the xx [Live at Chicago Theater, 09/28/10]

This show marks the xx's sixth show in Chicago this year. SIXTH. I can only think of three of the other times they were here. I remember they came to play a show with jj back in April, but I'm not crazy about those guys (maybe if I was drugged out on a party boat floating on pristine lakes tucked between some lush Bavarian mountain ranges... yes, I know they're Swedish but Bavaria small towns is where I've been to). Furthermore, AR over at Market Snodsbury saw them first and told me they were pretty boring live, so I passed on that opportunity. They were oddly paired with Hot Chip for their next show which was only a couple weeks later, and I again passed on this. I even got a ticket as soon as they went on sale, but because the show ended up being the day after Coachella where both bands were to play, I sold the only tickets I can remember selling in recent history. I did end up unexpectedly catching a bit of their set at Indio, actually, and enjoyed the handful of songs I stayed for. The third time they were in Chicago was at Lolla, and once again I had no intention of seeing them in the clusterfuck that is the north side of Grant Park. If I recall, I was even over there for a bit while they were playing but it was such a loud, crowded, horrible environment I didn't even try listening to them.

Which brings us to the latest show, which I was well aware of, but had no intention of going to given all the other shows this fall that are much higher on my priority list. There was no conflict with the show, but I have been just seemingly throwing money away lately. That night was also to be my one night in this week. Yet my friend who won two tickets via XRT bailed as well as the friend she was going to go with, leaving me with two tickets at 6:00pm on the day of the show.

After texting at least ten people and getting at least four negative responses, I got a positive response from my old roommate who was a big fan of the LP and to my knowledge, hadn't seen them before. We missed the first opener, Zola Jesus, in order to get a late dinner, but we caught most of the second opener, Warpaint, who for whatever reason I enjoyed a lot more at Lolla actually (I think it was my first/hangover act of Day Three... somehow it ended up fitting that situation better).

As for xx, I thought I knew what to expect. I expected no special effects. I expected no fullness of sound or energy. I expected no one to even stand. Yet they started their set behind a giant curtain which dropped to expose their trinity of guitar on the right, bass on the left, and producer on a raised platform with a table bearing a bright luminescent xx logo. They opened with the Intro, which sounded like a dark ship of death rolling out to the open night sea. It wasn't an especially thick or overpowering sound, but it had a dense and resilient enough quality to it that it spread like a plague and penetrated every soul in the theater. There was immediately a palpable excitement, and within the first thirty seconds of the Intro the entire theater was on its feet, myself being up within about the first five.

The initial excitement naturally quiesced into a steady absorption of the dark and empty notes, the music which acts as sort of a macabre skeleton which can be dressed with flesh, but is most often left rather hollow and bare with minimal sound textures and melodies from the musicians. The vocals however, imbue the bag o' bones with a different fundamental piece of humanity, the soul. The lyrics of the xx are highly sentimental to say the least, but they are of a depth and complexity of human relationship that weighs equally on the warmth of a tender lover as much as the coldness of a love lost or even unrequited. Even the tender moments seem cold somehow, and the tragic dischord of incompatible feelings familiar in its honesty.

What I did expect was to shed quite a few tears. And this expectation was fulfilled.

I almost forgot to mention that we saw the xx leave their bus and walk into the venue right before the show. We walked right behind them for only a handful or so of paces before they got into the Theater's side door. Something about their music is so sacred that I don't think I could ever approach them to talk. I feel like I can only show them appreciation indirectly through supporting their music financially (bought the cd last spring), and in that way showing them a love that is ghostly but yet still heartfelt, much like their music.

the xx - Crystalized (video)

the xx - Islands (video)

the xx - Shelter