The Von Bondies + The Like Young

A strange crowd came out to see the hot hot hot Von Bondies at the Double Door, sporting a thrift-store to Urban-Outfitters to J-Crew ratio of roughly 1 to 2 to 1. Come to think of it, the same could be said of the Von Bondies themselves. But more on that later. First, let me lure you away from the main attraction for a moment to tell you something about a rockin’ little Chicago band that opened the show. The Like Young are husband and wife team Joe Ziemba and Amanda Ziemba. Joe plays some grimy, happy little guitar riffs straight out of the Blue album, and sings over them in the most broken-hearted, nasal screech this side of Nebraska. Amanda plays the drums, and undercuts Joe’s emo-ish whining with the most sugary harmony you’ve ever heard. This act sounds absolutely terrible, but, somehow, it’s the best thing I’ve seen out of Chicago in quite a while. Why? Well, first you’ll notice the male/female vocal interplay. Many have tried, but few rockers have succeeded the way the Like Young have. This does much to take the edge off Joe’s shrill, pained vocal stylings, giving them something substantive from which to work. Most importantly, however, The Like Young can really rock. I’ve said much about Joe Ziemba’s emo-heavy voice, but don’t listen to a Like Young song expecting three minutes of whining and one minute of rocking. The Like Young came out rockin’ from minute one and kept at it until it was time for them to cede the stage to the Von Bondies. Between sets, the good people at the Double Door opted to play Thriller over the sound system. When the title track came on, enough beer had been consumed that half of the crowd shook it ironically, and the other half shook it in earnest. This begged the question: could the Von Bondies take the stage and unite the indie kids and the Clear-Channel kids under the single banner of Detroit rock? Kind of. Sure, the Von Bondies are from Detriot, and lordie, they sound like it. Here in the incestuous world of music criticism, we like our New York bands pretentious, our Detriot bands rockin’, and our Chicago bands ripping off our New York bands. The Von Bondies came out right away to prove they could represent the Motor City, launching into a blistering rendition of the title track from 2001’s Lack of Communication. Healed-up frontman Jason Stollsteimer can roar out an old-tyme rock anthem like no other I’ve seen on stage, with the exception The Sights’ Eddie Baranek. In fact, let me get an awkward but extremely necessary bit of criticism out of the way right now and point out that The Sights, another group of Detriot rockers, are superior to the Von Bondies in every way. You won’t get more out of me than that, but if you go see The Sights, you’ll understand why I had to mention it. For our purposes though, The Von Bondies can rock it with the best of them, despite some obvious defects. Stollsteimer is backed-up by too-cute guitarist Marcie Bollen and even-cuter bassist Carrie Smith. Unfortunately, the back-up vocals didn’t work nearly as well live as they do on record. The girls were too breathy on the mic, which knocked their shtick down from sexy-disinterested to cute-timid. This fact wouldn’t have been so glaring, were it not played against Stollsteimer’s vocal aggressiveness. Screaming guy and aloof girl works, screaming guy and frightened girl doesn’t. With this is mind, the more Stollsteimer-heavy material from Lack of Communication easily trumped the new stuff at this show. “C’Mon C’Mon” — the band’s current single that’s so damn catchy it can only be the work of the devil — actually became a low point, played too fast and with too little sneer. And while Stollsteimer is a more than capable frontman, he couldn’t hold the audience on his own, at least not for an entire set. When the band left the stage for the first time, the clapping was merely polite, and plenty of people headed for the door. That didn’t stop the Von Bondies from comin’ back out to play a few more. There’s few things sadder than uncalled-for encore.