The alt-country band Deer Tick is no stranger to festivals and gritty music venues, but last night they performed an intimate concert at Chicago’s City Winery with special guest Shiloh. Drummer Dennis Ryan was absent due to the death of his uncle, leaving audience members delightfully surprised with the more chilled-out performance. Lead singer John McCauley’s voice left the crowd with chills, and many comparing his voice to the likes of Kurt Cobain and Bob Dylan.
The show opened with a crowd pleasing “Ashamed,” off their first album War Elephant and continued with powerful favorites off all four of their albums. The band did an excellent job covering “Mexican Home” by Josh Ritter and“Can’t Hardly Wait” by The Replacements.Although McCauley is definitely the standout member of this band, guitarist Ian O’Neil is not to be over-looked. He adds great harmonies and guitar licks. His lead vocals on the song “Walking out the Door” sounded strong and sincere.
Other highlights included McCauley’s dedication of “These Old Shoes” to a Chicago native and fellow musician, Scott (Scott who?).After “These Old Shoes” the other band members left the stage and McCauley moved from the guitar to piano to perform a heart-felt version of “Christ Jesus.” This song appears on the album War Elephant as well as The Black Dirt Sessions. McCauley performed a version more closely related to the one off The Black Dirt Sessions. This version lets us get an often-unseen glimpse of McCauley on piano. A personal favorite was “Dirty Dishes,” the song that really made me fall in love with McCauley’s poetic voice. Deer Tick also played three new songs from the upcoming album that sounded great, even though guitarist Ian O’Neil and McCauley joked about “being so fucked up” while recording, they may have forgotten how to play the new songs. The band performed a raw encore including a requested “Happy Birthday” to an audience member. They also played “Main Street”, and “Funny Word” off their last album Divine Providence, and finished the show with a new song “Not So Close.”
Aside from his raw musical ability McCauley had the crowd engaged in hysterical conversations that included his new, more cleaned up hairdo, a review of “3 out of 5” stars to the Blood Orange Mike’s Hard Lemonade he chugged on stage, and a recollection of the last time he was in Chicago and an eager fan begged to perform a sexual act upon him that was just a little too forward for his liking.
Aside from his raw musical ability McCauley had the crowd engaged in hysterical conversations that included his new, more cleaned up hairdo, a review of “3 out of 5” stars to the Blood Orange Mike’s Hard Lemonade he chugged on stage, and a recollection of the last time he was in Chicago and an eager fan begged to perform a sexual act upon him that was just a little too forward for his liking.
Make sure to checkout these guys next time you can, you will not regret it. They will be hitting a few festivals this summer including Mountain Jam Festival and Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion.
