Yesterday I lived the life of a booking manager for a band. Moving Mountains are building their first tour of the Midwest, and as soon as I found this out, I had to get in touch with them. As I have moved from a larger house with five roommates, now to a smaller three roommate Wicker Park loft, it has become a lot harder to put on shows.

A good story comes from my first time visiting the great state of Wisconsin. As I was at a local VFW show with kids half my age (no joke) one person approached me about my house and how much fun he had at our last house show. I was flattered someone recognized me in a state I’d never been before. He said, “You’re from the piss-out-your-ass fest!” It was a lovely display in front of Jenna’s friends I had just met for the first time. However, at a show in November, everyone started saying “Piss out of my ass” and it stuck. I’m glad I’m known in other states as that guy.

Back to Moving Mountains, I had tried to set up a show in our loft and it basically seemed like we would have more people than we wanted. We were also worried about all of the complaining our neighbors would do. Instead, I called up the Subterranean and asked them an honest question, “Can you give me July 9th?” He laughed in my face for a few seconds about me putting on house shows before I raised my voice and told him I don’t need your help if you want to be a prick. I also told him there’s a reason why you don’t hear about house shows, and it probably has to do with the fact you book bands for a living to play in your bar and charge an egregious amount of money, while we like to do it free or $5 donation tops and keep it DIY. He stopped laughing and said he wanted my info for future house shows and that he would actually like to work with me on setting up house shows because he has several bands who want to play in crusty basements, but he’s out of the loop with who puts them on.

I contacted MM again and we instantly got the show set up at The Beat Kitchen off Belmont. They are playing with some band with too much black hair dye, but I think it can still be fun. The price is kind of steep at $10, but this band will blow your mind. As I found out this well produced ensemble started out with only two people recording for fun, it made Moving Mountains’ album Pneuma all the better. Pneuma is easily one of my favorite albums I’ve heard in the past two years. The lyrics are chilling with a compiling theme of death and overcoming a fear of mortality. The lyrics sound religious at times and with a name like Moving Mountains, one could get confused. However, they’re supposedly not and the record has no positive attitude towards Christianity, nor do I think it has a negative one.

Their sound is hard to explain. They often take the Post-Rock route with some songs reaching nine minutes. However, the horn sections with the harmonizing singing will give an Anathallo type of feel. The singing has some screaming, and can often sound like a bunch of young Screamo enthusiasts. I still think they’re the closest thing to Screamo and Post-Rock. They have songs you’ll want to play as loud as possible and Pneuma is a tough album to listen to only once. Their newest EP was just released titled Forward. This EP has four songs that are as good as Pneuma, but having only four tracks is a huge let down. You definitely need more.

For fans of: Caspian, The Appleseed Cast, Anathallo, Anthony Green.

Moving Mountains
Dommin
(Band to be named later)
Thursday July 9th, 2009
@ The Beat Kitchen ($10)
Doors open at 6:00pm
Show starts at 6:30pm