Concert Review: Kishi Bashi, Lincoln Hall, Chicago, 2/14/13

Listening to Kishi Bashi perform live is like getting punched in the stomach (or at least as I would imagine it since I’ve never actually been punched in the stomach) but in the best possible way. Your eyes close, your heart flutters, the breath leaves your body and for a couple of minutes afterwards your stomach just aches.

I’ve seen the New York Philharmonic and I’ve watched Andrew Bird spin his intricate web of sound, but I can honestly say I’ve never heard a human being produce the kind of sound that Kishi Bashi coaxes out of his violin with such apparent ease – the man lives and breathes his instrument. In one second he creates an entire forest of sound, looping back his violin/singing/beatboxing, and in the next second he tears it down and begins again. It’s so beautifully complex it’s dizzying.

Backed by Mike Savino of Tall Tall Trees on the banjo and Elizabeth Ziman of Elizabeth and the Catapult on drums, Ishibashi blew the Chicago crowd away, all the while throwing roses (it was Valentine’s Day) and looking ridiculously dapper with his blond mohawk and baby blue suspenders and bowtie. It blows my mind that this same magic will be going down in some other city tomorrow night – that it’s reproducible in any way shape or form. There is simply no excuse not to go see him.

So having essentially just written my own love letter to K. Ishibashi, I guess I can wrap it up by saying ditto Halley and Lauren. Looks like Panic Manual has a little crush.

Posted on by Celeste in Concerts