Empty Bottle is celebrating their 33 1/3 anniversary with a slew of shows that really capture what the small bar venue is all about. In their big lineup there seems to be a show that really captures something special for everyone that has walked past the pool/merch/coat room into the main area to sit at the steps or get right up to the stage after getting a drink at the bar. Maybe it's a band that you have been listening to from the start or one that you discovered opening for another act. Whatever the case, the 33 1/3 set of shows feels like a long lineup of must-see concerts. This past weekend, there was one show that I knew I needed to see during this celebration: Whitney performing two sets just under a week ahead of their latest album Small Talk.
I've been a fan of Max Kakacek and Julien Ehrlich since their days in the Smith Westerns, and have caught them in a variety of ever-growing venues: from a Reckless Records in-store performance to Blue Stage highlight at Pitchfork Music Festival (RIP), to one of their multi-night stints at Thalia Hall. They have been a staple of the Chicago music scene, bringing their beautiful blend of folk, alt country, and Americana together for some of the best shows in town. I had seen them during their early inception at the Bottle, so this early (4pm!) intimate show more than made up for it.
Opening for Whitney on both shows was Free Range, who I was lucky to see a couple years ago at Schubas. That time Sofia Jensen took to the stage alone playing songs off her at the time yet-to-be-released practice. But on Sunday afternoon they were backed by a full band playing their recently released Lost & Found (which Lorenzo Zenitsky reviewed here). The setlist primarily focused on that stellar release, with a few new songs toward the middle giving us a taste of what's to come from the future of Free Range. Every song felt uplifted by the live performance, adding a bit of rawness to the studio version's more gentle sound. "Concept" saw the band at their most alluring as the instrumentation felt the loudest and most expressive, while closing song "Tilt" hit the strongest of the set. While Jensen is a treasure as a solo act, this full band performance really showed how versatile and deft they are at their craft.
Given the size and general atmosphere of Empty Bottle, you can expect to see the bands milling around the side stage before they go up and set up. Regardless of their ever growing status, Whitney will always feel down to earth as they all circled around the center of the small stage, put their hands in, and got ready for one amazing show. This evening the Whitney lineup was made of Malcolm Brown on keys, Josiah Marshall on bass, Ziyad Asrar on guitar, JJ Kirkpatrick on the trumpet, and of course Max Kakacek on guitar and Julien Ehlrich on drums and vocals.
The setlist was made up of Small Talk in its entirety and in sequence, with a few older Whitney classics jumping in between tracks. The new album falls right in line with the soundscapes of Light on the Lake and Forever Turned Around, so it makes sense that songs off those two albums were performed throughout the night. SPARK, Whitney's decidedly more pop sounding release, and Candid, a collection of covers, were absent from the night. Right off the bat the opening salvo of "Silent Exchange" and "Won't You Speak Your Mind" filled the room with such warmth, leading into one of the band's most loving and bright tracks, "No Matter Where We Go".
This double celebration of Empty Bottle and the yet to be released Small Talk made the night feel all the more special, albeit with a few nerves sneaking up for Whitney. "These next two are why we're so nervous" confessed Ehlrich. The performance of "Islands" was the band's first time playing the song for anyone outside themselves. Then "In the Saddle" was described as a really difficult song to perform live. "Why did we write it like that?" he questioned himself before someone in the crowd exclaimed "Giddy up!" just as the song started. Moments like that where the crowd and band felt like old friend riffing off each other filled the night. "Evangeline" saw the crowd completely entranced by the sheer loveliness of the song while "Back to the Wind" saw the crowd singing along loudly and proudly of one of the bands latest modern classics.
With it being the early show, this set was not made for encores. So every bit of energy was poured into tight sets well past Small Talk's final songs of "Small Talk", a song written form the perspective of Kakacek's grandmother for her late husband, and "Darling", another track Ehlrich felt worried about playing for the first time to a crowd. But it was a glorious finish to the Small Talk, beautifully finishing off what everyone was so excited to see.
Then those songs that made all of fans of Whitney to begin with erupted from the band. Ehlrich's admission that "we only have like four songs left" was met with the expected aw's followed by laughter as he quickly admitted "those are all the songs we know right now." "Dave's Song" and "Golden Days" bounced off each other with all the freshness of the the Small Talk tracks that came before it. "The Falls" wonderful ramble settled softly for the the familiar keys and trumpet of "No Woman", the band's most recognizable and earnest hit, to take over. I've heard this song live at every Whitney show, always accompanied bu the hushed singing of the crowd and that final twist of lyrics (I left drinking in the CTA/to spend some time on the road) and it still hits me just right every time. Nearly every single one of Whitney's songs is imbued with a timelessness that never gets old and as Ehlrich sings on "Valleys (my Love)", the final song of the night: "And every time you come around/Well the days of the year just slow down".
Whitney's Small Talk comes out tomorrow, 11/7. You can pre-order or pre-save a copy of the album here. You can listen to Free Range's Lost & Found here!
All photos by Julian Ramirez.
