Concert Review: TTNG, August 13, SubT

Obviously the lead singer of TTNG has deeply ingratiated himself with the people of Chicago because when he told the crowd at Subt on Saturday night: “Fun fact guys – too much dairy gives me phlegm. Thank goodness tonight is the last day of the tour – we’re going all out for the deep pan tonight! Deep pan party!”

Not only did the crowd not ridicule the Brit for not realizing that it’s actually deep dish pizza that’s eaten in Chicago, not deep pan, one TTNG bro fan turned to the other with an indulgent smile on his face and said “It’s okay, let’s not correct him – we’ll give it to him.” In a city where the question of New York Style versus deep dish can result in fisticuffs, that’s an act of true love right there.

The math rock crew from Oxford started off their set with “Coconut Crab” from their 2016 release Disappointment Island. The group has that slightly off-kilter, complex rhythm section specific to math rock (which makes it a lot of fun to watch people trying to move to it – ‘okay bob a little faster, whoa now a little slower, now fast again, okay now I’m definitely off rhythm’), heavy on guitar, with Tremain’s crooning to top it off.

Each song ended abruptly (which ended up causing even more awkward bobbing dance moves – ‘whoa okay now stop!’) with a smile and a “Thanks Mates!” which everyone was eating up (maybe a little more so by the seven girls who had shown up as opposed to the fifty tall guys – this was definitely not a concert to be a petite woman unless you just wanted to watch some guy’s arrhythmic sweaty bobbing back.)

Having never seen math rock produced live it was extremely impressive to watch the power trio creating these complicated labyrinths of sound in person, catching the rhythm only for the swiftest glance before it morphed into something new. These guys are definitely worth a listen live – come for the fragile ever changing sound, stay for the awkwardly dancing tall men in the crowd.

Posted on by Celeste in Concerts