HUM reunion concert review: Double Door, 12/31/2008
If the fervor incited by Hum’s New Year’s Eve reunion show fell short of Beatlemania, it wasn’t far from the mark in some corners of the sold-out Double Door. As the band launched “Afternoon with the Axolotls” from their 1998 swan song “Downward is Heavenward,” tears were witnessed. Deities were audibly invoked by audience members traveling from all corners of North America. Clearly, Hum has been missed.
The band played its erstwhile final show in 2000 on New Year’s Eve at the Metro, sharing a bill with the Flaming Lips. Three years following a hometown reunion at Champaign, Illinois’ Rockfest, Hum’s amplifiers remain set to eleven on a ten scale. If last year’s Cadillac commercial featuring the massive, slashing riff from “Stars” didn’t provide sufficient royalty income, the earplug industry should probably pitch in.
Guitarist Tim Lash strummed the opening chords to “The Pod” on his battered Stratocaster before erupting alongside frontman Matt Talbott with a wall of post-grunge cacophony owing a debt to Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” The track remains a standout from 1995’s “You’d Prefer an Astronaut,” although it feeds criticism which unfairly tarred Hum as Smashing Pumpkins clones.
The same album’s “I’d Like Your Hair Long” better displayed the band’s strengths, with an adventurous, two-ton groove anchored by drummer Bryan St. Pere and bassist Jeff Dimpsey. Talbott’s compelling melody, coolly detached delivery and oblique lyrical imagery completed Hum’s signature style. “I’d like your face gone and in its place the sun,” he sang, inscrutably. “Green to Me” seemed appropriate to mark the conclusion of a disastrous year for the economy, complete with a suggestion to move on. “We’ve all got wounds to clean,” sang Talbott. “Here’s a rag; here’s some gasoline. It's all green to me.”
The set favored Hum’s two albums for RCA, though the howling “Shovel” from 1993’s “Electra 2000” ignited the crowd. “Inklings,” one of the band’s final, unrecorded compositions sent diehards into rapture. It also incited a roiling mosh pit, which seemed inappropriate for a crowd with an average age approaching forty.
Hum’s music did the talking throughout its ninety minute set, though Talbott addressed the crowd beyond a self-conscious “thank you” or “happy new year” before the final encore. “You guys are so kind,” said Talbott unassumingly. “We don’t really understand it, to be honest.” While plowing through a gloriously noisy “Isle of the Cheetah,” Hum seemed to modify Theodore Roosevelt’s famous motto: Speak softly, and carry a really, really loud guitar.
Chicago-based post-rock trio Dianogah opened the bill, helmed by noted graphic artist Jay Ryan and distinguished by its double bass guitar lineup. Kansas City, Missouri’s The Life and Times followed, led by former Shiner guitarist Allen Epley. During “Ave Maria,” Epley’s math-rock riffs updated the clarion guitar sound of U2’s “Boy” album, while bassist Eric Abert played stuttering bass reminiscent of Pink Floyd’s “One of These Days.” Before saying goodbye, Epley appealed to single-minded Hum fans that his own wares might be worthwhile. “We’re loud, too,” he offered with a smile.
- Jeff Elbel
Hum's Matt Talbott (L) and Tim Lash (R) performed a reunion concert at the Double Door in Chicago, IL. (Photo: Jeff Elbel)
Hum's Matt Talbott toasts the new year with a fan at the Double Door in Chicago, IL. (Photo: Jeff Elbel)
The band played its erstwhile final show in 2000 on New Year’s Eve at the Metro, sharing a bill with the Flaming Lips. Three years following a hometown reunion at Champaign, Illinois’ Rockfest, Hum’s amplifiers remain set to eleven on a ten scale. If last year’s Cadillac commercial featuring the massive, slashing riff from “Stars” didn’t provide sufficient royalty income, the earplug industry should probably pitch in.
Guitarist Tim Lash strummed the opening chords to “The Pod” on his battered Stratocaster before erupting alongside frontman Matt Talbott with a wall of post-grunge cacophony owing a debt to Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” The track remains a standout from 1995’s “You’d Prefer an Astronaut,” although it feeds criticism which unfairly tarred Hum as Smashing Pumpkins clones.
The same album’s “I’d Like Your Hair Long” better displayed the band’s strengths, with an adventurous, two-ton groove anchored by drummer Bryan St. Pere and bassist Jeff Dimpsey. Talbott’s compelling melody, coolly detached delivery and oblique lyrical imagery completed Hum’s signature style. “I’d like your face gone and in its place the sun,” he sang, inscrutably. “Green to Me” seemed appropriate to mark the conclusion of a disastrous year for the economy, complete with a suggestion to move on. “We’ve all got wounds to clean,” sang Talbott. “Here’s a rag; here’s some gasoline. It's all green to me.”
The set favored Hum’s two albums for RCA, though the howling “Shovel” from 1993’s “Electra 2000” ignited the crowd. “Inklings,” one of the band’s final, unrecorded compositions sent diehards into rapture. It also incited a roiling mosh pit, which seemed inappropriate for a crowd with an average age approaching forty.
Hum’s music did the talking throughout its ninety minute set, though Talbott addressed the crowd beyond a self-conscious “thank you” or “happy new year” before the final encore. “You guys are so kind,” said Talbott unassumingly. “We don’t really understand it, to be honest.” While plowing through a gloriously noisy “Isle of the Cheetah,” Hum seemed to modify Theodore Roosevelt’s famous motto: Speak softly, and carry a really, really loud guitar.
Chicago-based post-rock trio Dianogah opened the bill, helmed by noted graphic artist Jay Ryan and distinguished by its double bass guitar lineup. Kansas City, Missouri’s The Life and Times followed, led by former Shiner guitarist Allen Epley. During “Ave Maria,” Epley’s math-rock riffs updated the clarion guitar sound of U2’s “Boy” album, while bassist Eric Abert played stuttering bass reminiscent of Pink Floyd’s “One of These Days.” Before saying goodbye, Epley appealed to single-minded Hum fans that his own wares might be worthwhile. “We’re loud, too,” he offered with a smile.
- Jeff Elbel
Hum's Matt Talbott (L) and Tim Lash (R) performed a reunion concert at the Double Door in Chicago, IL. (Photo: Jeff Elbel)
Hum's Matt Talbott toasts the new year with a fan at the Double Door in Chicago, IL. (Photo: Jeff Elbel)