On August 14, 2004, MF DOOM brought his frenzied and fast-paced live show to the Metro stage. The sold out crowd was treated to a night of up-and-coming hip-hop, with comic book artists working live on stage during set breaks. In true DOOM fashion, the evening was a real mashup between comics and music. Right in between the releases of acclaimed Madvillany and Mm.. Food, this show caught the early-00’s most respected rapper at his creative peak.
Two years after the dramatic breakup of post-hardcore legends At the Drive-In, Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodríguez-López, frontman and guitarist, respectively, were on the road again as The Mars Volta. Although their music may have taken a step in the prog direction, the chaotic live shows that were characteristic of At the Drive-In remained a staple of this new endeavor. Ten years ago, The Mars Volta brought their first tour to the Metro stage, in front of a sold out, crazy-enthusiastic Chicago crowd. Taking place back in the days before people had HD cameras on them at all times, the only video evidence of this show in existence is of the grainy, handheld-camcorder variety. However, even through the low-def haze, it’s clear that The Mars Volta tore down the house that evening. The band was relentless, playing through their first record De-Loused in the Comatorium almost in its entirety, to a mosh-happy crowd that kept asking for more.
Hot on the heels of EVOL, quite possibly the band’s strangest album, Sonic Youth embarked on a North American tour that saw them play Cabaret Metro on July 17, 1986. Less than a year after their Smart Bar show that eventually led to a live record, the band’s live show had been tweaked enough to justify the bigger stage and larger audience. With Steve Shelley taking over on drums for Bob Bert, along with the more experimental direction that the band took with EVOL, the night’s set took a more artsy approach to crowd-pleasing than the punkier shows of the band’s then not-so-distant past. The setlist leaned heavily on their most recent release at the time, and helped forge an early path towards the massive venues and festivals that the group would go on to play.
Still early in his half-century long career, Iggy Pop had already served in one of punk’s groundbreaking bands, held a slew of chart-topping singles, and penned an autobiography by the time he made his way to Metro on July 12, 1988. The Michigan-bred rocker’s latest accomplishment when he blew threw Chicago in ’88 was the release of Instinct, his eighth solo LP. After taking squeaky clean, radio-ready pop for a spin, Iggy couldn’t resist returning to the seedy hard rock that kick started his career in The Stooges. Fans welcomed Iggy’s relapse into hard-riffed recklessness and hard ‘n fast rock ‘n roll. While Iggy may not have been falling back into his old hat of stage stunts (rolling around in broken glass, dousing himself in glitter, etc.), he was still a force to be reckoned with onstage. This time, it wasn’t about theatrics or shock and awe–it was about the music; more importantly, the man behind it.
Setlist (via setlist.fm)
1. Instinct
2. Kill City (Iggy Pop and James Williamson cover)
3. 1969 (Iggy and The Stooges song)
4. Penetration (Iggy and The Stooges song)
5. Power & Freedom
6. Shake Appeal (Iggy and The Stooges song)
7. High on You
8. Five Foot One
9. The Passenger
(Photo by Stacia Timonere)
Riding the success of “Loser,” Beck and his band embarked on their first worldwide tour during the summer of 1994. With a characteristically strange live show that suits the man’s unconventionally catchy rock/noise/rap, Beck and company proceeded to slay the Metro stage on June 27th of that year. Thanks to the power of the internet, the show can be relieved in its entirety, with the opening numbers of that night ready to watch above. It’s clear, even from the grainy old-school handheld camcorder footage, that Beck was bringing the odd goods on that first tour, switching at will from morose and melancholy to hyper and near-headbanger, always keeping the enthusiastic Metro crowd on its toes.
One of indie rock’s persistent slow burners, Spoon has been cranking out tongue-popping alt-rock for the past 20 years. Upon meeting in Austin, Texas, rockabilly band The Alien Beats, vocalist Britt Daniel and drummer Jim Eno decided to try their hand at avant-garde rock tailored for the masses. The quartet’s appearance at Metro on June 25, 2004, followed the coattails of the release of their acclaimed fifth album, Gimme Fiction. With the new release, Spoon began to push their pulsing piano ballads and spotlight-seizing guitar into new, bare-bones territory. Featuring the foot-stomping single “I Turn My Camera On” and groove-dusting “I Summon You,” Spoon managed to reinvent themselves while remaining the indie rock stalwarts we all wanted to hear.
Check out the eye-catching silkscreen by Philadelphia-based Heads of State above.
1986 marked the end of one of punk’s most groundbreaking and tumultuous bands, Black Flag. Before they decided to end their eight-year run, the California quartet waved Chicago goodbye at Metro on their June 29, 1986 gig. The tour panned out a year following the release of Black Flag’s final studio LP, In My Head. With all music written by the band’s founding member Greg Ginn and lyrics penned by eternal poet discontent Henry Rollins, the album marked the apex of the band’s musicality, showcasing their dabbling’s into free form jazz, metal and punk. Funneling in various lineups throughout the years, the farewell tour featured fan favorite Henry Rollins with his search-and-destroy stage presence and gravely wails, flanked by Greg Ginn’s stalwart guitar work. Black Flag may have faltered in their near-decade career, but they made it apparent at their Chicago swan song that if they were going to leave, it was going to be on a high—and plenty loud—note.
