#zak frieling

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Protomartyr & Deadbeat Beat Live Show Review: 11/9, Empty Bottle, Chicago

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Protomartyr was the last band I was supposed to see before the pandemic officially shut everything down. I wasn’t able to go for other reasons, and given what we now know about how COVID-19 spreads, it was probably for the best. In any case, I remember feeling that if that was the last show I would see for a while, what better than a band whose bleak observations on crumbling humanity have soundtracked some of the coldest times in my life? In a sense, catching them at the Empty Bottle last night was just as fitting. In context of a very much not over pandemic that exposed society’s structural rot, and the hope that elected officials or leaders will do anything about that rot far in the rearview mirror, again, who better to drink cheap beer with than the band who, too, keeps on trucking despite it all?

With last year’s great Ultimate Success Today (Domino), Protomartyr have grown from being the group whose trademark songs contrast economic disillusionment with the hope of the Pope’s visit to the Silverdome or pay tribute to pure dive bars. Simultaneously apocalyptic and introspective while still retaining the somewhat satirical tone of their earlier work, Ultimate Success Today is a reflection on the band’s first decade together, a mid-life crisis, and a product of an ever decaying political climate. In its making, the band embraced being a fully formed entity, from following the same sleep and food routines when they moved in together to record, to the sessions themselves. Protomartyr has always had great chemistry, but Ultimate Success Today clearly grew them closer, at least musically. Last night, from the start on “Day Without End”, Greg Ahee’s guitars swirled with authority and Alex Leonard’s circular drums ascended to a peak as lead singer Joe Casey grew more unhinged with desperation. “Dull ache turned sharp! / Short breath, never caught!” he chanted to a crowd giving him their energy back, a paean to solidarity of the sick.

The addition of The Breeders’ Kelley Deal to Protomartyr’s live lineup allowed them to more faithfully perform songs on which she was featured in studio, like 2015 single “Blues Festival” and the pummeling “Wheel of Fortune”. Moreover, her talents on the guitar and synths and her sneakily expansive voice were the perfect complement in timbre to Casey’s baritone and Scott Davidson’s lumbering bass. When the band performed “Tarpeian Rock” from their 2014 instant classic Under Color of Official Right, it was Deal providing backing to Casey’s manic calls for execution. Though the band has remained stylistically consistent over their decade of existence, they’ve become less rigid, and Ultimate Success Today and their subsequent live performance demonstrated an accelerated openness.

The first band on the bill, Deadbeat Beat (also from Detroit), funny enough played their last show at the Empty Bottle pre-COVID. They showcased the same jangly pop prowess as on their most recent album, 2019′s How Far (Crystal Palace/Arrowhawk). Guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Alex Glendening sang with a muffled nasal yelp, sort of like Galaxie 500′s Dean Wareham, sometimes in harmony with drummer Maria Nuccilli. Nuccilli’s steady motorik beats provided the backbone for chugging jams and psychedelic melodies, Zak Frieling’s swaying basslines propelling them forward. Glendening’s lyrics are often thoughtful ruminations on being queer in a scene still unfortunately dominated by straight cis white males, but last night, you couldn’t totally hear the words. Still, the wailing quality of Glendening’s voice added wonders to the band’s Flying Nun-inspired choogles. Oh, and they covered Arthur Russell’s “Habit of You” and managed to make it sound like it should have been a Deadbeat Beat song--not an easy feat!