Right Away Great Captain At Subterranean Review

Packed, sweaty clubs in the middle of a sticky Chicago summer and quiet folk are natural enemies, typically adding up to restless, chatty crowds with short attention spans. The crowd could not have been more opposite Wednesday night in the tiny upstairs stage of Subterranean.

The seven o'clock start and three artist lineup meant a quick burst of Harrison Hudson before, The Dear Hunter front man, Casey Crescenzo took the stage for a solo acoustic set. As great as it was to hear songs like "Home" stripped down to just an acoustic guitar, Crescenzo's vocals were the real star, reaching a tender falsetto one moment and a rich, gruff growl the next. His cool wailing take on Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" played well alongside great renditions of Dear Hunter tracks like the sweet "Black Sandy Beaches".



Fiery "The Church And The Dime" really showed off Crescenzo's dynamic vocals, as he bottled up and exploded in the hook after creeping around the verses. The highlight of the set was the debut of "Let Go", as he announced the band would be heading into the studio soon to record the new album, with the steady build of the song having fans frothing at the mouth at the first hook. He closed his set with a slick, mellowed-out take on coming-of-age "Red Hands", with fans in the audience offering the backing melody. Crescenzo's strong set likely left any fans previously unaware of his full-time band heading home to check out any Dear Hunter material they can, and fueling even more interest in the band's upcoming album for existing fans.

Andy Hull wasted no time in giving fans what they arrived for, only giving a few brief moments break between Crescenzo and ripping into Right Away, Great Captain territory. Hull opened with the lightly strummed guitar and whispery hush of "Oh, Deceiver", off, the first piece in his trilogy, The Bitter End. The set moved on with the quaint melody of "The Bitter End" wrapped around the flickering acoustic before the heartbreaking quiver of "Love, Come Save Me". Hull took a moment after the first few tracks to take stock, "Wow, I've never played those three songs live, so I'm feeling no pain". Hull's fragile vocals and sparse backing gave the sense that the room was hearing the songs as they were being birthed, helping sell the tale of the wayward sailor and his family while shining a well-deserved spotlight on his brilliant songwriting.



Hull held the packed room in spellbound awe throughout, to the point you wanted to shoot daggers at the bartender for daring to break the silence by ringing up drinks at the register. The stark nature of the songs made the feat all the more impressive, with Hull joking near the end of the Right Away, Great Captain material, "Is everyone still having fun? Because they're just so happy, these songs." The set moved chronologically through the albums, helping display his growth as a songwriter from the first album in 2007 straight through to this year's third effort. The classic folk melody drizzled through dreamily homesick "Down To Your Soul" opened the portion of the setlist from The Eventually Home, with the darkly venomous "Once Like You" and striking, regretful "I Was A Cage", standing over his sleeping wife, serving as the album's highlights.

He kept his songbook out front to help remember the words of the first two albums, offering, "My dogs have been hearing me rehearse this stuff all week in my kitchen. They hate it." He added, "I know these songs better", when moving on to this year's The Church Of The Good Thief. The chilling recount of the murder, "Blame" found more of the crowd singing along, followed closely by the slow-burn of "When I Met Death" as Hull woke from mellow first verse to a more defiant second. The melodic jog of his vocals dancing through the bittersweet "Fur Stop Caring" found him looking back on the macabre tale playfully wondering, "Reading this shit, it's like, 'What is wrong with you, dude? Is it really that bad?'", before drifting into the romantic waltz of "I'll Wait For You".

Perhaps the show was at the smaller venue out of fear for not holding a bigger hall's attention with a set of mellow heartache, but it was clear Hull could have held a much larger room with ease. In the end, you were left feeling as though you were witnessing a private set for close friends, making an already excellent show feel even more special. The only negative to be found with the dazzling set was the early curfew, due to the all-ages show. Halfway through the set, it felt as though he had been playing maybe ten minutes. You got the feeling that given the time Hull would have played the entire trilogy whole and ripped into a bit of his ever-growing back catalog, and the awe-struck crowd would have listened intently.

Given the 'only' ninety minute set, Hull squeezed in a few new tracks for fans. First up were a pair of new offerings from Bad Books. "Hungover" fit well into the mellow acoustic theme of the night, but it was the second of the two that stood out. Hull told the crowd the unsettling story of Peter The Great finding his wife and her lover together and then having the man decapitated. Rather than stopping there, the Tsar had the head preserved in a jar and kept in view for the wife to see each day. The methodically melodic and oddly sweet song featured alternating verses from Peter and the severed head.

Hull made the mistake of asking the fevered crowd for requests, and was pelted by them before choosing Manchester Orchestra's gorgeous "Sleeper 1972". At the fragile song's end the crowd started up again, before Hull shut them down with, "It's been ninety minutes of an awesome crowd, and now you're savages!", before offering a new Manchester Orchestra tune to close out the night, ripe with chugging power-chords and a typically great hook. In the corse of an hour and a half Hull established that, as great as he is with his band, all he really needs to wow you is his lyrics and a guitar.

Setlist
Oh, Deceiver
The Bitter End
Love, Come Save Me
I'm Not Ready To Forgive You
Down To Your Soul
What A Pity
Once Like You
Memories From A Shore
I Was A Cage
Blame
When I Met Death
I Am Aware
Fur Stop Caring
I Wait For You
Barely Bit Me
Rotten Black Root
We Were Made Out Of Lightning
"Hungover"*
"Peter The Great"*
Sleeper 1972
Not Afraid To Die**

*New Bad Books song
**New Manchester Orchestra song