It's seems to me a strange thing, mystifying...

I had a show at Elbo Room this Saturday and it was the polar opposite of the show I had there a few months ago. For those of you not keeping track at home, I had a show I promoted there a few months ago that had solid bands with proven track records (not to mention being artistically fantastic) that no one showed up to see. In my entire history of promoting I had never had a show do so poorly. I'm still mystified by what happened, though in retrospect I think it was just one of those nights where the starts were aligned against me.

Anyway, this Saturday's show was the complete opposite. Usually just the fact that there is a good crowd at a show makes me happy. However, when there's a good crowd at a show featuring bands that are underexposed and underappreciated in Chicago -- and that crowd is obviously digging all of the musical acts -- then "happy" becomes "ecstatic."

Saturday’s show featured two Columbus bands, The Miranda Sound and The Celebrity Pilots. The Pilots play bent pop phoned in from planet catchy and The Miranda Sound plays an aggressive, urgent attack of what in the olden days would have been called "indie rock," but which I now just call unFUCKINGbelievable. I've done shows with both bands in the past and folks always dig them and walk away impressed but I've had a hell of a time breaking them enough so that they get established with the press or other "tastemakers." Sometimes this part of what I do just drives me nuts. It's like, I have this band that I know is awesome and head and shoulders above most local acts, not to even mention other touring bands, but I just can't seem to get them any influential love.

I think that's why I loved Saturday's show so much. The crowd was, for the most part, an atypical one for both Columbus bands since the headliner was Dick Prall (another fine poppin' rocker) and his draw skews more towards the mainstream and away from that which could be called "indie." Another big help was the fact that the show was also functioning as a birthday celebration for my friend Marni (who is also a terrific local booster of the Columbus acts) and a load of her friends were packing the place. The funny thing about this "mainstream" audience? They gave the boys (and girl) from out of town more love than I've seen go their way at any Chicago show in the past. So thank you, audience. I honestly really appreciated you that night.

Also, I didn't fall down once, I didn't get drunk and insulty and mouthy and I left right after the show to ensure I stayed out of trouble. So the show was a success in that regard as well.

Photo of Billy from The Miranda Sound by Kim Rottmayer