Bonnie Prince Billy

I went to the Bonnie Prince Billy concert last night at the Portage Theatre in Portage Park. It was my first time up there, and there really isn't any great way to get there. I took the Blue Line on the way there to the Irving Park stop and then walked a mile down Irving Park Road to Milwaukee and Cicero in the rain. I took the Milwaukee bus on the way home to avoid that.

The theater is fantastic, and I recommend to anyone paying a visit to see a movie there. I did a little research and found it was built in 1920 and has been restored to almost completely original. It's a grand and regal old hall for watching music or movies.

The opening band was awful, and I mean awful. It was this noisy ensemble of a drummer, guitarist, bassist, violin, bongo, sitar and some kind of terrible piano noisebox thing. The music was like a more noisy and cacauphonous version of an Indian raga, from hell. The sadist with the noise box kept chanting and yelling in this brutal falling and rising crescendo that I kept hoping would end, but it seemed never to happen. It must have gone on a half hour or longer (I didn't have my phone or a watch) before mercifully ending, and allowing the poor fella in front of me to take his hands off his ears.

Bonnie Prince Billy came out playing guitar and backed by drums, keyboard, bass and another guitarist. He was fantastic. He plays very mellow soulful music that really seemed to fit in with the cold rainy night, the old-fashioned (and chilly) theatre, and the massive but somber monday night crowd. He played a lot of his old old stuff
that I either didn't recognize or barely did. I know his album 'Greatest Palace Music' the best, and the songs he played from that album were re-worked so throroughly that they were barely recognizable. It was good unrecognizable: like an evolution of the songs since he wrote them.

The acoustics in the place were really crisp and clear, and I found myself understanding lyrics that I hadn't gotten before. There was a minor buzzing problem during one song of the set, and toward the end Billy seemed to be losing his range. I noticed him slipping a lozenge in his mouth between songs. Over all, though, it was a great show indeed. He kept it light and strangely humorous, despite the
meloncholy gravity of most of his songs.

I was actually a little disappointed how lethargic the crowd seemed, but I kept reminding myself that it was monday, there was no liquor served, and nearly everyone else was with their significant other and getting all romantic whilst listening to Billy's sweet and soulful lyrics. I, on the other hand, was alone.

Thanks so much to Megan from work for putting me on the guestlist.