Sailor Jerry Festival

<img src="http://www.qromag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/sailorjerry11.jpg" alt="Sailor Jerry Festival : Live" />True to its ‘full court press’ branding, Sailor Jerry took over Cobra Lounge like no other for three hot days in...
Sailor Jerry Festival : Live
Sailor Jerry Festival

True to its ‘full court press’ brand immersion, Sailor Jerry took over Cobra Lounge like no other for three hot days in Chicago, July 15th through 17th.  The bar, located a half-block from the ongoing Pitchfork festival, netted the exiting masses as night fell (note: Chicago ordinance stipulates no music festivals on public grounds can go past 10pm).  Heat-stroked hipsters from all walks of life were greeted by three full nights of free music hewing towards all American rock n roll indie.  Points awarded for the Sailor Jerry-branded RV hangout lounge; points lost for not handing out any free Sailor Jerry rum (at least I didn’t see any) – c’mon now!
had to pay for drinks?!?

Local bro/sis garage duo White Mystery headlined the opening night on Friday.  The pair is on a bit of a well-deserved roll lately: first, releasing their well-received LP Blood & Venom, and, second, getting voted ‘Best Band in Illinois’ by the alternative weekly Boston Phoenix.  If you’re wondering why a Boston weekly paper is presuming to render judgment on the alternative music scene across the country in its "50 Bands, 50 States" feature, then you probably have not familiarized yourself with print media’s awkward and ongoing transition to the Internet Age, where cultural fiefdoms have no border or boundary that can not be willed away with the proper level of gumption.  SEO antics aside, the Boston Phoenix is one of finest alternative weeklies in America, and they hit the nail on the head with White Mystery.  The redheaded stomp box children tore up the stage with their hot licks & Tasmanian devil-style percussion.

Opener People’s Temple was booked twice over for the night, playing a later gig at Crown Tap Liquors (with fellow HoZac Records labelmates Fungi Girls, straight outta Texas).  People’s Temple is a quartet composed of two pairs of brothers.  Young guys – hipster beards will have gone out of style by the time they can grow a full one.  Their music takes strong pointers from the 13th Floor Elevators, with a ‘fundamentals’ garage jam sensibility.  Pulling mostly from their precocious Sons of Stone album, the guys put together a workman-like set, punctuated rather emphatically by at least one ‘beer spew.’
White Mystery

The HoZac party continued with Mickey , a Chicago-based greaser glam outfit that just released their album Rock N Roll Dreamers (QRO review) on the label.  If People’s Temple was the shy member of the family, Mickey was the extroverted attention grabber.  Loud, raw, and unfettered; the five-piece mixes the right amount of devil-may-care punk brashness with loving attention to the nuts and bolts of a rock n roll song.  A Mickey song starts up like a sweet Harley; a gorgeous, gluttonous mash of oil, steel and leather that you hear from a mile off, watch zoom by, and disappear around the bend.

Chicago’s grunge-psych outfit Mannequin Men brought the noise to Saturday’s headlining spot.  The band grinds out the full-blooded rock n roll.  In fact, with Mannequin Men bookended with opener E+, Saturday’s bill was probably the line-up most likely to please your truck-driving uncle.  The bodacious beauties of the all-girl band Hollows don’t hurt either (side note: rumor has it Hollows refuses to – or at least strongly People's Templedisfavors – playing on the same bill as another all girl band.  Cattiness gone wild?  Or just a silly story spun from the gossip mill?).  If you’ve never heard Hollows beyond a few spare garage-y tracks on their MySpace, then you might be surprised by the fullness and depth of their live sound.  More than mere garage lo-fi, these girls go hard with a full electro-indie arsenal. 

The heat had been turning up on the Pitchfork crowd all weekend, but life really got ugly on Sunday.  Hot, hot, hot, hot.  After Pitchfork-closer TV On The Radio limped offstage 15 minutes early, the party had just started at Cobra Lounge with Wet Heat, Heavy Times, and headliner Gypsy Blood. 

MickeyQRO covered Heavy Times at the Blackout Fest (QRO recap), where, allegedly, the frontman for Heavy Times had his switchblade confiscated at the door.  Probably a good thing, if true, because the guy seemed a little out of it.  Not exactly the sort of dude you want with a sharp weapon handy.  So, if nothing else, you knew that Sunday’s lineup had the potential for some raw punk uncertainty.  The somewhat ironically named, given the heat, Wet Heat opened with garage-y, punk, rock ‘n’ roll; the night jammed on with the garage-y rock n roll punk of Heavy Times, before Gypsy Blood headlined with their patented strains of rock n roll-y, garage punk.  Three nights of free music in sweet, ever loving air-conditioning – well played, Sailor Jerry!

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