A Light Sleeper Entertainment Art Gallery Cabaret Chicago, IL May 6, 2009

The band began the night by delving into “Diazepam,” a fresh track off of their first release entitled “Amicability,” signed under Another New Calligraphy. Slowly picking at the strings in a tense then immediately relaxed manner, Pennepalli shoeless, clicks and clangs on his loop machine while laying in the lyrics. Lyrics which are more subversive and chant like then a tangible statement, they creep along repeating while cutting as saxophone layers caress you. Then a slow back beat inserts itself just noticeable enough to be recognized, yet aggressive enough to keep balance with the revolving hymns and decorative saxophone strength. The circus then comes to town with “Senseless Sentiments” a song on the fringes of genius and utter insanity. The first image brought to mind is one of an extremely overweight clown attempting a tight-rope walk on acid. The bending, swerving guitar drunkenly plays with lyrics reminding us that all we have are “lovely, senseless sentiments”.

Creativity in song titles is another gift that this band possesses. During “In Praise of 4-Letter Words” the crazy moves in again, at first very quietly in a serene extremely tight guitar pick and almost weary middle-eastern over-lay. It keeps the tension with Pennepalli’s frightening moans blistering between words and raw emotion as he twists in his seat and cadjorts in all directions. Meanwhile, Maria Elena Hernandez on stage right on saxophone maintains a graceful countenance, as Matthew Jung continues to keep the beat in a joyous world behind his eyelids. Beginning with a very clean and anticipatory guitar riff and beat, “To Be Too Good for One’s Own Good” is sung by Hernandez over a loop of her own vocals bringing chaos and complexity to lyrics like - “last night in my dreams my teeth were fallin outta my head.” The instruments pleasurably clash angrily around her like the sound of a wild Friday night in the city at three am just under the subway.

To close, ALS transitioned into “A Curious Preoccupation” also which is the closing song on their latest album. By far the most cohesive song in the set, it is most conventional in its control and meter. An uplifting way to end with a very cheery sound that leads into a sleepy sax humming back into the far reaches of experimental music.

Having been a fan of ALS since they were merely just some loops and a good beat, they have built a dramatic structural sound that could possibly be envisioned as a soundtrack to a film that exists in another dimension. ALS is characteristically unique in design, if there is a piece of you that is starving for something different, I highly recommend attending one of their shows. For more information go to www.alightsleeper.com

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