My trip to see Louise Post play the Empty Bottle (Chicago, IL, 4/23/2024)

[Music] love that [Applause] [Music] [Music] Baseline love that [Music] smile what a great great night that was that was a whole heck of a lot of fun that is L [ __ ] post ladies and gentlemen it was my great pleasure this week to drive up and see Louise and her band play The Empty Bottle in Chicago uh the concert was originally scheduled for last July but it got canceled the last minute I think it was actually canceled the day of because of Co so that was really sad but uh it worked out better in a lot of ways this time I don't I don't know what the other venue was like but this place was tiny tiny and it was great see them play in a place that small and my wife got to go with me and we both got to meet Louise which was really nice and we got to hear sound check and then we got to enjoy the show meeting her was kind of crazy for me because she is definitely one of my musical Heroes I think she has a really kind of special almost magical ability to write songs the way she does and to perform them I love her voice I love her attitude and her energy and really everything about her so you know I'm not a person who is used to talking to celebrities so I I didn't know what to say I just tried to tell her that you know her music means a lot to me and I think she's really good at what she does and I'm glad that she's doing it and I'm especially glad that she is still doing it uh last year when I thought I was going to meet her in person in July I made a little metal rabbit sculpture her and I was going to give it to her um but that didn't happen so I reached out to her and she gave me her uh mailing address and I mailed it to her and she knew who I was when I told her that I was the guy that made her the rabbit and so that was pretty gratifying um I have no complaints it was a great evening after we did the meet and greet we walked a couple blocks down the street and found a really nice Ukrainian restaurant I think it was called the if I can pronounce it I think they I think he would roll the rsub which means Trident in Ukrainian one thing I really liked about the restaurant other than the food which was great I had chicken keev which was the first time I've ever had it it was fantastic uh but they kind of uh you know wear your heart on your sleeve take no prisoners attitude of the every Slavic person every slav that I've ever met was on full display there in order to get to the bathroom you have to walk over a carpet that says uh like [ __ ] you Putin or something like that and there's a little sign there that says if you don't support Ukraine you can go ahead and piss your pants or um anyway when we got to The Empty Bottle the opening act was uh maybe just one or two songs from being done so the place was filling up it worked my way up to within four or five kind of people back from the stage by the time Main Attraction came on um let me find the video where they come [Applause] out there's the ban [Music] [Music] drummer there it's got a little bit of a Rick Grimes thing going on this is Nicole fiorentino who played on veroa salts 4 album and then later went on to be in the Smashing Pumpkins I don't know these other two guys I don't know any of the guys names it was a good band though they were they were pretty tight get your Pete Pete towns and windmill arm going yep loosen up your neck the audio on my uh phone camera is not great but you get the idea [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] there she is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] yeah it cuts off there so I put my phone in my pocket there are two kinds of memory that I kind of draw on for experiences like this one is like I do like to record some things because details and then I can watch them over and over again which I will I have been then the other is like I just kind of like to feel stuff and experience it and you know I don't want to have a little screen in front of me when I've got the real thing right there so uh I didn't record a whole lot I recorded some Snippets there are some songs which I actually wish I would have recorded but you get what you get see I I do have better video of that song you know when she came out and started off with all the dancing I wasn't exactly sure what was going on cuz I'm used to seeing her play guitar but [Music] then when she launches in the vocal look at that smile when she launched in the vocal I knew that it was it was on nice and Loud too nice and loud I like listening to music really loud you know I crank it up in the car when I buy myself I crank it up at home when I buy myself if I want to get at the uh kind of really like understand all the nuances of how a song is put together I'll listen to it on headphones where you can hear everything and you can pick out left and right and all that but if you really want to feel something you got to get out there in front of the band and let the three guitars and that bass and those drums hit you in your guts and vibrate you and it is different you know you can't hear as much things are a little bit sloppier louder but there's there's no substitute no substitute so she came out it was pretty clear that it was going to be a good night she meant business and that that first vocal line uh livered with Louise post ferocity good stuff here's a set list so they open with closer which was a song from four straight which uh that's a what that's song from eight arms to hold you don't make me prove it another eight arms song Guilty that's one of her new originals from Sleepwalker album I think she plays like six of those guilty what about Queen of pirates Hollywood Hills killer all these years thought there was one more down there the way we live yeah I think that's six wet suit great song I unfortunately don't have any video of that um all hail me classic from American thighs sound of the Bell you know I think the only album didn't play anything off Ghost Notes right there were a couple of songs that I was not familiar with and I realized there are some EPs and bsides and stuff like that out there so she played you know several songs from American Thighs several songs from eight arms to hold you several songs from resolver at least one song from four um pretty good those uh Let's find let's listen to a little bit of straight here there she is with [Music] it that SG looks red but it was actually kind of a brown like a reddish brown [Music] [Applause] [Music] color smoke Her Like She's incense her lyrics are really distinctive I can't you know I I don't have an analysis of them but I just know when