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Concert Mon Jul 02 2007
Chicago is Creepy
She sends shivers down your spine with her mega-watt voice and incandescent harmonies, holds you in the palm of her hand with a sparkling, tongue in cheek sense of humor. She's Jenny Owen Youngs, and Chicago was graced with her magnetic presence last night at Schuba's.
"Hello Chicago," she said in her gentle, understated manner, taking the stage dressed hip and casual in a yellow t-shirt emblazoned with the words "Community Chest" (from Monopoly), a blue skirt, and yellow Converse sneakers. In response, the Chicago audience, a bit shy in warming up to her, but enthusiastic all the same, greeted her with a genuine but delayed kind of awkward cheer. "Chicago is creepy," she noted wryly, making the audience laugh.
It's hard to decide which was better last night: Owen Young's pop culture satire or her music – as she was at the top of her game in both. Highlights were her assaults on Justin Timberlake and Avril Lavigne, as well as songs from her album, Batten the Hatches (recently re-released by Nettwerk Records). The irreverent and poetic "Fuck was I" was as equally enthralling as the upbeat honky tonk in "Coyote." Then there were the musical montages – the artist blending two songs together in a parody. Bits of "Milkshake" by Kelis Roger-Jones were mixed in with Kelly Clarkson's "Since You’ve Been Gone," to hilarious effect. She ended the show with her namesake finale: an unabashed rendition of Nelly's "It’s Getting Hot in Herre," with a bit of "Wonderwall" by Oasis thrown into the chorus.
"Chicago is the best place to play, because of you, but don’t tell other cities that," she told the audience, in response to them being eagerly engaged in her antics, every step of the way. "In New York everybody would be too busy smoking." We’ll wait anxiously for super-cool chick Jenny Owen Youngs to come back to "creepy Chicago" soon—work her magic on us once again.
