able to get me, an old jaded asshole, to bop my head once in a while..... only once in a while though.

    piebald played a pretty broad set of songs old and new. they sounded fuller and louder than most other times i've seen them. the newer piano based songs (don't know the names) were winners. one sounded very Ben Folds Five-ish, which was cool. i was one of the loudmouths in the balcony yelling for King of The Road, so i'm pretty excited they played it.

    overall this show wasn't too exciting. just sort of a little above average. i'd give it 6 out of 10.

    Posted by sickboi on 2004-06-04 17:11:36
    My Score:

    Say Scott, I film most shows I attend, I wonder if we could work out a system to send you clips...hmmm....

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, June 4, 2004 at 5:09 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    Sounds like a fun show

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