Bad Copy

It seems like it had been a decade since Dave Hause & the Mermaid played a show inside Chicago city limits. Over the last few years, I’d trekked out to see them in Arlington Heights, Palatine, Evanston, and Aurora. But somehow, Riot Fest had snagged the band to play a show in late February at Sleeping Village.

I slipped into the venue a few minutes before the show was scheduled to start. As I took in the room, scanning the faces of the show-goers, I couldn’t help but notice the range. There was a gaggle of greying men all lining the front row of the stage. There were couples canoodling on the outskirts. There were fans in their 30s and 40s wearing the typical uniform of black jeans and whatever black band t-shirt they had of a band that had previously played with The Loved Ones. There were also three drunk suburban moms having the time of their lives even though no one was yet onstage. And there were just a bunch of normal ass looking people, working class Midwestern people. It was a room full of the exact type of people that Dave’s songs really touch – almost anyone, almost everyone.

Two Cow Garage took the stage right on time. Of Micah Schnabel’s numerous projects and endeavors, Two Cow Garage is the one that I am most musically familiar with and the one that I love the most. Based out of Columbus, OH the band sounds more like Lucero with an alt rock edge than the college rock that their city is known for. I’ve always loved how Micah’s voice – gravelly and a bit raspy – is complimented by the strong crooning of co-lead singer Shane.

As Micah teed up a song about a drunken walk to a gas station somewhere in Texas and all the adventures he encountered on the way, I realized how many people were here not just for Dave & the Mermaid, but also for Two Cow Garage. There were some die hard fans in the crowd, belting out every word of every song during the 45 minute set list. They were great, just the most perfect opener that anyone could ask for. And when they finished their set, it felt like half of the room walked back to the merch table to pick up a shirt or record, moved by what they had just witnessed.

As we waited for Dave and the crew to take the stage, we had to suffer through one of the most annoying crowd member types, the dude who keeps shouting “hurry up!” over and over while the stage is being set up. Over the years, my tolerance has waned for the types of people who obviously look like they attend more than one show a year, but act like this is the first time they have left the house in months. The crew is setting up the stage, making sure everything sounds great. The band is a few feet away in the green room, preparing physically and mentally to entertain you for over an hour straight, preparing to sweat and sing and play their hearts out to songs that resonate with you deep in your bones. So maybe… shut the fuck up for a second and let them prepare, huh?

The band took the stage as a trumpeter sounded a tune similar to the famous “Taps” and the crowd knew exactly what was in store as the Mermaid rocketed into to the opening song off their newest record. “A Knife in the Mud” is part Springsteen, part classic Hause as Dave screams “We ain’t ever gonna die” in between dreamy yet strikingly tragic verses that summarize the exhausted fight that we all still have in us.

 Last year, Dave and the band released a new full-length album, Dave Hause… and the Mermaid, which serves as a proper way to introduce or maybe re-introduce members of the band in this more gelled lineup. Tim Hause has been playing alongside Dave for years now, but has really stepped into his own stage presence as lead guitarist. Bassist Luke Preston is one of those people that makes playing an instrument look so easy that you feel like you can just go home and do it too, until you try and realize that he’s just one skilled motherfucker. Keyboardist Mark Masefield may be tucked in the back of the stage, but his presence can be felt at the back of any venue. And Kevin Conroy holds it all down with his steady and proficient drumming, never flashy but always necessary.

The new album features insanely powerful tracks that cover everything from a nostalgic look on more reckless party days to political commentary about this current administration’s attempts to rewrite history to heartfelt family ballads. The band played a solid amount of the A-side of the album including “Mockingbird Blues,” “Cellmates,” “Look Alive,” and my favorite, “Enough Hope.” It’s one of those tracks that does it like only Dave Hause can. It’s a view of the current political climate seen through the satirical eyes of the Epstein class looking down at the rest of us as we struggle. “Don’t it kinda make you laugh just to watch them try?… Just give them enough hope, they’ll hang themselves.” All of this set to the sneakiest, sickest walking bass lines of all time. It’s chilling. It’s enraging. It’s what we’re all dealing with as the 99%.

The setlist also covered many of the stand out tracks from prior albums. I waxed nostalgic during “Time Will Tell,” remembering when I got that very first Dave solo album on vinyl over 15 years ago. “Autism Vaccine Blues,” “Eye Aye I,” and “We Could Be Kings” were clear crowd favorites. I got chills singing along to “Saboteurs.” The whole world seemed to erupt into chaos when the band dove into The Loved Ones‘ catalog and played “Jane.” And, of course, OF COURSE, they played “Dirty Fucker” with a dedication to our nation’s own big, rotting, orange dirty fucker. The band came out for a trio of songs for an encore which ended with the closing track off the new album, “May Every Last Fever Break,” written for Dave’s twin sons when they were sick with extremely high fevers. As he shared how horrifying it is to watch the people you love when they are struggling, I started thinking about how very personal many of his songs are, and yet, they’re written in ways in which we can all relate. That is the beauty of Dave’s career as a musician. He has always offered us a front row view into what he is thinking, experiencing, and struggling with. It’s very personal to him, and yet, he shares it with us in a way that not only invites us in, but lets us experience it through our own eyes.

Afterwards, I hung around and watched Dave and Tim work the merch table, greeting every single person with smiles and open arms. While many people bought up vinyl and shirts, there were a good number of people who just wanted to talk to the brothers, people who wanted to share a memory from when they had seen them a year or ten ago, those who wanted to thank them for playing a certain song they love, and there was even one guy who wanted to invite them to play in his backyard this summer at an event he was throwing out in the ‘burbs. Everyone was treated the same, with smiles and kindness and mutual respect. In a time where everything feels so inhuman and heavy, it was amazing to walk out of Sleeping Village feeling seen, feeling refueled, and feeling full of emotions and energy and just so very human once again.

Check out the photos of the night!: