Mclusky Bring A Two-Decade Party to Chicago's Vic Theatre

As someone in his early 40's, I've had an absolute blast over the last few years musically celebrating the 20 year anniversary of some of the most awkward and uncomfortable years of my life. With so many bands cashing in on the "20 year anniversary of (insert album)" trend that's all the rage these days, I'm finally old enough that those tours are celebrating music that came out smack dab in the middle of my college years. Having replaced those seemingly-world ending problems with actual "hey, is society actually on the road to collapse and also health and childcare are how much?" problems, I can fully embrace going out and re-living the soundtrack my life had during my most emo-est of emo days.

The other underrated part of all these 20 year tours is that I get to catch a lot of the music that I was too sheltered by my limited musical interests at the time to have caught the first time around. Take Murder By Death for example. Last summer, I caught them performing Who Will Survive & What Will Be Left of Them? in its entirety to celebrate the second decade of its existence and it was an absolute blast. I'd never heard of MBD before, but when you hear a band is performing their concept album about a small bordertown starting a holy war by trying to literally shoot the Devil in the back over a card game, you make it a point to clear your schedule that night.

Mclusky is another band that I missed during their breakout in the early 2000's that I'm thankfully being able to catch on their way back around the track. Just like a lot of bands from the late 90's/early 2000's, there almost wasn't a way back. After building an audience with both their incendiary debut album My Pain and Sadness is More Sad and Painful Than Yours and it's critically acclaimed follow-up Mclusky Does Dallas (considered by much cooler types than myself to be one of the definitive records of the decade), the guys in Mclusky did what a lot of the best bands of their era did: put out one more banger of an album (2004's The Difference Between Me and You Is That I'm Not on Fire), and then called it quits.

Obviously things didn't stay that way, since I'm talking to you all right now about a show that this band just performed in front of my very face and ears. Either that or the band has somehow perfected SHIELD-level life-model decoys and sent them on tour. Or maybe I hallucinated the entire thing. Equally improbable but not impossible. And if I did hallucinate the entire night, I did a hell of a job throwing in Chicago's on Ganser in support. Although I also would hope I could have also hallucinated a better parking spot while I was at it. Chicago 'breeze' in mid-March actually stabs you with coldness on your way down the sidewalk.

Kicking off the evening was one of those bands that makes it super hard to Google, Martha's Vineyard Ferries. Looking into the background of the trio, I came across this paragraph on their Bandcamp page and let's just say...these dudes are up to a lot:

Guitarist/vocalist Elisha Wiesner has previously set the world on fire with the Massachusetts sextet Kahoots and earlier this year released a 63 song (!) digital masterclass in songwriting under the John Pancake nom de plume. Drummer/vocalist Chris Brokaw has previously pounded on things for heavyweights including but not limited to Codeine, The New Year and Obnox, though there’s a fair chance you’ve also heard his guitar/vocal performances, both solo and with Come (as well as an impossibly long list of contributions to the likes of The Lemonheads, Dirtmusic, Thurston Moore, Consonant and more). Bassist/vocalist Bob Weston is internationally renowned for his sternum-crushing work on behalf of Shellac, Volcano Suns and sound manipulation tactics for Mission Of Burma.

I don't think I've listened to that many bands in the last year. Their resume is like a walking Pitchfork Music Fest poster. The rare band that puts King Gizzard's 5-albums-in-a-year output look tame in comparison.

When seeing them play, you don't need a detailed bio to tell that they've got incredibly varied styles, backgrounds, influences, and interests. In a set that lasted just over a half hour, they were able to work their way through slower, ponderous almost jam-band grooves that seemed improvisational at times and immediately follow up with straightforward punk rock that sounded like they wrote it in a sweaty basement as teenagers. Their set would have been the most boring musical BINGO game of all time since everyone would be able to check every box on every card with the musical ground they covered. But it's like the old saying goes: what makes for shitty BINGO makes for awesome live music.

Or something like that. I never claimed to be a professional words guy.

"Oh hell yeah, Ganser's playing."

That is the correct response to say (out loud) every time you see Ganser's name on a bill. See their name on the Riot Fest poster? "Oh hell yeah, Ganser's playing." Get an email from the Empty Bottle with their upcoming shows? "Oh hell yeah, Ganser's playing." It's an involuntary reaction and totally understandable. Encouraged, even!

It's because Ganser kicks ass and continue to kick ass live and last week's show was no exception. Now I'm not usually the "copy/paste the band's bio" type of person, I swear (I say as I'm about to do it again). But I saw this on the band's iTunes page and I thought it was interesting:

Chicago quartet Ganser built on a foundation of moody, goth-indebted post-punk, drawing on more art rock influences as their sound developed. The band's lyrical themes of doom, anxiety, and apocalyptic dread matched their glowering musical style on albums like 2020's Just Look at That Sky.

