Image by Callie Lipkin
Carney brings one helluva ride to Chicago
July 4, 2010, at the Petrillo Music Shell
By Selena Fragassi
Published: July 13th, 2010 | 12:30pm
If you were too young to have witnessed legends like the Beatles or Jimi Hendrix or Queen in concert, fear not—this generation has Carney. Although the aforementioned trio of music’s most revered performers never took one stage together, they’re finding new relevance in one band whose eerily familiar slick musicianship and jolting energy are the seeds from which new legends are born.
As the name of the band might imply, and as many found out at the WXRT–sponsored Taste of Chicago party on July 4, Carney’s live show is a festival all to itself—one that starts too early for these burgeoning headliners and ends too quickly with the same air of mystery, intrigue, and magic that swept them through town, leaving only excited whispers of “who was that?”
In fact, Carney is a quartet that has become the residential mayors of the stage in their hometown of L.A. Fronted by singer Reeve Carney, his guitarist brother Zane, bassist Aiden Moore, and drummer Jon Epcar, the band has its own made-for-Hollywood storyline that only legitimizes their future incline in a downtrodden industry.
Courted by famed director Julie Taymor for an upcoming film role and handpicked by Bono and the Edge to play the lead in their new Broadway rendition of Spider-Man, Reeve Carney is the stuff versatile leading men dream of—just as ripe for Tiger Beat-plastered teenage walls as he is the centerfold of Rolling Stone magazine. In reality though, the silver screen and the Great White Way are merely portals for the spotlight that will ultimately be placed on Carney as black belt–worthy live performers.
When the four members stepped on stage at Chicago’s famed Petrillo Music Shell, the mercury was nearing 100 degrees on one of the city’s hottest days of the year, yet it wasn’t long before a pandemic chill swept through the zombie crowd that had turned master and servant when the band debuted material from their just-released Mr. Green Volume 1 (Interscope).
From the sultry, modern rock meets ‘70s swelter of lead single “Love Me, Chase Me” to the extended crescendo of the Zeppelin/Buddy Guy love fest “Testify,” Carney is a vindicating experiment of a successful polyamorous musical style. Where Reeve excels in the role of a widowed blues savant, his brother Zane could just as well have taught Eric Clapton how to properly handle a fret board; where Moore leaves traces of venom from a powerful bass stinger, Epcar plays the concentrated medic whose raucous backbeats could will any heartbeat back to rhythm. As this performance quickly proved, there is an undeniable life force to Carney not seen since stadium rock succumbed to freebirds.
When Carney fanned out a cover of the Beatles’ “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” there was no doubt Reeve had a Spidey sense for exactly what the crowd was feeling. “I want you so bad,” he crooned as the attentive audience gave a requited reception and quickly made a memo of the band in their smartphones.
If all bands were so possessive of their stage territory, so spiritual in their delivery, so committed to the vows of a performance, Ticketmaster and Live Nation could sleep easy. Carney brings that matrix, that Field of Dreams effect craved by a population of people so bored with music that they need a curve ball like this band to make it through to the ninth inning. Like Ray Kinsella in Iowa, Carney has finally built it and, mark our words, people will come to see it.
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Carney official site
Carney MySpace page
Photos by Callie Lipkin
Issue #45
Comments
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nmoya (about 1 year)
Totally agree. When I heard Carney at Summerfest a few weeks ago, they immediately reminded me of Zeppelin. I fell in love. Reeve has an amazing energy -- you can tell he puts his whole soul into a performance. They sound so incredible live, and I'm shocked they haven't blown up yet. I'm a Carney for life <3
SelenaFragassi (about 1 year)
So glad you got a chance to see them early on before they start selling out arenas! Check out VZ's fall issue where we've got a great profile on the band as well and stay tuned for a special video.