Brigitte Calls Me Baby
The Atlantis, September 22, 2024
Sometimes you see an act and you know immediately that they’re going to be huge. They may not be entirely to your taste, or they may not be in the genre that you follow, but they have undeniable star power and stage presence.
Chicago’s
Brigitte Calls Me Baby is clearly in that category. In terms of music, they can be quickly described, albeit crudely, as Elvis fronting the Cure. Lead singer Wes Leavins has a massive pompadour, louche elegance, and a huge voice that could be called Morrisseyesque, if he didn’t also have some similarities to Chris Isaak. And the band’s blend of goth and jangle could quickly be identified as directly descended from the Smiths and the Cure in a whole host of 1980s gloomy and foppily dressed British dudes.
On stage at the Atlantis, Brigitte Calls Me Baby prove that they had 100% of the look, 100% of the sound, and about 60% of the songs needed for absolute superstardom. The band has only a single record out following a prior EP, but many of the audience were singing along to the catalogue. When the songs hit just right, the effect was undeniable — like “Eddie My Love,” which hits the tricky sweet spot between coy and cloying and winkingly fey. Of course, sometimes their homage steers a bit toward unabashed imitation — the guitarist is flashy but no Johnny Marr but I kept expecting a song to diverge into “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out.”
In terms of the sound, there is not a bit of grit or rough edges in this band. Everything is as polished and as gleaming as mid-1980s MTV. Even though one of the guitarists looked like he’d escaped from an LA hair metal club on the Sunset Strip, the sound was as immaculately produced as the poppiest moments of
Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me or
Modern Love, and in terms of look, this band does a lot of preening. Lead singer Leavins had a bright purple jacket and a frilly shirt unbuttoned to show his chest tattoos, and the guitarists and bassists alternatively seemed like they had dressed for Gn’R, the Heartbreakers (Tom Petty’s or Johnny Thunders’, take your pick), or Duran Duran. If you thought the Killers found a winning formula for marrying modern songwriting tactics to the sneering charisma of old-school rock stars, you’ll love Brigitte Calls Me Baby.
It’s in the songs where the band isn’t yet fully cooked. There are tracks with crashingly memorable choruses and cleverly turned phrases like “Impressively Average” and “I Wanna Die in the Suburbs,” but about half of the songs were not as strong, and the band tried to coast more on attitude and stage presence than the strength of the material itself.
The Future Is Our Way Out, the band’s first full length record, has some great tunes but some of the best are repeated from the EP, which got them on national TV at a very early stage. They’ve got some more growing up to do, and I felt like putting on Suede after the show for more incisive songwriting in the same vein.
In a very brief setlist, which may have been abbreviated due to band illness (they had canceled some recent prior shows) they did much of their recorded material and a Howlin’ Wolf cover, but they skipped over their cover of “Careless Whisper,” which has been omnipresent in their tours for some time. It’s worth hearing or finding on YouTube because it’s a helpful illustration of the band’s overall influences and aesthetics.
The opener was a local bandleader named
Cathy DiTiro, whose eponymous band is basically a glammy version of 1980s bar band rock. Not bad, but not terribly creative either. She has a pleasantly strong voice not unlike a youthful Chrissie Hynde, and good presence on stage, but the songs were a bit generic. She did one punked-up version of Gn’R’s “Patience” that got a positive response along with her own good-natured originals.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/23/2024 12:01PM by zwirnm.
