Normally I’m able to get these posts out a little closer to the show date, but this weekend was spent doing a variety of non-writing activities – on Saturday I hit up Legions of Metal, which was a great time and on Sunday, I, uh, didn’t do shit, apparently. Anyway, today I’m writing about a show I saw last Thursday at PhD Pub in Chicago. Please enjoy!

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PhD Pub, located right by the UIC campus, doesn’t have a stage – but it does have a spacious outdoor patio, with a rudimentary sound system and a couple of tents to stave off any potential rain. It was a welcome change of pace to catch a show outdoors, although I am a little surprised that city noise ordinances would allow an outdoor show to run past midnight on a Thursday. I guess things are different in the collegiate parts of town.

Canyyn

When I was chatting with guitarist Mike Fetzer of Canyyn, the band I was primarily at this show to check out, he described the band’s appeal as a balance between doom metal – or at least the prototypical form of it created in the 70’s by bands like Black Sabbath and Iron Claw – and more traditional roots – the freewheeling, improvisation driven rock of Jimi Hendrix as well as the “jam band” approach taken by the Allman Brothers, whose shirt Mike was wearing. This hybrid nature allows Canyyn to find a home in a range of bills – from heavy, stoner rock affairs to more varied lineups like the one I’m writing about right now.



The soulful blend of 70’s rock with an occasional heavier bite is primarily driven by Mike Fetzer and his white Flying V, tonight stationed in the darker corner of the outdoor, tented stage. With only a few pedals involved in the process, Mike’s rich tone is at the forefront of the band’s sound – crafting long, varied solos that make up a large portion of the songs and never fail to captivate.



Across from Mike in a slightly more illuminated position, Dan Rovak handled vocals and bass duties, delivering the occasional gritty clean-bordering-on-howled verse throughout the set, plus nailing (along with the rest of the band) a cover of the Sabbath classic “War Pigs”.



I threaded my way past a maze of chairs and half-assembled drum kits to get to the side of the stage to grab some shots of drummer Daniel Schergen, who, I should note, did an excellent job on the War Pigs fills (those are by far my favorite part of the song). Daniel utilizes a clean three-cymbal setup with a five-piece kit and made the most of it, with plenty of accentuation, dynamics and snare work. Sadly the venue didn’t have any mics on the kit so the kick drum was lost in the mix while I was out in the crowd. That’s a little unusual, to be honest – even the Mutiny, the diviest of dive bars, used to mic the kick.



During “War Pigs”, someone from Canyyn’s camp climbed into their car, conveniently located in a parking lot directly behind the stage, and delivered a little light show of their own – work with what you got, I suppose:



Canyyn is still finding its roots in the Chicago scene, but I think they have ample opportunity to grow – improvisation is a huge part of Chicago music, but underrepresented in the heavier scene.



Stardusk Encounter

The first thing I noticed is that these folks brought their own lighting to the gig – a bevy of deep blue lights that set the mood somewhere between “jazz club” and “about to get abducted by aliens”. Honestly, that’s not a bad place to start describing their music – Stardusk Encounter are a set of extremely talented musicians playing relaxing, dance-friendly rock that’s a little jazzy at times and more than a little about close encounters with the alien kind. It’s somewhat like if Blue Oyster Cult had started off in the 80s and really liked new wave.



Stardusk Encounter is made up of four multi-instrumentalists, which is always fun to realize when attempting to attach names to faces for these write-ups. The band helpfully provided enough info for me to piece this one together!



I started off photographing Robbie Rob, who on this show stuck to the keyboards – visually they’re quite imposing and also serve to contribute heavily to the band’s sound. In addition to a variety of pads, leads, and even a sitar soundbank at one point, Robbie also sang for the first part of the set, including some falsettos.



Robbie Rob, on keyboards

John and Rob traded off guitar and drum duties at about the halfway point of the set, both playing the two instruments quite well. Like I said before, it’s immediately apparent that Stardusk Encounter is extremely skilled – talking to one of the members after the show he mentioned they usually switch things around even more.



John on guitar

Rob on drums – my kit flash wiped away most of the blue light here.

Joel played bass throughout with a very expressive finger style and some cool moves, but also completed the vocal duty requirement with a raspy take on things that I would have liked to have heard more of.



Stardusk Encounter’s music is remarkably layered for a four-piece group and there’s a lot of cool ideas here – definitely more dance-oriented than what I normally attend. In fact, there were people dancing, which is also something I don’t normally see.



Myrcenes

It was getting a little late by the time the Myrcenes (“mur-seens”) went on, but as soon as I heard them sound-check a trumpet I knew I had to stick around to hear it.



Vocalist/rhythm guitarist and eventual trumpeter Dov commanded a lot of the attention throughout the set, serving up soulful, sometimes tongue-in-cheek vocals that reminded me of “Jam Room”-era Clutch, to name a band readers of a doom blog might know.



The band isn’t what we might consider “heavy”, in terms of instrumentation, but that’s not a bad thing – although the sound guy at one point stepped up to drummer Jake to suggest that he hit the kick drum harder. I guess when you’re not mic’ing the kit that’s how you turn something up in the mix… constructive criticism.



Instead, the Myrcenes are a “blues, booze and regret-infused” rock n’ roll band that’s got a hell of a lot of style. Sharply dressed and with plenty of swagger, it’s a fun group to watch and it’s not hard to stay engaged. Guitarist Christian, self-admittedly possibly too deep into the free Stella Artois provided to the bands, took advantage of his wireless unit to meander into the crowd on occasion. Later, he lit up a cigarette – and no matter how much I’m aware of the dangers of smoking, it still looks pretty damn cool when you’re in a suit and playing guitar. Christian’s microphone suffered from some bad cable issues, but he added backing vocals when it was operational. When the moment called for some languid, tongue-in-cheek stage banter, he opted to lean over to Dov’s mic instead.



The rhythm section of the band refrained from any antics, but together they created a solid foundation for the rest of the band – Jake kept things tightly in the pocket with impeccable technique and bassist Caz kept the groove going on top of that, lending to vocals on occasion.



And yes, the trumpet was employed to great effect.



I unfortunately had to head out early as it was past midnight and I had work in the morning, but the sounds of the Myrcenes followed me as I made my way back to the car… which wasn’t all that close to the bar. Are we sure outdoor shows at midnight are legal?



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Thanks for reading! As always, make sure to follow the bands for updates on future shows.

Canyyn

Stardusk Encounter

Myrcenes

