KALAMAZOO & CHICAGO | Equipment, a band out of Toledo, Ohio just finished a short midwest tour with fellow fifth-wave emo band, Aren’t We Amphibians, bookended by appearances at DIY festivals Fauxchella in Bowling Green, Ohio and Homiefest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
On consecutive nights, October 19 and 20, 2023, they played The Black Lodge in Kalamazoo, Michigan and Bookclub in Chicago, Illinois and I was in attendance both nights. Walking up a dark driveway to a house set a couple hundred feet off the street in a college town in southwest Michigan, I had no idea what was in store for me in the night ahead. Growing up so close to a major city like Chicago meant that true house shows were few and far between, and even though I have been an avid concert goer for the better part of a decade, I had never attended an actual house show. With a friend from high school, a $10 bill and a pair of orange foam ear plugs in tow, I crossed the threshold into The Black Lodge in Kalamazoo.
The main floor of the house looked like any other house inhabited by college students and was crowded with what I gathered to be the regular crowd at these shows. There were also a couple of local artists selling their work, as well as someone fundraising to fund a documentary about Kalamazoo’s DIY music district known as “The Vine Project.” The basement, on the other hand, was where the magic would happen as the night stretched on; low ceilings with Christmas lights strung across them held up by command hooks and painters’ tape and of course, no stage.
There were four bands/artists on the bill that night; Kalamazoo’s very own Blood at Ease and The Reverent Marigold, as well as touring acts Aren’t We Amphibians from California and Equipment. By the time we got there, Blood at Ease’s set had already started, so after making a quick pit-stop upstairs to drop our cash into the pasta strainer used to collect donations, my friend Megan grabbed me by the arm and pulled me down the stairs into an unfinished basement, trailed by everyone who had been hanging out upstairs who felt the tell-tale vibrations of a set starting. Blood at Ease and The Reverent Marigold both put on incredible sets, and even though I wasn’t familiar with either, I am now and I haven’t been able to stop listening.
After the first three acts had finished, it was time for the band I had been waiting for, and the band that I love enough to travel across two states on a train that left Chicago before 7 am: Equipment.
Equipment and I go way back, specifically back to the fall of my senior year of high school with the release of their EP Madrigal. From the moment Equipment opened their set with the opening track of that EP, “Raptured Trax pt.1,” I was zoned in.
The 9 song set was hit after hit; particular highlights being “Talk to Strangers,” “Lo/Fo” and “Wet Mulch.” As the set was winding down, the energy in the room was so infectious, resulting in Equipment tacking an extra song onto the set, closing out the night with a single off of their 2023 album Alt. Account titled “Username.”.
This was a very special show and crowd; I felt a kinship with everyone in that room, and I think anyone who is willing to spend hours upon hours in a muggy basement on a weeknight just to see some live music is someone I would like to befriend.
After all, we had just spent hours pushing each other, holding hands, almost hitting our heads on the ceiling and putting our arms around each other to move in sync. As far as I’m concerned, we’re already friends.
I left the show buzzing with an almost childlike excitement, and before I even made it back to where I was spending the night, I had made up my mind and decided that I would be catching the next stop of Equipment’s tour the very next day back in Chicago. Fast forward to Friday, October 20, I’m at Bookclub Chicago with a different friend from high school, having spent all day hyping these bands to anyone who would listen.
The excitement that I had been feeling since the previous day hadn’t subsided even a little bit, especially considering the fact that one of my very favorite Chicago based bands, Bottom Bunk, was opening the show. As a venue, Bookclub is way closer to the kind that I am most familiar with — it actually has a stage and lighting other than Christmas lights and a fluorescent light covered with a piece of red tissue paper.
Bottom Bunk opened the show with incredible energy, highlights being their singles “Pizza Rolls” and “Used Goods” as well as a cover of Motion City Soundtrack’s “Everything is Alright”, which Gray De Le Fuente tried to downplay as being “silly” but was actually anything but. Their set was followed by Excuse Me, Who Are You? out of Madison, Wisconsin; with it being one of the most exciting and dynamic sets I have ever seen. Their front person, Kyle Kinney, ended up fully on the ground after falling no less than two times, while their bassist ended their set with a broken instrument. As I tried to photograph them, Kinney was in a state of perpetual motion, never once catching them standing still.
Next up were the touring acts; with Aren’t We Amphibians entering the stage with style — and a pedalboard made out of the deck of a skateboard —- making me realize that every member of the band had actually been in the crowd with me the night before, screaming along and having the time of their lives, just to do it all again the next night.
Their eight song set was filled with infectious energy, several broken drumsticks and having to dodge the headstock of a guitar to avoid getting hit. The frontman of Excuse Me, Who Are You? joined into the crowd and even rushed the stage to join in on some vocals. There are very few bands that I have ever seen be able to control a crowd the way Aren’t We Amphibians are able to as the crowd was hanging onto their every word.
Finally, Equipment took the stage. While the changeover between bands was happening, I turned to my friend (who, in her defense, had heard of Equipment for the first time the day before) and told her, and I quote “This set is going to change your life,” (I do tend to be a bit dramatic, but this time I don’t think I was). Their set was very similar to the night before, with one major change that I will hold close to me for the rest of my life.
I was in a state of disbelief when I heard frontman Nick Zander deliver the stripped down first lines of “Surer/Steady,” a song that I hold very close to my heart and was not expecting to hear live. When introducing the song, Zander explained that it had been added to the set as a request from someone in attendance, because the song references Chicago, yet I was still surprised and completely thrilled. It’s that kind of personal touch that adds so much to small shows. This set felt much more like shows that I’m used to; with a bit of production behind it, actual lighting and a stage. However, after a show as special as the one I had seen the night prior in Kalamazoo, I did crave that intimacy that can only be attributed to being in an unfinished basement, but every band on the lineup more than made up for that.
There is magic happening in basements in college towns and underground venues in cities across the country, where people are gathering for a love of live music without the production and spectacle of concerts on large scale tours. It’s one thing to leave a show impressed by the spectacle of it all, but it’s a different feeling to leave a show that earns its merit on live music alone.
I can say with complete certainty that the latter leaves you craving it more than anything else in the world. As much as I enjoyed the Chicago stop of the tour, I implore you to catch a tried and true “house show” in a college town or anywhere outside of a major city, because if nothing else it’ll prove to anyone disillusioned with the state of art and music that maybe the kids are alright.