The Acoustic Basement Tour feat. Geoff Rickley – REVIEW

We had the pleasure of attending the Chicago date of the Acoustic Basement Tour featuring a variety of awesome acoustic acts. You can check out our review after the break.

Chicago’s Beat Kitchen was lucky enough to house the Acoustic Basement Tour on a Saturday in February. Put together by Brian Marquis (formerly of Therefore I Am), the tour featured an all acoustic lineup from a pretty well varied range of artists. First up was Marquis himself, who’s powerful and yet restrained voice fronted some very good tunes; twinges of country, indie, and even some of the ambiance and space that his previous band were so good at crept into his short but effective set. Having never heard Brian before, I was impressed, especially with his blues-y take on Radiohead’s “High and Dry.” Batting second was Pennsylvania’s own Koji. I’ve seen Koji a couple times before and though I have always enjoyed his charisma on stage, his actual songs often left me a bit apathetic. Well, he’s come a long ways. Rarely does an artist engage his audience as thoroughly as Koji does, so much so that you find yourself helping sing back up parts to songs you don’t even know. A roomful of raised singing voices was testament enough to his success in winning over the crowd through both his infectious stage banter AND a set of songs that grab and interact with you the way his past material seemed incapable of doing.

The third and fourth acts left a bit more to be desired. A Loss for Words followed Koji and I immediately felt a huge disconnect between them and the heartfelt, honest artist that had just finished. Two of the members of the Boston based band were on the tour and they just felt completely out of place. Although some of the pop-punk-gone-acoustic songs worked, a lot of them fell on deaf ears or encouraged folks to hit the bar. Add to it a lot of unnecessary stage banter aimed at making you understand how sincere they were (which always comes off insincerely) and you have a disappointing set. Now, I love pop-punk and I love that it’s made such a huge comeback in the last couple years but there are so many bands in the genre now that I think maybe these guys took the chance at being on the bill in order to set themselves apart from the pack a bit. To me, it sounded like they needed the rest of the band. Plug back in and play it loud boys because I just don’t know if the acoustic vibe is for you.

The clean-up spot on the bill was filled by Vinnie Caruana of I am the Avalanche/The Movielife fame. I’ve never been a big fan of either of these bands so I was admittedly a little distracted during the set as I waited for Geoff Rickly, but I have heard Vinnie’s new EP and I really enjoyed it, so I did hope for a good performance. Unfortunately, it didn’t deliver, at least not in the way I had hoped, although I’m sure many of the shout-a-long fans surrounding me would beg to differ. The man’s got some devoted fans, that’s for sure, and his voice is in great shape but relying on songs from your other projects to fill out a set feels cheap to me. I wanted to hear stuff from the solo EP, I wanted to hear what Vinnie writes when he’s not with those other bands but it seems like he knew what the crowd wanted and he gave it to them, often prefacing a new song with “don’t worry, we’ll get back to some Movielife tunes after this.” Maybe it’s just me, but when an artist goes out to play acoustic shows, I’m interested in seeing another side of them, not a side that’s been on display for years. This was one of my concerns with going to see Geoff Rickly play but he completely surprised me and I wish Caruana had as well.

To say Geoff Rickly and the now defunct Thursday had a profound effect on me would be a huge understatement. Full Collapse was the first “indie” record I every bought. My brother and I went to a Tower Records (remember those?) in Philadelphia when the band did an in-store acoustic show to support War All the Time. In fact, War All the Time is probably one of the first albums my brother and I both agreed on and I dare say it is one of the reasons we’re so close today, despite living over 700 miles apart. Thursday has always been there when I needed them so when they announced their farewell tour, I went to the Bottom Lounge in Chicago and witnessed one of the more moving live performances I’ve seen in recent years. So Geoff Rickly’s unique and powerful voice has been with me for quite some time now. When I heard he was going to be doing solo material after Thursday disbanded, I was initially skeptical. I had seen him play guitar in the past and was never really all that impressed but I figured that if the voice was still there, it would be worth a listen. And his solo debut, Your Love is a Pawnshop, is definitely worth a listen but it also bears some of the marks of an artist trying to find his way without his usual cast of characters. Seeing him perform live though, now stripped of everything but that spine-tingling voice and an acoustic guitar, is to see and hear Geoff Rickly in an entirely new way.

While Caurana played a “hits” heavy set guaranteed to appease, Rickly focused on his new material with a couple Thursday songs and a couple covers. The Pawnshop tracks were actually much better live than on record. The recordings have Rickly’s vocals awash in reverb and there are some basic percussive accompaniments, but preformed acoustic, the songs cut much deeper; the lack of musical distractions make it impossible to focus on anything but the vocals and it’s vocals that Rickly does best. He quietly and carefully delivered the verses before reaching back and bellowing the chorus’ with the same effort he always exerted in Thursday. In fact, some of the songs could easily have become Thursday songs but hearing them in this raw, skeletal format added more weight than I ever expected. His choice of covers, while not inspired, played incredibly well to the overall affect of his set. Springsteen’s “Atlantic City” – an ironic ode to the city of the same name in Rickly’s home state of New Jersey – and “My Favorite Blue Raincoat,” – a slightly altered take on the beautiful and haunting Leonard Cohen song – were both fairly straightforward though given new and subtle nuances thanks to Geoff’s vocal interpretations. His choice of Thursday songs were interesting; the b-side “Time’s Arrow,” the crowd favorite “Standing on the Edge of Summer,” and the newer “Turnpike Divides,” which was the song Thursday ended every night of their farewell tour with. All three were excellent and hearing “…Summer” preformed acoustic was the absolute highlight of the evening. That night, I got my fix; the same rush of emotion I always used to get seeing Thursday, although this time it felt more personal and I felt more connected to the artist than I ever had before. I think it may take Geoff some time to find his solo voice when it comes to recordings, but his live performance certainly assured me he has the tools. An amazing end to a pretty good night. Go see Geoff Rickly live and download Your Love is a Pawnshop…I mean c’mon, it’s free!

Information about the review…
Tour: The Acoustic Basement Tour feat. Geoff Rickley
Artists: Geoff Rickley, Vinnie Caruana, A Loss For Words, Koji, Brian Marquis
Reviewer: Ian Lashbrook
Date: February 9, 2013
Venue: The Beat Kitchen in Chicago, IL