Chicago – Last weekend marked the seventh annual Chicago International Movies & Music Festival, better known as CIMMfest, and as usual, close to a hundred bands filled the city with amazing music. Saturday night, Best New Bands made sure to catch the CIMMfest show at The Empty Bottle, which featured one of the best line-ups of the weekend: Ne-Hi, Tweens, and Trin Tran.
Chicago foursome NE-HI packed the room with friends and fans. Despite having played Reckless Records for a Record Store Day event earlier in the day, the indie rockers were fired up, jumping around stage, in turn sparking a lovely little mosh pit. For well over a year now, NE-HI has been making noise around Chicago, having become a staple the same DIY scene as acts such as Twin Peaks and White Mystery, and in March of 2014, guitarists Jason Balla and Michael Wells, drummer Alex Otake, and bassist James Weir released their self-titled debut via Manic Static.
NE-HI played a nine-song set, including “Sun Bleed” and “Haunted Summer,” but it was “Since I’ve Been Thinking” that put the room in a trance. The rowdiness quelled. People swayed back and forth. Perhaps they were mesmerized by NE-HI’s performance; they seemed to be having musical convulsions, thrashing about. The set ended with “Time Wanna” and some truly fantastic guitar playing. Balla and Wells’ guitars sung like sirens. Towards the end, it sounded almost as if horns were looped in, but later Weir confirmed it was just purely sound manipulation. Bravo, NE-HI, bravo!
Cincinnati, OH rockers Tweens also created a bit of a ruckus, complete with a crowd surfer, to the dismay of security. Like NE-HI, Tweens also played earlier in the day, in honor of Record Store Day, at Bric-A-Brac Records. They were also signing records at Black Plastic that very same morning in Ohio. Talk about keeping busy! At Bric-A-Brac, singer and guitarist Bridget Battle and bassist Peyton Copes played a bevy of new material. New songs and a new drummer! Seems like perhaps we should also expect a new album soon…
Tweens kept things rather familiar with their trash pop at The Empty Bottle. Their set started with “Bored in this City,” off their 2014 self-titled debut. Fans screamed and cheered. One gentleman hollered to Bridget, “I love your plaid shirt!” She smiled, chuckled, and replied, “Thanks?” They also played older songs “Rattle&Rollin” and “Don’t Wait Up.” During “Be Mean,” one young man played air guitar along to Bridget’s riffs. Others could be seen bobbing their heads and singing along: “Your sweetness is killing me / Mean, mean / I want you to be mean / I want you to be mean to me.”
The Madison, Wi one-man-band, known as Trin Tran opened the show and was – gasp – joined on stage by a female drummer! Perhaps the man found his maiden? Trin Tran creates garage punk mixed with synth-fueled disco on songs like “Dark Radar,” “Butcher, Future,” and “Fashion Has Happened To Fashion.” It was never a dull moment listening to this guy, er, these two. Every music blog seems to use “weird” to describe Trin Tran, who has released records on Ty Segall’s God? Records and John Dwyer’s Castle Face Records. Completely weird, indeed, but in the best way possible! Trin Tran is haunting, yet beautiful.
NE-HI are playing a string of shows this summer. Dates are available on their facebook page. NE-HI is available for digital download via bandcamp or on vinyl through Manic Static.
Sarah Hess
After attending The School of the Art Institute in Chicago, Sarah went on to study education at Dominican University, earning a degree in history. When not teaching, writing, or taking in a show, she is most likely to be found with a camera to her eye or hanging out in a darkroom.
You can follow Sarah Hess on twitter at @Sarahhasanh and view her music photography on her website: smhimaging.com.
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