Bad Copy

I hate leaving my apartment, especially when it’s so cold out that the weather could literally kill you. Now when you catch the buzz on a new EP getting dropped by Chicago Indie Punk Rocker’s Ovef Ow, you best believe I will be a human snow cone for a night to crash this party.

Braving the winds in the West Town neighborhood of Chicago, I made my way on foot to the notorious dive bar, the Empty Bottle this last Thursday. First off, I got there way too early which has been a problem of mine for most shows I’ve gone to during nasty weather. So I killed some time at the adjoining restaurant, Bite Cafe, and ordered a grilled cheese and some tomato soup.

I scuttled my way into the venue just moments before the opening performer, Baby Money & the Down Payments, began their set. It was a pretty intimate crowd throughout the night. I was actually surprised by the amount of bodies that were filling up the room despite the single digit degrees of weather. The venue warmed up pretty quickly once the music started.

Baby Money and her backing band, The Down Payments, rolled out on to the stage breaking the silence with a wall of harmony. Baby Money is an amazing singer. It’s like a girl group vibe with soulful Rhythm and Blues meets a stripped down 1960’s Rock n’ Roll sound. This was the second I had ever seen them perform and just like the first time, I was blown away by those powerful vocal chords.

I was really hyped about the following band, Bleach Party. They came up on stage crushing from start to finish. I definitely suck at keeping up with the flow of great talent in this city, but I promise to never snooze again when this band plays. Singer Meg MacDuff shreds on the guitar. In fact I remember seeing her band, The Groodies, from a million and one years ago. And I thought, “Damn dude, she killed it then and still kills it now.” Recently Bleach Party made an appearance on Fox 32 Chicago performing at Smashed Plastic Record Pressing.

Closing the night for the release of their album, Crash The Party released via Midwest Action, was Ovef Ow. This EP is the follow-up release to the Working EP from late summer in 2017. The band started their set with even newer material than the songs featured on the latest release which I thought was pretty cool. Isn’t that the whole point? Keep making music so you just want to keep them coming back for more. I’m into it.

They kept the heat up by busting out all of the tracks from Crash The Party throughout their set. One of the most notable songs (and one of my favorites) was the dance-driven “Elevator.” If you are a big fan of the B-52s, Priests, and Sleater Kinney, Ovef Ow will not disappoint in the slightest. The band also performed the one of their new singles, “Hootie Hottie,” which will have a pretty cool accompanying video in the very near future.

Speaking of songs with videos, they performed “Psycho Crush” from the last EP somewhere in the middle of their set as well as the newer rockin’ banger “Blood and Sand” and the profound and lyrically powerful song “Host.” To be honest, I already can’t wait to hear the even newer songs when they finally get them recorded. They had some pretty cool material that was fresh to my ears as I had never heard it before. The band tirelessly closed out the night with an encore of “Working Girl” and followed it up by celebrating the release of their fancy cool tapes and limited pink vinyl.  You can get your paws on a copy of it here.

Check out the below photo gallery from the show and keep checking back for more updates and cool shit from all of these bands and many more!