I hear a Louise post lyric they're they're not all they're not so cookie cutter but there's like certain kind of the way she phrases things along with the way the Melodies go and um kind of wrap around the chords that are just I feel like so distinctive and so good [Music] for [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] me all right we have a little bit of all hail [Music] me the crowd knows all [Music] these all these old Vera Sal songs uh it's one of the nice things about going to a concert like this like you you find your people [Music] [Applause] I just love these [Music] songs those three guitars in the base it was a it was a wall of sound when they had everybody going on the on the power cords at the same time so I associate her with uh Gibson SG which is what she has there she has a white one that she brings out later but that's why I had her sign these are my two souvenirs this is my uh Gibson SG pick card large and then here's the small I just realized this is her signature is uh upside down on that one that's is okay I really like the white one that she had actually I never thought of myself as a white guitar person but that would be the large piit card so I think I have I'm not sure whether I have any of the songs she played on that one with in a video or not but uh I associate the Gibson SG with her actually the other shoulder the Les Paul behind me Les Paul behind me um that's the one that she plays in videos for American Thighs but then eventually she played SGS a lot and I think I'm not sure what why she I mean maybe it's because the thing weighs a ton I don't know but I associate her with that Gibson SG uh just uh you got your Angus Young and you got your Tony iomi is one of the reasons why I asked her if she would take a picture with me with the ACDC pinball machine at The Empty Bottle because I thought that was kind of funny that it was there uh so I'm probably at the time in my life where I just need to go ahead and quit talking smack and buy an SG uh okay this is a great song Shutterbug this is one of my favorites nicoo this bass player here Nicole fiorentino uh was really pretty impressive she was super solid um you know occupies this interesting position because she's holding down the Rhythm Section she's also kind of the bridge uh to the lyrics and the Harmony and the melody and all that because almost all veroa salt songs that I can think of have usually two vocal parts and they're intertwined sometimes throughout the verses sometimes it's in the pre chorus or the chorus or whatever there's always a lot going on with those so somebody needed to be able to do that and I wonder if it wasn't a conscious decision to make it a bass player rather than a guitar player so it wasn't so much like Nina um but anyway she was really impressive sounded great her vocals sounded great and she looked good up there so legit rock star there [Music] [Music] Nicole this is one of those great songs where everybody knows the kind of the punch lines of each verse [Music] very Punchy oh there's the white SG right there yeah that's pretty [Music] sweet these songs are not super technical uh you know you can just see them they're all just kind of playing bar chords most of the time uh uh but it's not it's not that there's some mystery to it it's it's what what she does with those [Music] cords I won't try to sing that's okay when you shout in a crowd but I'm not going to try to sing right now you to me [Music] [Applause] [Music] hold up your cans of liquid death [Music] see [Music] you so [Music] good I can watch that over and over again I probably [Music] will this is one of her new ones off of Sleepwalker lot of these songs are quite beautiful you know that's my one [Music] complaint the other guitar player you can't see him right now so this guy here uh in the black shirt shirt he seemed to be the one who would play everything kind of straight down the center and then the other guy over here who was wearing the hat would kind of do like the little decoration and lead parts most of the time it was fine but on some songs it was just way too loud in the mix it's not his fault but whoever was on the soundboard like and then this song reminded me of that like sometimes they you know fairly close to the center of the stage I couldn't hear anything but that one lead guitar going and it was just was way out way out front uh and if you listen to song on the album that's a part that's way in the background it's way out front here too so that's kind of my one critique that's [Music] it my other second critique they they could have pumped Louisa's voice up a little bit louder I understand kind of wanting to have the vocals fight the music and rock because it kind of feels like it should be that way sometimes but I really wanted to hear [Music] sing too so I could have used a little bit more volume on the lead vocals sometimes [Music] [Music] what about the what about [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the Bri flow [Applause] [Music] too many beautiful people here enough beautiful flow so Vera Sal was a Chicago band and uh you know there's a lot of history with them so I I got the sense that there were a lot of people in the audience who she knew she had professional relationships with friendship relationships with and that sort of thing so um I think it was it looked like she was having a genuinely good time and was amongst friends this is a little bit better video Bri [Applause] flowers too many beautiful people here not enough beautiful [Applause] [Music] flowers we actually ended up bringing one of those home uh not that one it's probably it's one of the white ones [Applause] there I like to think she was throwing it to me but that's probably not the case but we were lucky anyway flower hanging up in the laundry room that is another souvenir from Louise post so one time somebody sold my my cigarette butt with my lipstick on on eBay so weird so weird that's right I was also thinking about how how hard we're rocking up here and like how you guys have an appetite for Hard Rock that's right it's so cool and also like I remember because you probably care because he's from here but I remember being backstage at one of Billy corgan's solo shows like when he did his solo um solo album uh in in California and I remember having this conversation with him where he was like yeah Rock is Dead we're not I'm not doing Rock anymore I was like it's like I'm doing something else en tired of now like cool I'm going to keep doing exactly what I'm doing I'm glad she does back around I'll still be here with a fuzz pedal and a [Music] gig