Bill Callahan: Resuscitate!
monday live album
The venue is Chicago’s Thalia Hall. Built as an opera house in 1892 by saloonkeeper John Dusek in the Romanesque revival style, the venue has been part of Chicago’s fabric ever since; not only as a music venue but also an events space. In 1989 it was officially named a Chicago landmark.
In September 2013, owners Bruce Finkelman and Craig Golden breathed new life into the old girl and reopened with three buzzing hospitality operations within its walls: The Punch House, Mariscos San Pedro and the Tack Room, making Thalia Hall the heart of Pilsen.
It’s March 2023 and Bill Callahan, perhaps better known by the moniker Smog, performs his back catalogue with a band that includes Matt Kinsey on guitar, Dustin Laurenzi on alto saxophone, and Jim White (Dirty Three, The Hard Quartet) on drums. Throughout the show, several Chicago musicians also join Callahan for individual tracks, such as Lisa Alvarado and Nathaniel Ballinger.
With the Thalia providing an intimate setting, Callahan and Co. treat us to reworkings of tracks mostly off his prior album YTILAER. In a statement Callahan says “Songs tend to mutate after they've been recorded. These songs were mutating faster than usual. Like whatever happened to Bruce Banner in the lab – I knew these songs were about to get superpowers… this change needed to be documented.”
We love this outlook in songwriting at Flavourpitch and the recording is a testament to Callahan’s performance, especially with the track “Partition”: Do what you gotta do.
Callahan’s tense and honest vocals and storytelling are prevalent in “Coyote” and “Pigeons”. The band delivers a haunting and almost psychedelic performance with folk and 90’s indie at its heart, seamlessly blending lulls and crescendos. I’ve been a fan of Jim White’s drumming since his days with Australian group The Black Eyed Susans.
Resuscitate! breathes a whole new life into the 10 tracks performed. There’s no doubt that there would have been a few smiles on punters’ faces as they left the gig and went for a drink afterwards. Resuscitate! is best played from start to finish - one of the best praises you can give an album.
And remember, don’t forget to put in a gate so that you can have some steady friends come around. It’s a beautiful sentiment from Callahan.
If we’re ever in Chicago we’re definitely putting the Thalia on the itinerary.
Listen to Resuscitate! here.