Stallions and Lions

Fifty or so showed up for the sold out concert at Schubas last night, making the small venue feel like a packed college apartment party. So did the appearance of the night's audience, consisting of Chicago's younger hipster set, newly freed from oppressive retainers and summer jobs at Hot Topic and Abercrombie and Fitch. Lead singer Dan Nigro of As Tall As Lions (the concert's second act) noted how young the crowd was as he tuned his guitar between songs. “Young people don't like to talk,” he said after his questions to the audience were met with giddy silence. “It's ok, I don't like to listen to people either. Do you guys like to dance though?” This time, the question was met with cheers and immediate shimmying as ATAL burst into a poppy song full of “oohs oohs” and “whoas whoas.”

As Tall As Lions were exuberant and playful during their 40-minute set, from their long and awkward sound check (Nigro broke in and out of Justin Timberlake falsetto with a finger in his ear, “oooh oooooooh yeah... Check, check 1, 2....”) to the last song of the evening, “Maybe I'm Just Tired.” Each member of the Long Island band shook his head and wagged his tongue as they jumped from one song to the next. Bassist Julio Taverez towered over his band mates and was all sweat and motion, swinging his bass around his body. ATAL's keyboardist bounced in his seat, mouthing sounds and words I'm pretty sure weren't the songs' lyrics and became impromptu trumpeter during one of the band's slower, tears inducing songs. Nigro tossed his head back and gave plaintive wails and howls, making his lyrics of hurt and angst all the more believable. Though guitarist Sean Fitzgerald was surprised that a lot of the audience had the bands' self titled CD, if it's anything like the performance they gave last night a lot more people will be picking it up.

- Anthonia Akitunde

(Note: My pictures from the night sucked but here's a picture from the band's MySpace site.)