Review by\u00a0Christopher David<\/p>\n
Photos by James Currie<\/p>\n
Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago is one of those famous main drags that plays home to icons: Double Door, the Congress Theater, SuperDawg, and the list goes on. Sunday night\u2019s Wicker Park Fest culminated with another Chicago icon on that famous street: a jam-packed rock show from reunited hometown legends Veruca Salt.<\/p>\n
Following a short, sweet, and sweaty set at Beat Kitchen on Saturday night to prime the pump, the ladies and gentlemen of Veruca Salt (singer\/guitarists Nina Gordon and Louise Post, drummer Jim Shapiro, and bassist Steve Lack) took the stage and then took no prisoners for a 75-minute set that explored a near-perfect balance of new and old.<\/p>\n
Classics like \u201cAll Hail Me\u201d and \u201cSpiderman \u201879\u201d clearly resonated, sparking singalongs from the mix of younger fans (a few children on shoulders were seen singing along, which proved promising!) and lifers who pressed tight to the barricade in an effort to get as close as possible to the ax-grinding duo of Gordon and Post as Lack and Shapiro kept things chugging. The band\u2019s new record, Ghost Notes, <\/i>an incredibly tight affair overflowing with every hallmark of Veruca\u2019s signature sound, was modestly represented, with singles \u201cLaughing the in Sugar Bowl\u201d and \u201cThe Gospel According to Saint Me\u201d sparking an equal amount of fan fervor, and mid-tempo rager \u201cTriage\u201d offering lyrical catharsis for \u201cstuff that went down\u201d a long time ago in Chicago, according to Gordon. The wall-of-sound guitars on new cuts like \u201cBlack & Blonde\u201d and fan favorite \u201cI\u2019m Taking Europe with Me\u201d were even crunchier, and American Thighs<\/i>\u2019 epic \u201c25\u201d was inspired as well, allowing plenty of opportunities for Gordon and Post to play off each other, exchanging frequent smiles and the occasional joke.<\/p>\n
And play off of each other they did. As guitar duos go, they\u2019re up there on the list with the K.K. Downing\/Glenn Tiptons of the world, Malcolm and Angus Youngs, relying on each other\u2019s cues and solos to set the course for improvisation and transitions. And considering the unexpected and wholly welcome nature of their fairly recent reunion, the interaction is certainly fun to watch.<\/p>\n
Not every band ages gracefully, and even fewer become more engaging and better with the passing years. Veruca Salt are doing both. All hail, indeed.<\/p>\n
Click here for photos from the show.<\/p>\n
Veruca Salt \u2013 Wicker Park Fest, Chicago, IL \u2013 July 26, 2015 (setlist)\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
Prince of Wales<\/p>\n
I\u2019m Taking Europe with Me<\/p>\n
Black & Blonde<\/p>\n
Straight<\/p>\n
Laughing in the Sugar Bowl<\/p>\n
Forsythia<\/p>\n
All Hail Me<\/p>\n
Empty Bottle<\/p>\n
The Gospel According to Saint Me<\/p>\n
Volcano Girls<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t Make Me Prove It<\/p>\n
Triage<\/p>\n
Spiderman \u201879<\/p>\n
Seether<\/p>\n
The Museum of Broken Relationships<\/p>\n
Shutterbug<\/p>\n
Twinstar (tease)<\/p>\n
Shimmer Like A Girl<\/p>\n
25<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Review by\u00a0Christopher David Photos by James Currie Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago is one of those famous main drags that plays home to icons: Double Door, the Congress Theater, SuperDawg, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,39,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-music-news","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}