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The Bridge/Galactic, February 18 @ Park West

On Friday, February 18, Chicago’s Park West developed a nasty case of funk-soul boogie thanks to heated performances by The Bridge and Galactic. Symptoms began to surface around 8:30PM when The Bridge opened the evening with an original set of high spirited Americana roots rock. The Baltimore sextet offered plenty of selections off the band’s fifth studio album, National Bohemian.

For such an early set, The Bridge attracted a medium-sized gathering on the dance floor, with fans twisting and swaying to the band’s genre blending blues. The music was solid and proud with a clear connection between the musicians. Initially the delivery sounded too tight and rehearsed, as if they were playing National Bohemian verbatim. As The Bridge played on, they slowly eased its grip and let the music breathe and flow while preserving its strength. The band danced and sweated onstage as the members toyed with bursts of improvisational energy.

The Bridge featured two vocalists, Cris Jacobs (guitar) and Dave Markowitz (bass). Each voice directly affected the feelings and flavors of songs. Jacobs had a fervid blues-rock soul carried by the right amount of bearded rasp. His leads rode like a lone car down an open stretch of road. Markowitz’s chords took on a more southern-roots attitude, emitting a ring of bayou twang. Then there was Kenny Liner (mandolin) a master beatboxer, who added hints of hip-hop. Liner had an incredible talent of spitting out rhythms spun into webs of vocal beats and tongue clicks, matched with syncopated rock and roll. Joined by Patrick Rainey (saxophone), Mike Gambone (drums) and Mark Brown (keyboards) The Bridge were the perfect spice for a pre-Galactic party.

READ ON for Allison’s take on Galactic’s set…

The proper use of popular music in films is a delicate thing. Good music makes everything better and movies are no exception. It’s the reason why a subway ride or walk in the park seems almost cinematic when our headphones are in. However, a good song can easily be a crutch for a bad scene to lean on. The best placements of recognizable songs will supplement a visually arresting moment in a plot rather than distract the audience from it.

We enlisted the help of 3GM friend Kevin Coyle and started compiling a list of our all-time favorite “popular music + movie scene” combinations. We quickly noticed that two names kept popping up: Martin Scorsese and Wes Anderson. These two men have become masters of cinema by drawing heavily on pop culture to create poignant moments. Having acknowledged that, we decided to leave them off our list entirely to make room for some of the more forgotten scenes that we love. Here is our list…

Movie: Boogie Nights (1997)
Song: Jessie’s Girl – Rick Springfield/99 Luft Balloons – Nena

This is, plain and simple, one of the best movie scenes of all time. It was the moment where Paul Thomas Anderson became an original filmmaker with distinctive style. The performances are all spot-on and the tension is palpable. PTA’s choice to use these ’80s pop classics instead of a traditional film score during this overwrought drug-deal-gone-wrong is the key ingredient in creating the scene’s uneasy yet engaging feeling.

READ ON for 14 more perfectly placed tunes in movies…

As Brooklyn’s The Ramblers gear up for a trek out to Austin for SXSW, they passed along an exclusive high quality recording of Don’t Hold Your Fire from a recent

Pale Blue eyes is track four of the self-titled third album by The Velvet Underground. Covered by what I find to be a surprising amount of artists, we have narrowed it down to six diverse entries this week. Check in next week for the beginning of the annual Cover Wars March Madness.

The Contestants:

Leading off this week is this stunning rendition from Alejandro Escovedo that illustrates the positive atmosphere produced from an extremely quiet and attentive live audience:

READ ON for five more covers of Pale Blue Eyes…