Stabbing Westward
July 28, Wicker Park, Chicago
I didn't make it to see these guys previous to this show, so of course I missed them opening up for Depeche Mode. I own the first 3 discs: Ungod, Wither Blister Burn and Peel, and Darkest Days. I'd felt no push to pick up the newest release after hearing the tracks on the radio. Them seemed weak, as if the onslaught of codependence and bad relationships featured in their other songs had finally gotten to them.
So, I heard that these native chicagoans were playing at the Sam Adams outdoor festival thingy in Wicker Park for five dollars and thought...what the hell. I'd like to see them perform live. The street was fairly packed for this band, all types showing up to see them. One thing that I found very sad as I was on my way out, is a girl asking..."What was that band?" Honestly. There's lots of bands that sound alike these days, and many that are far more forgetable cramming themselves onto the playlists of commercial radio.
Stabbing Westward has never quite been able to live down their similarity in sound to NIN...and I found it amusing that Broken was playing over the speakers during soundcheck. Normally, you don't play better music than your own band before you go on. Stabbing Westward was well greeted by the fans on the street. this is a band full of pretty boys, Chris Hall being no exception. I was rather disconcerted by his alterna-trendy appearance however. It was as if he was succumbing to some kind of Bonjovi fungus...the symptoms being: scruffy, dangly hair with blonde streaks, low cut jeans, and several fatal outbreaks of snakey hip movements. Top this off with a white wifebeater...later removed for the sake of drooling females, and various tattooes.
I never like to judge on looks alone, but it was beginning to confirm for me that Stabbing Westward was going soft and maybe even becoming trendy. I still enjoyed the old songs: Save Yourself, What Do I Have to Do?, Falls Apart, Shame, and Violent Mood Swings among them. Chris Hall had indeeed a very good voice and it was great to hear all the songs I'd loved so much in college being performed live.
However, the performance was your basic pretty boy rock show. Chris seemed to have the pretty boy attitude more than I expected. He did seem very happy to be there and was tickled by the antics of the fans. I was not much for the newer material. It was ok, but of the newer songs two were slower and had more poppy/ballad appeal, which is not something I equate with this group.
The anger and real emotion that was so evident in the first album, Ungod, seems to have drained away...as if there's less to sing about. I know not every band can have a dark image, but that image seemed more real for Stabbing Westward than the Bonjoviesque Chris Hall that was singing onstage. The album art on the cover of the newest release has more bite to it than the music...dark, brooding....why isn't the music that way anymore?
Don't get me wrong, I like this band. I am saddened that the energy that I enjoyed so much in the other discs seems to be drained by the vampires of trendy pop. So Stabbing Westward's older stuff sounds like NIN. Big deal. I still enjoyed them. I find no reason to pick up the new disc used even, after the show. Perhaps this watered down version of Stabbing Westward is a fluke, perhaps their next release will be better. Everyone has their not-so-great times. But, if things keep heading in the direction that they are going, then I can live with the memory of a band who had energy by listening to the older albums. I am glad I saw the show, but I am also glad I only paid 5 dollars to do so.