Ume with Secret Colours at Mayne Stage October 17, 2010
It was a journey for me to come up to the Morse Red Line Stop in the heart of Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood, but a welcomed one. Sunday night I found myself in a great, forgotten location. Rogers Park staples like the Heartland Café, Red Line Tap and Lifeline Theater have a new neighbor: Mayne Stage. Just off the Morse stop, Mayne Stage opened this year and is a modern venue with a classic box office. The theater part of the venue is about half the size of Lincoln Hall and accommodates much more seating at the front of the venue and offers a full restaurant and bar with a large variety of specialty beers and liquors.
It may be the venue is not well known or the show was not promoted heavily or just the Sunday night crowd, but the turnout was very disappointing. The crowd grew to no more than 35 people during the set of Secret Colours and would have dwindled to less if Secret Colours didn’t join the audience for Ume’s performance. Mayne Stage was very nice with competitive drink and ticket prices to better known venues but it lacked the fine-tuning of other local venues which feature national touring artists. The venue did not have an in-house lighting tech and the stage remained brightly lit in stagnant light during the performances which reminded me of attending battle of the bands in my high school gymnasium: no added oomph, to back these talented groups.
Secret Colours continue to be a rising talent in Chicago and while we’ve featured them four times this year it’s based on merit. If you have yet to check out their 60’s inspired psych rock, come out to Subterranean, November 12. You will most likely run into the band members after the show as well as be subject to the dancing and amusement of super fan, self-titled, “Dan the Fan.” Also, unlike the circumstances of the Mayne Stage show, this band brings a crowd so it’s destined to be a great time.
Austin’s Ume headlined the show and I wish more people were there to check them out. Lead by a petite, rockin’ blonde, Lauren Lagner Larson, this group is a must see. More alt. rock, with some punk & pop qualities and mainly just purely themselves, they reminded me of a raw, passionate mix of Metric and, my favorite, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Lauren’s passion for the music was clear: her complete body moved with the music, her hair whipped around her face in the climax of the chords and her petite frame traveled amongst the stage in power and beauty.
After the show, we were lucky enough to spend sometime with Ume, celebrating their Chicago stop with a shot of Jameson and sharing our collective passion for music. They left that night headed for Boston, Ma where they will continue their US tour. Secret Note is working on making it to SXSW in 2011 and we’ll definitely be covering Ume there. However, in the mean time check-out them out on their website (http://www.umemusic.com) as this band should be listened to and the next time they grace our city, we should all turn out. -C. Rudolph
Photos courtesy of Sarah Scott http://sarahscottphotography.com
For our complete set of videos from the show visit:
