New Wave is Alive and Well – Late Bar, Chicago USA (Feb 9 2013)

What a fantastic experience it was attending an ALL New Wave Night Club, as featured every first Saturday of the month at Late Bar, in Chicago while on company business.  I was there specifically to check out a work colleague, Tarsis Lopez, who was the opening DJ for this popular New Wave event. 

The Late Bar is well situated in a central Chicago neighborhood, and a select group of Tarsis guests were escorted to a private table at the front of the dance floor and large video screen.  The bar itself was oddly shaped; reasonable space at the entrance, then a rather narrow passageway  through the bar on one side and washrooms on the other, opening up to a spacious rectangular dance area.  This point will make sense later.

We arrived at 10:20pm, just into Tarsis’ varied selection of lesser known New Wave songs, as featured on his regular podcasts on www.AlternativeClassix.blogs.com.  His DJ gig this night ran from 10pm-12:30am, then handing it over to seasoned DJ  Dave Roberts  with his more recognizable hits during his Planet Earth set until 5am into the morning (not the reason for name ‘Late Bar’,  but rather the B-side for Duran Duran debut single ‘Planet Earth’). 

The difference with the DJ Tarsis set are the original videos to accompany the eclectic range of alternative classix music.  Almost feels like one is in the comfort of home watching early MTV videos. Tarsis not only selects captivating less known songs, but even recognizable ones are enhanced by long forgotten ground-breaking videos (for that time!). I don't recall any other night clubs that pack this potent 1-2 sight and sound punch!

Over the course of the night, the crowd began to swell and dance to the original videos accompanying Tarsis’ interesting song selections.   Distinct personalities began to emerge as we approached midnight.  Goth Androgyny meets Wall Street Boomer, Rockabilly boy serenading Mohawk Punker babe, with Fifties bobbysoxer dancing by her lonesome. 

I felt like an interloper into a secret underground society.  Who were these characters and where did they come from?  Age was not an issue.  Older and younger were both singing/bopping to the same tunes. For some (the several that had obviously been around for the original first punk / new wave explosion in late 70s) it was as though Punk/New Wave had never gone away, and they got their weekly nostalgic fix here.  For others (born too late, but likely introduced by older siblings or hip parents!), it was imagining a thrilling, creative, chaotic and rebellious time past, in a safe and fun setting.

Highlights of the Tarsis set were Magazine’s ‘the Light Pours out of Me’ (Wall Street Boomer favorite and excited that I too loved his song), Blancmange’s ‘Living On the Ceiling’ (ATTACHED video of Middle East setting is stunning) and a personal request, the Undertones ‘True Confessions’, in which I ran in circles around Goth Andro (as good a song as anything by the Ramones, in my humble opinion).

Vee-Jay  Tarsis Lopez  - Set Listing

The Cure - 10:15 Saturday Night
Depeche Mode - Everything Counts
Duran Duran - New Religion
Electronic - Disappointed
Human League - Night People
Tracy Thorn - It's All True
Soft Cell – Bedsitter

Blancmange - Living On The Ceiling
Magazine - The Light Pours Out of Me
X-Ray Spex - Identity

Undertones – True Confessions
Icehouse – Icehouse

Bryan Ferry - Limbo
Tones on Tail - Performance

New Order - Everything's Gone Green

Erasure - Chains of Love

Eurythmics - Love Is A Stranger

Adam Ant - Ant Rap

Stone Roses - Fools Gold

Charlatans UK - The Only One I Know

Blur - Boys and Girls

                 

Enjoying the Eurythmics video                (L-R) Trish Troumpoucis, Christy Nolan, Tarsis Lopez

 (Laura Grossman in background)

The DJ Roberts set began after midnight, and I discovered a fresh, modern song  ‘Photographic’ from Depeche Mode’s debut LP.  I was on the dancefloor with Tarsis work colleagues, and Trish knew the all the lyrics by heart, punctuated by the catchy refrain:

I take pictures
Photographic pictures

Bright light, dark room
Bright light, dark room

We were just getting into a groove; shouting, jumping and fist pumping to Depeche Mode and New Order’s ‘Temptation’:

