And so the tour de Champaign-Urbana continues.
Since beginning this blog I have made a “concert”ed effort to venture outside my comfort zone (i.e. attending shows featuring the national touring acts who occasionally appear at the Canopy Club as they pass from St. Louis to Chicago) in search of the unique venues and eclectic mix of performers that are truly responsible for making the local music scene a source of pride for the community.
And while I haven’t yet quite brought myself to expand my musical horizons outside the safe confines of indie rock – Can I really handle a night of bluegrass or jazz or polka? I’m sure I can. Well, maybe not polka – I do think I’ve done a decent job of looking to find shows at the various venues scattered about town which are rarely frequented by students during the school year.
One such establishment is Cowboy Monkey, a downtown fixture that just recently re-opened its doors after it had previously stopped hosting live performances and then shut down entirely over the winter to re-evaluate its business model.
The results of this temporary closure are immediately obvious: a nicely remodeled interior (done up in warm and inviting reds and yellows) as well as No Cover Thursdays (a free weekly concert series) which not too long ago featured Sangamon – a locally based quartet that was honored as WPGU’s Band of the Week toward the end of May and has already earned a spot at last year’s Pygmalion Festival.
Because they weren’t scheduled to appear until 11PM, it seemed as though more people simply happened to be at Cowboy Monkey while the band played, rather than made a special trip out to see them perform. However, although there were more people lounging in the beer garden outside than taking in the refreshing sounds being produced inside, Sangamon played as though there were a thousand adoring fans gathered in front of the stage (instead of the one – most likely a friend or relative – who occupied this spot throughout much of the set).
Despite having only released the four-song The Right Way EP, the band treated the somewhat sparse crowd to an 11-song set of original material (that was to be followed by an hour of covers, which I decided to pass on). Nonetheless, the music I did hear was a bit different than I had been expecting.
Although their name and breeding (all four members hail from Decatur, an industrial town located just a short jaunt down the cornfield-lined I-72) would seem to suggest music more in the vein of straightforward rock and roll, Sangamon has nevertheless drawn frequent comparisons to piano-toting pop-rock groups from across the pond (such as Coldplay and Keane – lead singer Shay Thiele is the Canopy Club’s own Piano Man after all!).
However, aside from “Follow Me” (which did possess more than a few similarities to tunes often crafted by Chris Martin and Co.) to my ears at least Sangamon’s sound was not as piano-oriented as others might lead you to believe.
Perhaps it was only a result of the live mix, but the bluesy, classic rock riffs found on “Running Out of Time” and the wailing solo featured in “Selfish” (as well as the prototypical rock star poses continually struck by guitarist Tyler Bundy) seemed to suggest a more diverse set of influences – as if their heartland upbringing helped to erase some of the pretentiousness of BritPop and replaced it with arena-ready pop rhythms and down-home rock melodies.
As the set wound down with newer offerings “All the Same” and “Time Is the Price I Pay,” it sounded as though Sangamon has already begun to move even farther away from the labels and comparisons the band has been tagged with in the past – as the fresh tracks were decidedly more spirited and lively than most of the older cuts.
After all, if Cowboy Monkey can make a new start, then why not Sangamon?
Chris Hassen: I goes to shows.
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Chris Hassen
I goes to shows.