Now I'm not saying that's inaccurate, and it's actually a pretty good description of a sometimes complicated sound. But if you read a description like that without experiencing Ganser live, it really makes them seem...dour? Gloomy? I'm not sure if those are the exact words I'm looking for, but after seeing the band perform live it's almost selling what the band does short. Because they can sing about doom-and-gloom and anxiety but also make you want to bang your head and sway back and forth in equal measure. It might sound like an odd combination on paper (screen?), but it's really something when you see it pulled off in person.

The duality of Ganser was best represented by the contrasting styles of Alicia Gaines (bass/vocals) and Nadia Garofalo (keyboards/vocals), which isn't a surprise considering the band started as their brainchild. Each seemed to perform as an extension of their instruments. Gaines' vocals were a sultry, echo-soaked velvet blanket that would wrap around your brain while her bass lines fuzzed out the space behind your eyes. On the other side of the coin, Garofalo seemed to manipulate her body in the same way as she would they keyboards she perched over for most of the night - twisting and contorting things every which way she could think of to squeeze out the exact urgent sound she needed at any given time.

Keeping these sometimes contrasting styles together and adding their own structured chaos to the mix while somehow making sure the whole thing doesn't veer off the rails is guitarist Charlie Landsman and drummer Brian Cundiff. Both seeming to know exactly when to hang back and support and when to come in like a tornado of percussion and riffs, they provide the perfect compliment and occasional counterbalance to everything Gaines and Garofalo lead with and the result is a moody, groovy smack to the head that might leave you a little disoriented, but knowing that you want a second dose immediately.

So all joking aside, obviously Mclusky is back. They did something similar to what Porno for Pyros did over time: the band members go their separate ways and start new musical projects. Then maybe you get some of the band together for a special event or benefit of some kind. Then maybe you play a few shows where you basically are the same band with a tweaked lineup. And the next thing you know, your band is back together.

(The best part about Mclusky more or less following that path is that they did play shows under both 'Mclusky' and mclusky*)

With their revamped lineup intact, the band was originally supposed to go out in 2022 to support two decades of Mclusky Does Dallas, only to have the tour delayed by two years. "You've waited two decades, what's another two years?" you might ask. Judging by the rabid anticipation of the capacity floor crowd at Chicago's famed Vic Theatre as the band hit the stage, apparently it's quite a bit of difference.

Mclusky are a punk rock band and they do a lot of punk rock band shit very well. They have really short songs. And those song titles have kickass titles like 'Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues' and 'Unpopular Parts of a Pig' and 'Without MSG I'm Nothing'. All three of their albums have absolute Hall of Fame titles. And they play LOUD music that sounds like three dudes absolutely intent on beating the piss out of their instruments and playing songs that are equally angry and funny.

So what's the most punk rock way to return to the stage after being gone for decades? Kicking things off with 'Fuck This Band', which contrary to what its title may sound like is actually a downtempo, undistorted musing on keeping a musical group at arms length and certainly not something to be headbanged to.

And it was awesome. Almost like with the finish line in sight, after twenty years plus two more years, three more minutes of getting warmed up before blowing the roof off was perfectly fine.

And that's exactly what happened. As if indicating to the crowd what was about to happen, singer/guitarist Andy Falkous donned a pair of headphones, gave singer/bassist Damien Sayell and drummer Jack Egglestone a look, and tore into 'Dethink to Survive', a two minute kick to the head that left the audience unable to join into the mayhem - a trend that continued into 'Without MSG I Am Nothing's coo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coooooo call and response in the chorus.

With a 2 year gap between 2002's Mclusky Does Dallas and 2004's ...On Fire and a 2 year delay in this tour, it could have been repurposed as a 20 year anniversary for the latter album. But Mclusky stayed true to the original intent of the tour, playing 11 of the 14 tracks off Dallas amongst the whopping 21 the trio packed into their set. You might imagine that, even with short run times, these songs would have to be played super hard and super fast to fit that many into a single night. And you would be right. Falkous and the rest of the band put on a clinic of turn-of-the-century punk/post-punk, mixing equal parts anger and frustration with tongue-in-cheek humor. Probably the best attitude to have during an election year. If you can't laugh at the state of things today, you might not make it.

As the closing notes on both Dallas' and the evening's final song 'Whoyouknow' screamed across the Vic's PA, it's hard to imagine any of these songs being played better twenty years ago than they were played on this night. Everything happens for a reason and all that jazz, but you have to be at least a little bummed that this kind of energy with these songs had mostly been out of the public eye for so long. Fuck this band, right?

The good news is that they are back and you've got a chance to see them live so you should go do so. Future dates and tickets can be found here.

Mclusky Setlist - The Vic Theatre, 3.14.24

Fuck This Band
Dethink to Survive
Without MSG I Am Nothing
Collagen Rock
What We've Learned
Day of the Deadringers
Unpopular Parts of a Pig
Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues
Chases
She Will Only Bring You Happiness
The Digger You Deep
Et tu, Edwards?
You Should Be Ashamed, Seamus
To Hell With Good Intentions
Rice Is Nice
The Battle of Los Angelsea
Alan Is a Cowboy Killer
No Covers
That Man Will Not Hang
Gareth Brown Says
Whoyouknow