By: Aaron Gi
Up Until Now’s winter tour kicked off in Chicago on the first night of February. The frigid night air brought in a chilly energy as people piled their way into the House of Blues. The late night shows always draw a very diverse crowd and Silver Wrapper events tend to cater to a more “heady” scene anyway. Doors opened at 11pm with music commencing at 11:30, with Chicago natives, The Coop kicking things off.
The Coop is a four-piece Jamtronica band; combining jam-rock guitar riffs with funky bass lines and groovy synth layers, they definitely have a distinct sound. Some of their songs were very instrumental and heavy with jams while others had a very electronic feel. They have a seemingly tranquil sound that was never overwhelming, and always stayed in their groove. They played for about an hour and were a great choice to open for Up Until Now, using a similar style of combining melodic electronic sounding beats incorporated with live instruments. This is definitely a band on the rise, look out for them in 2013.
Up Until Now came out around 12:30pm, with their LED backlit cube setup in a pyramid type shape, this seems to be a recurring theme with 1320 artists. The group normally consists of Jay Murphy (keyboards and Ableton production) and Kyle Holly, (live drums) but their winter tour features Jay’s older brother, David Murphy (of STS9) on bass guitar and bass synths. The addition of David Murphy brings a whole new layer of sound to the group as well as a hype factor of having the notorious bassist onstage which surely helps draw a crowd wherever they go.
They came out strong playing for a solid twenty-five minutes with no breaks and built crowd energy nicely with every drop. Up Until Now’s music is comparable to groups like Big Gigantic, they maintain a very electronic sound while still having a very musically inclined progression of their beats; as compared to the machine sounding glitch bass music that has become such a staple on the EDM scene today. Up Until Now keeps it smooth and groovy, while still having the heavy bass synths that keep people raging (or Rey Jing). The addition of David Murphy gave the show a live aspect and made the electronic duo seem like a three-piece band. David chipped in with live Bass lines and synths and clearly was cueing off of his little brother Jay the whole time. It was awesome to see them up there together and the familial chemistry was very apparent as they played the show out.
They were onstage until about two o’clock closing out the night with an original track “Little Piggy” off their most recent EP “The Pleasure Sessions”. They exited the stage only to come back out for an encore with their own rendition of the Pixies “Where is my Mind.” The lyrics of the song speak for itself and it was a fitting way to end the night. The three musicians took their bow and left the stage for the last time. It was a great way to start the tour for UUN and another stellar performance at the House of Blues Chicago. Thanks to The Coop, Up Until Now, David Murphy, and Silver Wrapper for a great night.
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