It’s that time of year again when Chicago hosts the renowned winter festival Tomorrow Never Knows that spans across some of the city’s most iconic independent music venues. This year's fest was spread across 4 weekends throughout January; a sure fire way to lighten up those far too common dark winter blues. This year’s ambitiously extensive lineup celebrates 20 years of TNK which features a melting pot of various artists both familiar and new. Last Saturday night, Lincoln Hall was graced with indie rock household name, DIIV along with Chicago’s very own, Accessory (Jason Balla of DEHD) to warm up the frozen Chicago crowd!
The crowd packed in tight for an intimate evening with DIIV & Accessory ; and I, aside from the anticipation to experience DIIV in such a tiny venue, was ecstatic to find out Jason has a solo side project which unsurprisingly blew me away. Though it was a brief set, Accessory’s performance cemented Jason’s capabilities as a solo artist where he expands his musical lexicon into a more noisy and raw sound extension of his work with DEHD. Having very distinct vocals; Jason was confidently able to carry the responsibility as a "frontman" for his solo project. After a solid and captivating opening set; the crowd was thawed out enough to endure DIIV’s dreamy set.
DIIV took the stage for a one off show in Chicago after heavily touring their latest record, Frog In Boiling Water; and the eager crowd was instantly captivated as the band played a pre-show “infomercial” on the life changing and “otherworldly” set the crowd was about to experience.
They definitely hyped themselves up well; the entire room was headbanging and dancing as they opened the show with their song “In Amber.” It was an uphill musical paradise from that point on. The crowd including myself got lost in the bands ethereal dreampop/shoegaze sound as they performed a generously diverse setlist which included songs from across their acclaimed discography. They treated Chicago with songs such as “Under the Sun,” (one of my favorites!) their electrifying track “Blankenship” and closing out the evening with their powerhouse of a song “Doused.”
After experiencing last Saturday night’s show with DIIV, it’s pretty obvious that they are true experts in the world of dreampop music. They continuously pump out fantastic albums with a distinct sound that has made them into the staple indie band that is probably in every audiophile’s vinyl record collection. As if that wasn’t enough, you can still catch a handful of spectacular shows over the next two weekends in celebration of the 20th anniversary of TNK!
All photos by Andrew Lagunas.
