The Elected Summer Tour feat Tristen & Mike Bloom – REVIEW

The Elected Summer Tour feat. Tristen and Mike Bloom, came to Schuba’s Tavern in Chicago. You can check out our review after the break!

Touring on their 3rd album, Bury Me In Rings, The Elected seemed like a younger, hungry band.  Opening their set with a bit of an instrumental warm-up featuring drums, steel drums, a lap steel and acoustic guitar the band worked their way in to Babyface, a kind of throwback to R&B influenced Rolling Stones with some David Byrne/Talking Heads thrown in.  The unique instrumentation was a welcome change up from a traditional lineup.

Up next was the opening song to the new album, Born To Love You.  With great harmony vocals from multi-instrumentalist Dre, this was one of the highlights of the evening and had some crowd members singing along.

Not Going Home, from their great second album Sun, Sun, Sun was another highlight for the crowd.  As with most of their songs this heartfelt number deals with love and loss.

Changing up the pace a bit, they played a country western sounding version of The Bank and Trust, a co-write with Rilo Kiley member Jenny Lewis.

The band closed their set with a great cover of Tom Petty’s You Got Lucky.  They managed to stay somewhat true to the original, while also making it their own, which is the best thing a band can do with a cover song.

After a brief break, they came back out for an encore of A Response To Greed from their debut album.  The band left to loud cheers, well deserved by the excellent musicianship that was on display.

The second opening act, Tristen, lived in Illinois at one point, but has now relocated to Nashville to pursue music.

Tristen posses the kind of incredible vocal range that would make other singers jealous.  She is starting to build up a bit of buzz, including being listed as one of the 25 acts that needed to be seen at Bonnaroo, and this performance showed why.

Pulling songs from her debut album, Charlatans at the Garden Gate as well as a Dolly Parton cover, Tristen won over the audience in resounding fashion.

Opener Mike Bloom had the tough job of getting the early crowd at Schuba’s to pay attention.  In addition to his opening set, he would go on to play with The Elected as well.  A noted sideman, his debut album King Of Circles recently came out to good reviews.   His songs explored country western sounds, and he showed off his vast musical talent switching between electric guitar, acoustic guitar and mandolin during songs.

Information about the review…
Tour: The Elected Summer Tour
Bands: The Elected (Vagrant Records), Tristen, and Mike Bloom
Date: July 2, 2011
Venue: Schuba’s in Chicago, IL