Well last night I went to check out Lightspeed Champion, a solo project of UK rocker Dev Hynes, at this place I had never been, AV-aerie, out in the middle of nowhere west of downtown. Anyway, the venue was pretty cool, but very strange.
Opening for him was this 20-piece art-orchestra collective that was pretty good, but it was a bit strange because I walked in to basically a lot of indie-hipsters as normal who would be at a random show but also a lot of parents/etc of people in the band. People were sitting down and whatnot, very odd.
After the giant orchestra cleared out, Lightspeed Champion, or more specifically Dev Hynes and a guy on violin jumped up there and launched into an acoustic set. He stated that this was his first US show, and there were sure some nerves up there, but it was a very cool show. It is kind of a pop/folk mix, very catchy. I had heard quite a few tracks off of the album and liked what I heard, but on the album obviously it is a full band situation. But even solo acoustic it comes off very well, and the songs are very cool. “Everyone I Know is Listening to Crunk” and “Midnight Surprise” were my faves of the set. He also had some pretty funny extended banter before and after the songs, including diving into a long discussion of the Cyndi Lauper video back catalog and her relation to the classic 80s era WWF and Lou Albaino, as well as the classicly ridiculous “Goonies R Good Enough” video. Anyway, the show was very cool and I really liked it, it looks like he is going to SXSW down in Austin so best of luck with that. I am always pretty impressed when people get up there basically solo acoustic and pull it off, because it is tough position to pull off for sure, but he did really well with it. Hopefully he will be able to come back for a US tour with an actual band sometime over the summer to make the festival rounds or in the fall or something. Highly recommended if you get a chance to check out his solo acoustic tour and/or the newly released record.
Lightspeed Champion – I Could Have Done This Myself – From Falling Off the Lavender Bridge
6:30 pm on April 8th, 2008
[...] Dev (Lightspeed Champion) comes out with the more impressed I get with him, and also the more glad I was right there at his first ever US show here in Chicago. He also loves to pull out some crazy covers, whether it be The Killers or Michael [...]
1:27 pm on May 13th, 2008
[...] Champion has some tour dates upcoming this fall in the US. I saw Dev on his first US jaunt here back in March, and it was great. He had a duo acoustic thing going that time, and I don’t know if this tour will be like that [...]
10:41 am on June 14th, 2008
[...] night at the Empty Bottle with a full band in tow and put on a pretty damn solid show last night. If you remember when I saw him come to Chicago back in March, he didn’t have the full band and…. He certainly did a very good job with that show (his first in the US), I was certainly looking [...]