One-time Chicagoan and Hideout bartender Neko Case took the Chicago Theater by storm last night in heels and a little black dress that Case characterized as a tribute to Chicago’s meat-packing industry.
A testament to the thought and work Case puts into her live performances, each song was accompanied by a short film featuring everything from shadow puppets to footage of birds flying overhead to an animation that begins with four girls knitting in the belly of a whale (see below).
Her six-member band staged the narratives in shadowy country noir, with guitarists Jon Rauhouse and Paul Rigby playing off the other — one driving a jittery rhythm underneath things with the other coloring in the moods with smoky reverb. The band’s strengths were revealed in the pockets they opened for Case to fill in with her voice, a lustrous instrument that somehow manages to reveal lonesomeness and determination at the same time.
The “alt-country chanteuse”, also known for her work with the New Pornographers, played with a band including a bassist who looked suspiciously like Tom V. Ray of Devil in a Woodpile — a Chicago blues and ragtime group rumored to have broken up.
Case is currently on tour to promote her newest release Middle Cyclone which came out in March of this year.
For more about Neko Case, check out Q&As from Decider and Pitchfork.
Here are some treats I didn’t get a chance to put into yesterday’s post.
In yesterday’s post, I mentioned in passing that a group of Neo-Nazis showed up to protest the museum opening. Well, here they are on the corner of Harms Road and Golf Road in Skokie
Nicole Cohen/Good for You
Musical entertainment was provided by Isreali violinist Miri Ben-Ari, also known as “the hip-hop violinist”. Here’s a video of one of the songs she performed.
The Soul Children of Chicago also performed at the opening ceremony.
Last but not least, it took me a while to realize I could record video on my dinky digital camera. I figured it out just in time, though, and managed to catch the end of Bill Clinton’s speech.
Thousands attended the museum opening despite the rainy conditions. Nicole Cohen/Good for You
Thousands gathered in Skokie on this rainy Sunday morning to celebrate the opening of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, which is expected to be one of the last Holocaust memorials to be built in collaboration with actual survivors.
The theme of the celebration can be summed up in the short motto displayed on the museum’s web Site, “Remember the past, transform the future.”
It’s a motto whose difficult execution was made painfully clear by the Neo-Nazi protest of the museum that took place just outside its new campus.
The event featured many speakers; some internationally known and others whose fame may not extend past their own communities. Each had something relevant to say about how a museum like this - one that is so closely tied to the past - can do much for our future.
Below is a review of what speakers like Bill Clinton, Elie Wiesel, and museum president Samuel Harris had to say. Read the rest of this entry »
