Recap: Twin Peaks Live at The Empty Bottle 12/26

Last night we hit up The Empty Bottle on the northwest side of city for a show that wound up being one of our favorite shows of the year! Twin Peaks made a surprise announcement of one final show for 2015, a Christmas present from the Bottle and the band that was also put together to help raise funds for Chance The Rapper’s “Warmest Winter” campaign to bring jackets that also serve as sleeping bags to the homeless in Chicago. Charity and Rock & Roll all-in-one…. What’s not to like?

The start of the night came via strong set from Blind Moon and Modern Vices. I had never heard of Blind Moon before but boy was this a nice intro. Their music was noticeably more downtempo than our headliners, but it was a good way to kick things off. Spacey grooves and killer lead guitar parts are always a cool combo. Next up were Modern Vices, a band that proved to be an excellent act of their own (with a dope name to go with it). A mix of high-energy rockers and doo-wop ballads all packed into a set that will make you sway for one song, pogo dance the next, and headbang for the one after that. I’ll tell you this much, expect us to cover more Modern Vices tunes going forward cuz these guys got me wanting more!

Finally it was time for the triumphant return of the hometown heroes. The dudes got right to it and the crowd responded accordingly. The set included a good chunk of tracks off Wild Onion as well as some Sunken favorites (along with some new stuff too!), that got the crowd hopping and moshing pretty much from the start of every drumstick countdown and the first stroke of the strings from Cadien and the boys. The best way to describe this show is by saying that this was one big highlight reel that needed no cuts or editing. All killer, no filler, and a lot less Sum 41. At some point, a bearded lady joined the band onstage and proceeded to do a performance of her own that included interpretative dancing and her stripping down to carefully-placed nipple pasties and a garter, concluding with her falling backwards into the crowd. Not sure if that was part of the show or not, but that’s how you fuckin’ Rock & Roll! Check it out below.

The band is in the process of unleashing a new album and they announced that this was their last show until the summer, for those lucky few of us at this show can surely say we got a proper fix of Twin Peaks until their next Chi-town gig, where we’ll definitely be getting our next dose.