still be there with a fuzz pedal and Gibson I like the sound of that you know you hear about bands these days who I forget which band it was had to cancel their show because somebody's laptop got stolen you don't need a laptop I mean I guess I guess you do you can make yourself dependent upon that stuff where you need a computer with click tracks and synchronize this that and the other in order to put on what you want to put on um that's I guess people do that and that's okay that's not I would ever want to do that's not what she does that's not what most of the bands that I like do uh you can get up there and plug in your instruments you can plug your Gibson into a fuzz box and you can just get going so um thank goodness I also like I you know I'm a Smashing Pumpkins fan but Billy Corgan needs needs a dig um once in a [Applause] while and then started Zan know yeah Zan I'm not sure that I ever actually listen I think I might listen to Zan once this is one of the ones that I didn't know I wrote this song at my dining room table in [Applause] Andersonville brought to [Music] myand Jin slay and you and I played these cool cards together you know what Steve almost did but this is what it was in the [Music] beginning I am they know it I didn't know [Music] it rain's coming through the window the moon lands on my [Music] SE I am somewhere far from [Music] sleep my guitar sounds [Music] nice I am [Music] okay pretty [Music] song this is one of my I wouldn't say favorites but I I really like this song this is from American thighs and uh so so simple and so catchy and so they rocked this one pretty good in the encore I adore you I adore you I [Music] [Music] adore don't to I [Music] am I kind of love these Louise post guitar solos they're they're not they're not Technical and they're often pretty sloppy and I can just really really relate to them you know like I I wait for them to come in the song and you know and when there's something that's to play uh or requires more concentration or whatever you know you got a guy over here to do it but I want to hear Louise play Louise and she does Splendid job [Music] [Music] [Music] it's a tough Noe [Music] Happ yeah [Music] [Applause] [Music] uh first core is of Spider-Man which ends up being the very last song No that's not that's not the last song it was Hellraiser was the last song I forgot Spider-Man was a great great sing [Music] along I think this video gets cut off but I think I might have [Music] more let me see what I have of Spider-Man [Music] this is about a boy from the south side of Chicago no I don't have any more than I guess we just turned off turned off the phones and enjoyed ourselves that was a good one uh and I didn't get any of the song at the end which was Razer which is off resolver it's a song that I didn't know very well but they build it on that it was it was a good good strong end to the show I got all this one to the [Applause] bell I feel um I don't like awkward pauses but you know sometimes it happens [Music] I I think if you have a sympathetic crowd for the aquus we can sympathetic crowd for the aqu pauses yeah have a lot to say stand up there all night if you want to okay you're I cannot understand anything Nicole says there my jacket I'm [Applause] [Music] yeah the audio on my phone sucks I gotta get something different happy that my wife was there with her better camera anyway rock is not dead maybe rock is not dead you know if if you are a fan of Hard music distorted guitar that you like songwriting you like Melody you like Harmony you like lyrics and you have never checked out veroo assault uh you should do yourself a favor and do that so I've been writing a lot of songs lately I am working on the next batch of rusted rabbit songs I completed an albums worth a couple years ago now um I had taken a long break while I was raising children and having a career but I wrote a lot of songs in college and in high school and that's what my friends and I did and uh I have never written a single song that's nearly as good that I like nearly as much as 90% of bro assault songs I'm not sure which piece of my body I would give in order to be able to write a song that is as good as something like Shutterbug but I guarantee you I would sacrifice something I mean a toe like I got 10 of those I give up a toe up a toe no no questions asked to have written something as good as shutter bug or wet suit or anything like that those kind of big you know open angsty songs with all that emotion and all those Dynamics and they make you feel something and they make you want to sing along and they make you want to punch your fist in the air uh it's really really great stuff and I am not a religious person but God bless Louise post for still being out there and doing what she's doing and I hope that we live to see the day where um we can see her on the road again I don't know what she has planned next but it was lovely to meet her and it was h a bucket list item for me that I can cross off but it has left me inspired you know I've been mostly I'm recording with people uh remotely you know and taking advantage of the internet and the gig economy and all that but seeing her play Live made me want to play live again and I of course never played at that level but my guitar skills are good enough to do that you know and the challenge is like writing songs and holding it together just kind of committing so any Tuesday night that you walk away from more inspired uh and more interested that was one of those concerts I didn't want it to end you know I could have gone on for another two hours and I would have been very very happy great time can't say enough good things but I will stop saying good things now and in my video I do have plans to I I want to get it so that I can run my guitar in through the computer and record so I would like to learn some of these songs and maybe do some lessons and some analysis um if you want a clinic on songwriting alternative songwriting that's the woman right there to teach it fantastic you know her and Nina are not maybe they're not lenon and McCartney but maybe they kind of are because they only had three albums together where they were they were songwriting Partners all three of are outstanding makes you wonder what would have happened if you know things gone differently that's all I got to say about that I'm going to shut up now but I will probably not be done talking about Aro assault so Louise if you ever watch this uh it was a real pleasure and I wish you continued success for your benefit and for mine because I want to hear what you're going to do next happy Saturday