Winds of change are at work at Chicago’s favorite dance-floor institution, with new Smart Bar music director and talent buyer Nate Seider, aka Nate Manic, chomping at the bit to flex his creative control over bookings for 2010. While most of Smart Bar’s artist bookings up to this point have been vestiges of previous club boss James Amato, tonight marks the official “Welcome to Smart Bar” party for the recent Newcity cover-boy, featuring one of his personal deck heroes in the legendary John Acquaviva, co-founder (alongside Richie Hawtin) of venerable techno label Plus 8 Records, as well as his current home since 1993 in Definitive Recordings. His “X-Mix-3” mix released back in 1994 (!K7) was partly responsible for turning Manic on to the sounds of techno and house. Since then, the London, Ontario native and former Detroit mainstay has circled the globe as a DJ, recording and releasing tracks and remixes that change with the times. For this techno/house legend, forays into more electro and progressive-influenced sounds might have reached a cooler reception among techno purists from his Detroit days, but Acquaviva has always looked forward, never content to rest on his laurels, and ever-changing his sound to fit his fancy. But for all those neophyte deck slayers out there who might be tempted to brand Acquaviva a relic of a bygone era, you should know that he championed Serato’s Final Scratch system during its development and helped to unleash the single most revolutionary piece of DJ equipment released this millennium. And then there’s his role in launching a little download site called Beatport.com… It’s been at least a handful of years since Acquaviva performed in Chicago. Take into account the extended three-hour sets from both opener Manic and headliner Acquaviva, and tonight at Smart Bar becomes a night you won’t want to miss. (Duke Shin)
December 11 at Smart Bar, 3730 N. Clark, (773)549-0203, 10pm.
Do It Again: A Preview of Brian Wilson at Horseshoe Hammond While today former bandmate Mike Love leads a group calling itself the Beach Boys, that band features no Brian Wilson. Wilson’s group, on the other hand, includes original Beach Boys member Al Jardine as well as late-prime-era Beach Boy Blondie Chaplin, and is jaw-droppingly facile at recreating the Beach Boys sound.
Especially For You: A Preview of the Smithereens at the Memorial Opera House Serious music scholars all, the Smithereens distilled their musical loves into something that ultimately sounded like nobody but them. Diken points to Gary Lewis and the Playboys as an influence; it’s worth noting that the studio cats who played on those records—immortal pop tunes like “Count Me In” —included Leon Russell and drummer Hal Blaine.
Last Punks Standing: A Preview of Mekons at Hideout Mekons have endured by refusing to adhere to anyone's ideas regarding what is and isn't punk rock (which is in and of itself a defiantly punk attitude).
Shock Value: A Preview of Last Fantastic Nasty at Quenchers I get the sense that Last Fantastic Nasty are still in that “figuring who we are” phase, where you’ve realized you can get attention by shocking people, but you start thinking long and hard about whether or not you want to. And they do have the musical chops to do well: the songs are metallic and complicated and compelling, even…
Never Give Up: A Preview of Fantastic Negrito at Martyrs' When Fantastic Negrito emerged onto the music scene in 2015, he looked to all the world like a new, emerging artist. In fact the man born Xavier Dphrepaulezz—winner of that year’s Tiny Desk Contest for his song and video “Lost in a Crowd,” which showcase a sound that builds upon the blues, but didn’t conform to most people’s ideas about…
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Subscribe to Newcity to receive our print edition each month.
