« Grizfolk to Bear Down at Soldier Field on Sunday: The LA Synth-Roots Quintet Talks Football, Music & More | Ought Brought Their Best to Beat Kitchen » |
Review Thu Oct 29 2015
Telekinesis Read Chicago's Mind on Wednesday
Michael Benjamin Lerner, aka Telekinesis, had a lot of love to give for Chicago on Wednesday night when he played Lincoln Hall.
"I really, really, love this place," he told the sparse (I know it was a Wednesday night, but there was a shamefully small crowd at the venue) audience. "You guys are seriously lucky to have this place. Everyone here is really wonderful to touring musicians. And we would know because we've been on tour for a long, looooong time. Give the crew here some applause."
Lerner dropped his most recent album Ad Infinitum this past September and played mostly new pieces last night, starting things off with "Sylvia" and my personal favorite off the album, "Courtesy Phone" and then switching over to 2013's Dormarion with "Lean on Me."
Lener was backed by a guitar and a keyboard, with opener Eric Elbogen of Say Hi (formerly Say Hi to Your Mom) on bass. Lerner himself was rocking out on the drums, doing his signature head flip throughout the tracks that makes him look like a dancing Peanuts character (in the best of ways.)
Lerner told the crowd, "I think it's been three years since I last came to Chicago. Is that right?" An enthusiastic Telekinesis fan in the front told him that it was in May of 2013 that they last rolled through. Lerner did some quick calculations in his head, "so that means it's been...a little under three years? No, wait. A little over three years? Right? I can't do math -- this is why I play music." He then launched into a cover of Randy Newman's "Living Without You" thanking the crowd afterward for sitting through the slow, low key piece.
He got things moving again with "Power Lines" from Dormarion, finishing the evening up with "Ghosts and Creatures" from Dormarion and "Carolina" and "Tokyo" from his debut album.