Ivy w/ Astaire at the Double Door - June 9, 2005

This was Ivy's first trip to Chicago since late 2001, when they played the Double Door the same night the Beta Band were playing at the Metro. That was before I was into the Beta Band, so I wasn't disappointed, but looking back, I would like to have seen the Beta Band before they broke up. That night I was practically on the stage, but Thursday, I was pretty much dead center, about 15 feet from the stage, which is a good place to be at the Double Door. It was hot as hell, and I probably lost five pounds just standing there. It was as hot as it was the night we saw the Charlatans and BRMC at the Double Door almost exactly four years ago.

The show started about a half hour later than what was printed on the ticket, which meant I was 15 minutes early instead of 15 minutes late. I'd only heard a few Astaire songs, and they didn't really appeal to me, but they were terrific in person. They only have an EP available, so their set was limited, but I was pretty impressed. The band is made up of brother/sister combo Bruce and Erica Driscoll. Erica picks up where the last slew of bands I saw live left off by being hot. They also included an unexpected version of Shine On from the House of Love, which was pretty cool, since that's from one of my favorite albums (third album down, the Fontana recording). So thumbs up to Astaire.


See, she's hot

Ivy took the stage around 10:30 and played for about an hour and 15 minutes. Mostly stuff from the new album, with some older stuff, including their cover of the Orange Juice song "I Guess I'm Just a Little Too Sensitive". Incomplete and out of order setlist:

• Thinking About You
• Keep Moving
• Tess Don't Tell
• Four in the Morning
• Corners of Your Mind
• I've Got You Memorized (I'm pretty sure)
• This is the Day
• Ba Ba Ba
• Get out of the City
• These Are the Things About You (once again, I'm pretty sure)
• Get Enough

That's all I can remember. I'm sure there were another couple in there. They didn't play "Quick, Painless, and Easy" unfortunately, or "Lucy Doesn't Love You". They also didn't play "Let's Go to Bed" which the idiot next to me kept screaming for. I'm sorry, but If you're at a show with a band that has produced four full lengths and an EP, I don't care if they have an album of covers. I think it's a little lame to be asking them to play other people's songs. If they want to do it, cool. It's a nice surprise. I prefer the covers when they come out of nowhere, like when the Ocean Blue did 'Love Vigilantes', or when Crooked Fingers did 'Bring on the Dancing Horse' and 'Age of Consent. And who could forget when School of Fish did a great version of 'Save it for Later'? But I find the constant screaming for it a little rude.

Dominique Durand was looking more stunning than ever, and the rest of the guys....well...I wasn't really paying attention to them, because Dominique Durand was on stage.


She's married to the guy over her left shoulder

Although I did notice some of them wearing jackets, and I think Andy Chase was wearing some sort of tweed looking thing with elbow patches. It had to be brutally hot up there.

Anyway, another solid performace, worth the $15, but I could have done without the extra $11 tacked on by ticketbastard. I need to start a) deciding to go to these things a little sooner, and b) getting motivated to buy tickets at the box office. Now that my office is closer to the blue line, I'll have to start buying Double Door tickets on my lunch break again.

Tonight, the babes on stage concert series comes to an end with the Spoon show, unless you're a chick and you think Britt Daniel is attractive, which would certainly be a legitimate opinion. Dude seems pretty cool in interviews, and he writes a mean rock song. Review of that show forthcoming.


Babe? I don't know. I don't swing that way.