Ty Segall played Chicago (pics); Brooklyn shows are this week
Segall’s not exactly reinventing the wheel, but that’s partly what makes him such a thrilling performer. Just when you think the world has seen more than its fair share of dudes with guitars, along comes a guy capable of making a hooky racket at once redolent of obvious antecedents — a stoner’s stew of British psychedelia and acid-rock — but played with the exuberance of someone who just came across a beat-up box of top-grade riffs and insinuating melodies and could barely wait to show them off.
With everyone on stage vibrating and in sync, Segall and crew careened through songs such as “Freedom,” “Finger” and “Squealer,” the slightly mellower likes of “Orange Color Queen” the closest they ever came to taking it easy. Everything else exploded with maximum rumbling fuzz and rollicking fills, with Segall and Kelly in states of near-constant soloing, trading licks, pushing each other to new levels of gleeful intensity, a strategy that peaked with “Warm Hands (Freedom Returned),” a self-consciously composed epic that lurched from garage rock to jam-band noodling, culminating in a cloud of jazzy improvisation and intertwined guitars before slamming back into riff-machine lockstep. –
[Chicago Tribune]
Ty Segall‘s North American tour supporting his ninth solo album is underway, hitting NYC this week for three sold-out nights at Warsaw. He and his Freedom Band (featuring regular players Mikal Cronin, Charles Moothart and others) played Chicago on Sunday (5/14) with The Hecks and pictures from that show are in the gallery above.
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photos by James Richards IV