Oh, you've got green eyes
Oh, you've got blue eyes
Oh, you've got grey eyes
And I've never seen anyone quite like you before

Up, down, turn around
Please don't let me hit the ground
Tonight I think I'll walk alone
I'll find my soul as I go home

 Then I was told by the Late Bar Manager that I needed to stop jumping around as I had received complaints from others on the dancefloor , and that I posed a threat.  REALLY, a 53 year old Canadian out-of-shape guy was a threat to 20 and 30 something wannabes???   I was insulted!!!  I lived that exciting late 70s era before the majority of these poseurs were even born.  I perfected pogo dancing in my day.  LOL!!! 

When I finally calmed down, I realized the layout of Late Bar, with its narrow access posed a huge fire security risk.  This was on the heels of the devastating nightclub fire in Brazil.   OK, I got it.  This wasn’t personal after all.  But my night was done at this point.  I waited for Tarsis and followed him out of bar as Talking Heads ‘Life During Wartime’ was playing;

This ain't no party, this ain't no disco,
This ain't no fooling around
No time for dancing, or lovey dovey,
I ain't got time for that now

An ironic but fitting end to a spectacular evening of fantastic New Wave music in Chicago!!!

Post – Script:  A Late Bar waiter was inquiring from Tarsis about the guy who had been jumping around the dancefloor.  His comment was that he had not seen such a high energy level at the bar in a long time! 

CLASSIC SONG & LYRICS - How Soon is Now? (The Smiths, 1984)

Perhaps one of the most identifiable new wave songs of the 80s, the Smith's "How soon Is Now?" opens with Johnny Marr's electrifying guitar screech, signaling the emotional desperation to come from Morrissey's naked words.  This is a plain cry for human connection and love in the Yuppie power and money obsessed 'Wall Street' decade.  The song is evocative in the same way that Munch's modern art's masterpiece 'the Scream' leaves an unsettled impression on the interloper.  This is exactly how one feels listening to this Smiths signature song - that one is eavesdropping into the fractured soul of the singer. Morrissey was always an enigmatic figure with cryptic glimpses into his unconventional life, but the feelings he expresses so convincingly are universal - the pursuit for love and the ideal life-partner/soul-mate!

On a personal level, this song was released a short while after a very painful split from a four year relationship.  I easily identified with the pain and seemingly impossible ordeal of finding lasting love ever again.  The song represented my wake-up call. I shifted from one relationship to the next, club to club, somewhat lost and disillusioned. I felt as if the song was written about ME.  That is the power of great art.

I eventually met the love of my life, Guylaine, my wife now of 22 years (and still going strong).  I took a long while after the Smiths song to find the right person, but by then I knew the exact qualities I was searching.  

As an aside, I recently heard the song played once again in a charity event.  It made my spine crawl to hear the Morrissey's howl of longing as if it were 1984/1985 once again. Not surprising my list of 100 Essential New Wave Songs ends with this timeless Smiths masterpiece.  It was a time capsule that perfectly captured my emotional state and impacted me like no other!

I am the son and the heirOf a shyness that is criminally vulgarI am the son and heirOf the nothing in particular

You shut your mouth, how can you sayI go about things the wrong wayI am human and I need to be lovedJust like everybody else does

I am the son and the heirOf a shyness that is criminally vulgarI am the son and the heirOf nothing in particular

You shut your mouth, how can you sayI go about things the wrong wayI am human and I need to be lovedJust like everybody else does

There's a clubIf you'd like to goYou could meet somebodyWho really loves you

So you go and you stand on your ownAnd you leave on your ownAnd you go homeAnd you cry and you want to die

When you say it's gonna happen nowWell, when exactly do you mean?See, I've already waited too longAnd all my hope is gone

You shut your mouth, how can you sayI go about things the wrong wayI am human and I need to be lovedJust like everybody else does

The embedded video conveys the mid-80s fashion style and increasing social isolation very accurately. (Sorry for the opening advertisement!!)

the smiths - how soon is now.. by robertjgunn