Chicago’s very own hometown math rock heroes Maps & Atlases played the Metro on Saturday the 18th. They played as part of the Tomorrow Never Knows festival, which is touted as Chicago’s premiere multi venue winter festival with over 20 different artists across 8 venues. It’s frankly an impressive feat of organization and scheduling but this festival has been ongoing since 2015 so there’s a track record of success with this format.
That being said, Saturday night there was a banger of a two band line up with Retirement Party opening for Maps & Atlases. Retirement Party is a local indie rock band fronted by singer Avery Springer whose vocals are reminiscent of Fiona Apple with a little more edge. The band itself had the crowd moving, playing a solid lineup of songs from their two albums and a handful of EPs discography. By the end of their rockin' set the crowd was absolutely hyped and ready for what was to come next.
Now that the crowd was properly warmed up, it was time for Maps & Atlases. To understand what makes them fantastic is to explain math rock itself. Math Rock is similar to prog rock or post-rock but is generally defined by its complicated rhythmic structures, varying patterns and time signatures all layered on top of each other. This means that a slow song can still have a mosaic of other instruments playing at a quicker pace than the rest of the song. It’s a fascinating thing to watch layered over themselves and that’s what initially drew me to the band.
Secondarily, to achieve this sound the band tends to play a lot of their songs by tapping instead of full strumming. This allows for a lot of quick notes to be played to create beautifully intricate songs over the tenure of their 17 year musical career. There’s a lot to their playing style and it all transferred fantastically to a live show and worth it to witness their insane musical talent in person. Especially when it comes to some of their more complex songs like Every Place Is A House or The Ongoing Horrible which was played solo on an acoustic guitar by singer front man Shiraz Dada.
Their show was punctuated by light up bird cages that adorned the stage and would light up in time with the songs the band played. They played an amazing hour and a half set that included songs from every corner of their catalog. The crowd packed the Metro and sang along to their favorite lyrics. If you haven’t heard of this band, I’d recommend giving them a listen, or even take in one of their live shows, if only to see the guitar mastery they convey in their live shows. The Tomorrow Never Knows festival went from January 15th to 19th and I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on next year's line up as well.
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