South’s tour to support their sophomore
LP, With The Tides, took a bit of a delay
when guitarist Jamie McDonald broke his
wrist playing soccer, I mean football. South’s 2001 debut, From Here
On In, is one of my favorite albums and last year’s follow-up,
With The Tides, was the prefect next course.
So, when I heard they were finally coming to
Chicago, I was not about to miss it. I arrived just in
time to grab a beer and catch the end of New-
York-by-way-of-Toronto quartet Metric’s
set. Metric played an incredibly tight gig with lead
singer Emily Haines stealing the show
with her haunting voice and rad ’80s dance
moves. When they finished the mood was perfectly
set for South to take the stage.
The black
walls and swirling murals of Chicago’s Double Door
create the perfect atmosphere for South’s ambient,
spacy
dance beats. As the charming young Brits took the
stage, the large crowd erupted in cheers. South
kicked off their set with a tune from their debut
From Here On In called “All In For
Nothing.” The cascading beats and gloomy guitar
riffs of the instrumental jam were an excellent
introduction to a show that would continue in much
the same fashion. South enchanted the crowd with
a few stand out tracks from From Here On In
, like “Paint The Silence” and “Live Between The
Lines,” as well some of my personal favorites from
With The Tides like the single “Loosen Your
Hold” and “Motiveless Crime.”
All of the
members of South are multitalented musicians.
Singer Joel Cadbury split his time
between bass and acoustic guitar and drummer
Brett Shaw dabbled on the keyboards, as
well. As South rocked though much of With The
Tides, the crowd nodded their heads in a
pleased unison. There was even one lone girl who
had her hands up in a trance-like state for much
of the show. Each song seemed to flow into one
another with dancy jams as the glue holding them
together. There was not too much said by Cadbury,
except that he loves Chicago (who really doesn’t
love Chicago??). I do have to say that the small
amount of stage banter was still enough to win me
over (it may just be that I am a sucker for the
English accent). The best part of the show was
when South came out to play their encore. They
played only one song, Nick Drake’s “Black
Eyed Dog.” It was a prefect mix of hauntingly
beautiful song writing and moody electronica
accompaniment. And then they left the stage with
nothing but a “We fucking love Chicago.” As
Bono would have, said it was “Fucking
brilliant.” Now if you will all excuse me, the FCC just
called. I guess you can’t say FUCK.
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