Dave Fischoff @ Subterranean

Liz and I headed out to Subterranean tonight, to catch Dave’s show (he was performing as part of the A/V XPLO event that’s been going on for a few days).

It was interesting to be back inside Subterranean again. The last time I was here was for a Halloween costume party (and where I won first place with my Operation Costume).

Upstairs, looking down on the crowd.

I had never really ventured upstairs until tonight. Liz and I got a spot near the stage, and the second floor was much less crowded than we expected.

Another view across the rail.

Lights and pedals. This setup, combined with a nearby statue, caused a really neat silhouette effect that Liz noticed and pointed out to me (see video below).

I slipped away to take some shots on the ground floor. Looking up, this is the large sculpture that caught the light and caused the silhouettes.

Tonight was the first time I got to see all of Dave’s band members together at once. This was pretty exciting, as prior to now… he’s always done shows on his own. I got to see Dave and Matt perform in April… but tonight was the first time I got to see the entire group together. This (above) is Chris Kolodziej on drums.

Whitney Johnson, on viola.

Matt Hallock (bass) and Dave.

A closeup of Dave.

Back upstairs, looking down from the balcony.

Dave opened with a slower track from The Ox and the Rainbow. Unfortunately, while I think it matched the arc of their setlist (the energy/sound seemed to build and build, with each progressive track)… the slower mood didn’t seem to go over so well with the crowd.

That said though, I think that as the setlist continued… the crowd came back. Dave ended up playing a lot of my favorite tracks from The Crawl, including The World Gets Smaller When You Dream, Rain, Rain, Gasoline and In This Air.

I really, really dug all the backing instruments. One of my favorite shows by Dave ever was back when he did Schuba’s (pre-blog). Tonight rivalled that show for me. I’m not a huge fan of the sound at Subterranean, but the bass and drums really cut through the room. The driving/pulsing energy that I hear when listening to the CD came through tonight, due in no small part to Chris and Matt’s playing.

The viola, too, did a lot to offset the deeper bass/drums, with melodies and phrases that seemed to linger above everything. In talking with Dave post-show, he mentioned wanting to get more instrumentalists and ideally a keyboardist as well. I was excited to hear them all play tonight as a group, and am looking forward to the next show – however many folks there are.

Sadly, none of my video came through very well… so it’s mostly photos. However, Dave has lots of links and sounds online.

For those of you who don’t know Dave’s music, check out his website (where you can listen to his newest album), or his MySpace page.

Previously:
Dave on Chicago Public Radio
Dave in TimeOut Chicago
Spin Magazine’s Artist of the Day
MySpace Featured Artist