Caravela at Elsewhere Zone One (photo by Kate Hoos)
Long live the early week night show! We were thrilled to catch an early evening at Elsewhere this Thursday night with a trio of bands playing powerhouse fuckin rock. FTA faves Desert Sharks kicked the night off and the really nice sound system at the venue made every aspect of their set pop, from Stephanie Gunther’s rich and bold alto on lead vocals, coupled with guitarist Cait Smith’s killer harmonies which sounded big and clear, to Sunny Veniero shredding the fuck out of her guitar on lead and all backed by rock solid beats from drummer Rebecca Fruchter.
The band does have a lot of new songs that they had been playing recently, but owing to the shorter set times (early venue curfew is real), those songs were absent and they stuck to more of the material from their excellent 2019 record, Baby’s Gold Death Stadium. Their cover of “Voices Carry” is always great and they closed with the garagey banger, “Sorceress.” The even more exciting thing though, is that they are getting ready to reveal new music and will soon begin releasing singles from their upcoming record, The Tower. They recently filmed a music video and we here at FTA are very excited to hear/see all the things!
The bluesy indie duo and old Chicago pals of FTA, North by North, hit the middle spot of the night. They treated the audience to a sweaty, high energy set propelled by hot guitar licks and the cool, deep and booming, super unique voice of guitarist Nate Girard, who was backed by his partner in crime, Kendra Blank on drums. They just started out on a lengthy tour that will take them through the spring and total 69 shows; Girard quickly reminded the crowd “that’s a sex number” which was met with chuckles, a few groans and maybe perhaps….a moan?! They played songs from their most recent record, 2020’s Get Weird, and the 2022 single, “Baby’s On Fire.”
Indie emo pop two piece, Caravela, took the stage for the final set of the night and brought a big presence to the stage despite being a two-piece band. This was our first time catching them and singer/guitarist Frank Graniero gave a dynamic performance backed by his brother, Stephan, who had just as dynamic a performance behind the drumkit. They utilized an array of backing tracks, adding more guitar lines and bass to the mix to fill in their sound. We’ll be digging into their recorded catalog, which is extensive and dates back to 2014, with the most recent being Easy Hell, released not long ago in November 2022.
All this and out by 9:45 on a school night! Can’t beat that!
Scroll down for pics of the show (photos by Kate Hoos)
DESERT SHARKS
NORTH BY NORTH
CARAVELA
