Wowzers. That about sums it up but I’ll elaborate anyways. Let me preface this by saying we were playing at noon. I know allot of people do allot of things before noon, but for Sybris pre-noon activities are like a regular person getting up at 2am to go to work. So, back to the story, I’m woken up by a phone call an hour and a half after my alarm was supposed to go off. The band is in front of my apartment waiting for me, having packed up my gear for me. I literally get Dominique Wilkens type air jumping out of bed and into non-nakedness. I enter the car. 94 minutes to show o’clock.
Not exactly how I wanted to start the day but hey, it’s all going to work out now. Right? Wrong. As we start to set up on stage Angela realizes she does not have her pedal suitcase. It is 45 minutes to show o’clock. We check the van. We look backstage. We look everywhere. She manically hails a cab back to the practice space and we continue to sound check. We pace. We act unconcerned. We begin to sing the wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald with a slight change of wording to reflect our impending band wreck on the rocky shores of Pritzker Pavilion.
I get a call from Dave from Apteka(our very kind transportation for the day). He had left with the van because it wouldn’t fit in the parking garages. It turns out we forgot my slide and ebow(it’s guitar stuff, very necessary for about half the set). He heads back to drop them off. It’s 20 minutes to show time.
Dave arrives with my guitar gadgets. The stage manager asks the band to meet her back stage. Eric and I oblige. It is 10 minutes to show o’clock. Angela is not back. Shawn is MIA.
7 minutes to show o’clock.
6.
5.
4 minutes to show o’clock, I see Shawn walking towards the stage, hey 3 out of 4 band members isn’t bad, a majority really. Maybe we’ll just make noise till she gets here.
At 11:57 Angela returns suitcase in hand with a nervous smile. We start right on time.
Actually I wasn’t worried at all.
Photo by Joe Marinaro
Some kind words from Loud Loop Press, Thanks Ross Meyerson!
SYBRIS
Chicago’s own Sybris – which sounds like every city has a Sybris – are pretty much what you’re looking for if you’re looking for indie rock. I mean, this is in the pocket classic style indie rock. How so? Because it’s first and foremost rock. That used to actually be a criteria in order to be considered indie rock. It’s right in the name, folks. You can hear Sonic Youth in there. Maybe a little Helium. I hear a smidge of Butterglory but you don’t know who they are. What I’m saying is that Sybris do this crazy thing we call indie rock right. And they seem genuinely excited for this show at Pritzker Pavilion so that can only mean good things. You’d be well served to set your alarms and catch them before heading over to that big old festival you’re probably heading over to later. (Ross Meyerson)
So I have to admit I’m really excited about this one. Were playing downtown Chicago in the shadows of sky scrapers in the Gehry designed Pritzker Pavilion! As the Pritzker site states “The Pavilion stands 120-feet high, with brushed stainless steel ribbons that frame the stage opening and connect to an overhead trellis of crisscrossing steel pipes. The trellis supports the sound system, which spans the seats and the lawn. This state-of-the-art sound system, the first of its kind in the country, was designed to mimic the acoustics of an indoor concert hall by distributing enhanced sound equally over both the fixed seats and the lawn.”
So one downside, it’s at noon. Ahhh, but that is also an upside because for all you Pitchfork Festival ticket holders you can start your day off right with us before the fest. Head downtown, see the bean and the spitty faces and then whamo, syb time. Oh, and it seems you can byob, it’s been that way when ever I’ve been down there.
Sybris at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millenium Park
High Noon, Saturday July 17th
And hey for you super fans, you can spread the word via Facebook, here’s the event link;
So Angela ran across this rather well edited fan video for the fourth season of the UK ‘Degrassi-esque’ teen drama “Skins”.
I guess MTV bought the U.S. rights to make a version of it set in Baltimore, so I’m sure they’ll suck the smarts right out of it. Anyways nice editing, yourattention13, we likey.
Yeah, kind of crazy. Breathe Like You’re Dancing from our first record is in the new Hillary Duff feature film, According to Greta. Silly heh? Some kind soul has posted this clip from the final scene in the movie.
A sweetheart blurb from Lauren at Lines Across Eyes, thanks Lauren!
“this chicago indie outfit has become one of my favorites of their genre. after seeing them in 2008 with virtually one man bass-based (ha!) ambient post-rock band unwed sailor, i instantly fell in love. it has everything good indie needs… catchy, metaphorical lyrics and hums, quirky but fitting synchronizing chords. add a layer of unique female vocals, whom is also the rhythm guitarist, and we’ve got a potent combination made in indie rock love heaven. they somewhat remind me of the yeah yeah yeah’s with a better, faster and more emotionally powered product of sound. if you dig it, then dig it.” http://linesacrosseyes.blogspot.com/2009/10/sybris-into-trees.html
Did you know that Sybris is now on Twitter? Yep, started on October 1st so we have a rich 3 week history of tweets under our belts. So if it’s your thing look us up :{)
So no, this isn’t the actual Cleveland crowd. It’s sound check at the Time Warner Cable Ampitheater(that’s a mouthfull) resulting in an oddly surreal version of Oh Man. It was the first night of our October tour with Manchester Orchestra and Brand New. Miss those dudes. It was a chilly 45 degrees under the largest canopy I’ve ever seen. Thanks to Dave for the sweet vid including an empty room pan 50 seconds in really makes it. The eerie delay on Angela’s voice is cool too.
Our interview with Roxwell at Austin City Limits 2008. To our credit there were free tequila shots that nobody wanted so we kinda had to help out the hornitas girls, right? Special thanks to our sit in bass players and sorry about that Clay.
I randomly came across this video of Nap King made by Ganshat on Vimeo. It really captures the weird dream flow of the song, thought you all might enjoy. :) Thanks to Ganshat, whoever you are.
So what a week that was! A lot of new fans and friends came out of our leg of the Brand New/Manchester Orchestra tour. Not that I was suprised by this but both bands and all their crew are such sweet hearts. Their really all salt of the earth, humble and a fun bunch.
It’s amazing how many stories can come out of one week. Bowling after the St. Louis show with bands and crew ended in a tightly contested match. My team, the Winners, ironically lost by a mere 23 points while the other team pulled some shady member switching. Shawn led the way for them with a late flurry of spares and strikes, looks like all that yoga he’s doing is good for 10 pins as well. Bowling after playing to 2500 very receptive fans? Sign me up.
Empty Aragon Ballroom
Oh, and the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. What a show that was. For Eric and I growing up near Chicago it was the place to see our favorite bands. I saw Flaming Lips and Hum open for Candlebox (ick). More recently I saw The Pixies their as well. The thing is it’s just so BIG. At just a shade under 5000, a sold out crowd, it was literally a sea of people. During the first song Angela’s mic stand went limp, shrinking to half it’s height. Amazingly she just dropped to one knee and kept singing in the now 3 foot tall mic. She even shimmied up with the mic as it was raised up during the song. After recovering from something like that without missing a beat how could the night not be magical.
Aragon - All filled up.
Yeah there’s a lot of stories, too many to sort through now. It’s all swimming around in a poloroid fishbowl in my head. I’m sure a few more will spill out soon.
