Every so often, shows on weekdays, especially ones featuring touring bands, come along
and surprise you, introducing you to new bands you’d never thought you'd like and making you grateful for driving 45 minutes to a venue even if you have work the next morning. This can be said for Monday night on February 20th, when The Fall of Troy rolled into West Chicago,
Illinois, with supporting bands Satyr, Zeta, and Portrayal of Guilt in tow to celebrate the 20th
anniversary of their self-titled album.
As a fan of supporting act Satyr for a few years, I bought a ticket immediately once the
show was announced, and admittedly, I’d only heard of the other three bands in passing, but by the end of the night, I knew I’d witnessed acts I’d never forget as a fan or as a music
photographer.
First off, a note to non-locals–don’t let the “West Chicago” title fool you: the WC Social
Club is a suburban venue through and through, with only a 700-person capacity, seated about 20 minutes east of Aurora–Illinois’ second biggest city–and 35 miles from Chicago city limits. For a music lover born, raised, and sometimes stuck in the suburbs, it’s a bit of a godsend. The venue is known to host local showcases as well as touring acts. Walking in, the stage and the bar are the first two points of interest, the former to the right and the latter dead center of the venue.
On this particular night, once I entered the venue, experimental punk opener Zeta was
already performing. What I was able to catch of their set was absolutely electric. Their unique
setup was the first feature to catch my eye–the drums had been set up right in the center of the stage instead of in its typical dark corner in the back. On stage left, frontman Juan Chi switched between vocals, guitar, and–if you can believe it–4-foot tall bongo drums. On stage right was guitarist and keyboardist Saud, also alternating between two instruments and a vocal mic.
Finally, bassist Gabriel Duque could be found directly behind drummer Eduardo Sandoval,
hiding in a blanket of darkness with no effect on the sound whatsoever–sonically, he and
Sandoval led most of the show. Their busy setup onstage reflected the feeling their music
created–in the best way possible. During their last song, Juan Chi casually and calmly set his
guitar down before stepping offstage to join the crowd in cheering on his own band, chanting in Spanish and completing a lap around the entire venue just before their explosive farewell.
Next up was post-hardcore and progressive metal band Satyr from Atlanta, Georgia. For
myself and my partner, this band was our soundtrack to the pandemic–Their debut full-length album Locus was released in late February of 2020, and we’d listen to it on repeat while driving through barren Chicago streets and dead-silent neighborhoods. To finally see them live three years after the fact felt like I as a fan had come full circle. Playing a mix of old and new material, mostly from Locus and their following album Totem, the band did not disappoint, their live sound nearly mirroring their studio albums. The band’s lead vocals alternate between powerfully high notes from Janald “JD” Long and unrelenting screams from Michael “Soup” Campbell.
While JD takes over rhythm guitar and belts into the microphone, singing each note with
everything he’s got, Soup maintains lead guitar, hovering over the microphone and screaming with an equal amount of intensity, creating an almost overwhelmingly strong and perfect combination of vibrato and hardcore elements. When the band introduced their last song and arguably their most popular track from Locus, “Picayune,” it would have seemed as if all hell had broken loose at the WC, and the first mosh pit of the night formed immediately after the first few chords. Once their set came to an end, the energy from those few minutes could still be felt in that venue, and the show continued on.
Taking the stage after was Portrayal of Guilt, a band I had long heard of but never seen in
the Chicago music scene; in fact, their name has been tossed around so many times that it was that night I realized the band was not local but instead hail from Texas. Their influence in
Chicago has still been incredibly strong nonetheless, as their sound is not unlike the hardcore punk scene in Illinois. Portrayal of Guilt’s sludge riffs and high screeches from vocalist Matt King create a familiar style that the band has certainly made their own. Throughout the 45-minute set, the band and the crowd seemed to feed off each other, and approximately 30 minutes in, King grabs the microphone, abandoning his post and his guitar to leap up to the front of the stage and growl directly over the audience. Once their set concluded, there was a sense of urgency in the air–the fans were ready for what was next. Once The Fall of Troy took the stage, the energy that the opening bands brought was amplified tenfold–in the simplest terms, the crowd went insane, screaming lyrics back to guitarist Thomas Erak and bassist Jon-Henry Batts, who alternated on lead and backing vocals. At this point, the venue is filled nearly wall to wall from the front of the stage to the mixing board in the back of the room. As the album and their set began to wind down, the band had a few tricks up their sleeve and introduced a few friends onstage. Just before the band’s ninth song, “The Adventures of Allen Gordon,” they swapped out their drummer and introduced “resident drummer” (Erak’s words) Mark Serpico from local Chicago band When We Was Kids as he took the stage and to jam with them. But the surprises didn’t end there. Just as the night saw the beginning of the end and The Fall of Troy introduced their last couple songs of the night, they also brought up several other Chicago musicians: Chris Lamb, singer of When We Was Kids, and Dimitri Green, frontman of another local band in Chicago known as Sawbuck. Lamb, whose band is fairly well known in the Chicago hardcore scene, matched not only the band’s energy as he showcased his high-octave vocal range but also the same energy not unlike what he displays with his own band. As a musician, both he and Serpico fit right in onstage with the trio they’ve looked up to. As the night began to wind down and the band was close to completing their run-through of their 2003 debut, they took the opportunity to express their gratitude to everyone in the crowd, serving as a reminder of why they do what they do.
“We give our lives to art because art is a part of love, and that is what we fucking
subscribe to,” Erak expresses between songs, which is followed by a roar of cheering from the audience. Twenty years of blood, sweat, and tears were certainly poured out by the trio as they trekked through the eleven songs on their 2003 record, the fans never seeming to lose any of their excitement even after The Fall of Troy took their final bow of the show and of their celebration tour.