Review/Photos: Voxtrot @ Lincoln Hall in Chicago, IL; 1.14.09
words and photos by Kirstie Shanley
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At the beginning of the evening, it was uncertain how impressive this show would be. The band has been through a large change with Jared Van Fleet (also of Sparrow House) departing. Though the group may never be quite the same, lead singer Ramesh Srivastava was able to compensate with some great keyboard playing when he wasn’t playing guitar. In addition, the band’s sense of timing and tight musicianship was still in full effect and the now four piece from Austin didn’t really feel lacking live.
Voxtrot has a real light hearted indiepop feeling to their songs. It may be too based in rock to be classified as twee but it wouldn’t be too off the mark to describe it as such. Yet, when they play live they have all the rock moves. Srivastava likes to hop up and down but it’s bassist Jason Chronis who really steals the show. He has all of the right kicks and jumps like he means it. It makes the band’s live stage presence a huge treat to behold. The effect is that their gems come off as effortless as they clearly seem to be enjoying themselves.
What Chronis exhibits in iconic gestures, Srivastava meets with his own sincerity. He’s the one who talks for the band in-between songs and introduces some of the tracks. At this show, he talked a little bit about when he first wrote the songs and played open mics. In addition, he encouraged anyone in the audience playing in a band to keep at it. He also mentioned having family around Chicago and previous shows they’ve played here. His banter doesn’t ever go on too long but always gives a sense of the sensitive personality behind some of the lyrics.
It wasn’t exactly clear in the beginning what songs the setlist was going to be comprised of as Voxtrot has not officially released a follow-up album to their 2007 self titled release as well as their stellar series of 3 EPs from 2005-2006. It wasn’t uncommon to wonder if Voxtrot would be debuting all new material at the show but seeing as how the band has not been regularly touring for some time, it was impossible to know until they started.
Surprisingly, the band played all of their past favorites to create an impressive night of over 60 minutes of music. Some of their very best songs met the sold out audience with sheer glee, with a setlist including “Missing Pieces,” “The Start of Something,” “Raised by Wolves,” “Soft & Warm,” “Steven,” and “Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives.” Fans knew these songs by heart and weren’t the least bit shy about singing along. In fact, there were actually a couple of crowd surfers living it up above the audience. At the end of the night, the band left fans with the impression that they might still have a long promising career ahead of them.{jcomments on}
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