Covers to Covers Entertainment Lincoln Hall Chicago, IL December 23, 2009

Given the nature of the covers, and perhaps through the demographics of these working musicians, the crowd at Lincoln Hall was an older crowd. Lincoln Hall is a very cool venue, small and intimate, but big at the same time capable of a big sound. The sound was amazing perhaps thanks to the talent of Lincoln Hall’s sound engineer. Everything sounded crisp and clean, which really added to the genuine fun and talent going on on-stage. Even the okay bands sounded good! It’s really great to see such a nice and professional place host local artists sporting a good cause.

On the other hand, the nature of the event was a little strange to me, something along the lines of what you would expect a benefit concert for abused women would feel like. I couldn’t help wonder who were victims and who were not. Like in most benefit concerts, there’s always an air of guilt and melancholy mixed with people coming together to support a valuable cause by way of drinking and having fun.

The crowd is a small select community. MC Rattina from Chic-A-Go-Go hosted as a sock puppet. She was perfectly comfortable being quirky and borderline embarrassing with her bad joke segues, but all in the name of good fun. And speaking of quirky, The Maybenauts performed as David Bowie in full costumes. Wearing wigs and eye patches made it feel like Halloween. They had such great energy as their lead singer Leilani Frey rocked the fake British accent.

Double Life took the stage as The Cars and delivered an equally impressive performance led by their very charming lead singer who wore the standard eighties dark leather attire and large sunglasses. Slutter as Kiss ended the night, also in full costume and make-up, performing with confetti, smoke, and guitar smashing with special consideration toward Gene Simmon’s tongue.

On the darker soulful side of talent, there was Yoko Nogo as Shippie Wallace who opened the night. Her old dark raspy voice carried the room into a trance in Japanese and English. The old ragtime like CASIO keyboard playing was cute against her deep and painfully beautiful voice. Later in the night, what felt like an extension of what Yoko was doing was Dressed in Black as Gossip.

Nogo apparently performed with bronchitis, and their guitarist with some broken fingers, but they still managed to leave a lasting impression on me. Their set reminded me of the White Stripes, just as soulful, loud, and dirty, delivering it all with a natural and convincing, “I don’t give a fuck type of attitude.” If I had to choose, the night was a tie between The Cars cover of, “Just what I needed,” and just the whole set of, Gossip. Overall, I’m very impressed by Chicago’s local talent. Way to have some standards Chicago!

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