Mates of State + Suckers + Yawn @ Il Motore

Yawn is a (sadly) underrated band from Chicago, IL that set the bar high for the rest of the night at Il Motore. “Kind of Guy,” from Yawn's self-titled EP (2010), was even better live than recorded, and it becomes obvious why it’s their biggest hit. With looped vocals over Beach Boys-like humming and Animal Collective-like percussion, this is a band you don’t want to miss live.

Bringing the noise from Brooklyn, NY, Suckers were next on stage, and were the highlight of the evening. “Black Sheep,” from their album Wild Smile (2010), opened with hard drum kicks that became even harder and sweeter during the breakdown. During “Martha” the horns came in to literally blow you away. They closed their set with “It Gets Your Body Movin',” which essentially ended up getting everybody’s bodies moving. The vocals, horns, and drums during the build-up leave you on your tippy-toes wanting it to happen again and again. Suckers have a lot of passion and stage presence and it showed that night. It’s apparent that they really love what they do. I haven’t seen live music like that in a while, and you probably haven’t either.

Last (and least), was indie-pop duo Mates of State. They transformed the venue into what seemed like a “ladies only” bar. The audience consisted of cute couples, and when the music started the girls all got together in front of the stage while screaming the lyrics and dancing like pigeons. I was stuck in a chick-flick horror film. I have to admit, they did get me singing along and acting girly to their hit “Get Better” from 2008’s Re-Arrange Us. If only the rest of the show was as cool as that music video. Gardner’s vocals were very strong, dominant, and beautiful, but that’s just about the only thing that sounded beautiful coming from the stage. I managed to jot in my notebook, “this is what hell sounds like” after what was probably the five-hundredth time they sang “whoa, whoa, whoa”.

-Eileen English