By the time Streetlight Manifesto came onto the stage in the Metro, the crowd was cautiously primed. Within a minute, they'd stirred the assembled fans to a fever pitch which they would successfully maintain the rest of the night. While aspects of the performance were somewhat forgettable, the large crowd was thrilled by the merits of their music.
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Streetlight Manifesto |
 Entertainment
 Art
Metro
Chicago, Ill.
January 10, 2008
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Opening Act Stitch Up had the run of the stage early in the night. The lead singer began without the aid of his band mates and did few songs that sounded very much like him having a shouting match with his guitar. Once he was joined by the rest of Stitch Up they built up an entertaining set, helped by antics such as pulling a fan up onto the stage with them and teaching him to play the guitar part for the next number. The song, they admitted, only had three chords.
Bizarre rap duo Grand Buffet, the next opener, seemed to have half the crowd cheering for them and half strongly against. Much like their previous experience touring with Of Montreal, they were perhaps hampered by a tendency to open for bands who they don't resemble in the least musically. For some, their unique style was a pleasant change, for others an unwelcome delay from what they had come to see. The pair are fantastic showmen though. Of particular note, they introduced a large bag of Sour Cream and Onion potato chips as their new band member. For better or for worse, they left an impression on everybody in the packed house.
The most impressive thing about the set was easily the fantastic energy that Streetlight Manifesto brought to the stage. With everything blaring from the excellent line of brass instruments, the sharply dressed menagerie of fans assembled near the stage shouted, pumped their fists, and convulsed in a mix of singing, dancing and possible unintentional violence. As the popular dances of the night can be compared most easily to a very happy seizure with an on/off switch, it was both entertaining to watch and slightly frightening for those at the borders who were trying to keep from being sucked into the melee.
From the balcony a slightly older crowd perhaps felt that they had stumbled into somebody else's deeply important teenage rebellion. They watched with cooler heads but obvious relish. The band was clearly picking up on this enthusiasm, even basking in it, and played a long, fiery set that seemed to be just a few degrees away from meltdown the entire night.
For the more casual music fan though, that might have been a problem. The band themselves didn't introduce their songs or give any context to them, and while many were high quality songs, the concert had little in the way of variation to it. The end result was that the set list started to blur together by the end of the night.
Also, after the stage antics and audience participation of Stitch Up and Grand Buffet, their absence was shockingly noticeable. Even their on-stage dancing paled in comparison to the wild motions of Stitch Up. Streetlight Manifesto flowed directly from one song to the next, stopping no more then twice in the night, even to address their multitude of fans, which was somewhat disappointing.
The band was clearly playing a set for their dedicated fans, the leathered and excited teens who could sing along to every song and crowd surf the night away. As somebody with less experience with the band, this reviewer had a hard time keeping up with the pace. The ecstatic fans on the ground floor certainly weren't complaining.
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