[ATTENDED: October 12, 2019] FACS
I saw Explosions in the Sky back in 2016 and the show blew me away. I knew I’d be seeing them again some time.
For that show, the opening band was Disappears.
I really enjoyed Disappears and wound up buying their records. For this show, the opening band was FACS. I had never heard of FACS at all. When I looked them up I discovered that FACS is (technically was)… three-fourths of Disappears!
According to the Chicago Tribune, Disappears:
broke up in 2016 with the departure of bassist Damon Carruesco, and holdovers [bassist] Brian Case, guitarist Jonathan Van Herik and drummer Noah Leger reinvented themselves as Facs, which explored a more abstract but no less fascinating – and sometimes downright spooky – sound.
Then Van Herik quit, and Facs had to regroup yet again, this time with Case switching back to guitar and newcomer Alianna Kalaba on bass, joining Leger in the rhythm section. There was only one catch: Kalaba had never played bass before. She was previously the drummer in We Ragazzi and the Dishes, but Leger already held that job in Facs.
“In Disappears, we had strict ideas about repetition and minimalism that are still ingrained in us,” Case says. “But with Facs, we took everything out of that comfort zone until we found something we liked and honed into it.
I didn’t really remember much of this going into this show. I just remembered that they were probably going to be very cool.
And indeed they were.
The trio came out, the lights turned red and they started playing some dark chords which unfolded into “Exit Like You.” I loved the overall sound they were working with–steady rhythm from the bass, lots going on with the drums, and either single notes or complex, discordant chords on guitar.
Brian Case sang vocals and played some really abstract and at times menacing chords. He was on my right and I was sometimes able to see him through the very tall dudes at the show. I enjoyed watching the chords and the harmonics he played throughout the night like on this song whose name I don’t know although the words seem to be “No Definition.”
I had a hard time seeing Alianna Kalaba, but occasionally she would show up between the large heads. She really was the grounding force of the band.
I really enjoyed how the band, who many people presumably didn’t know, played their noisy songs and didn’t say much besides, were FACS, we’re from Chicago.
As the quote above says, they have two albums. They played songs from both records. The newer songs sounded a little different–perhaps because Case was back on guitar. Like the way “In Time” has a slow but persistent bass line while Case’s guitar is a series of echoing notes.
I remember thinking that Noah Leger was a fantastic drummer in Disappears. He played a different style in FACS, but I really couldn’t see him that much to see what he was doing. However, in “Total History” I got a nice view of his complex rhythms.
I couldn’t really tell the names to any of the songs. For the most part, Case’s delivery was kind of slow and deadpan. Although the chorus of “Skylarking” (I am Skylarking you are skylarking too”) was pretty clear.
Even though I thought I liked the newer songs better, I loved “Primary” from the first album, with its repeating two notes and its unexpectedly fast and brief but complex bass and drum changes.
They played for just over 40 minutes and I think they won over a lot of the crowd Some of their songs stretched out for a pretty long time-“Total History” is about 9 minutes long, although others were shorter. But in nearly all of them, I found Case’s guitar work to be really fascinating. I just loved the sounds that Case was making during this song.
I don’t know why they were bathed in that unpleasant magenta light for their whole set. I think I may have missed one song in the setlist, or maybe they just stretched their songs out a little longer than on record.
After the show I talked to Brian very briefly and he was really friendly (just like last time). I told him I remembered them opening for EITS last time and he seemed pleased that I recognized them.
POSSIBLE SETLIST
- Exit Like You
- unknown
- In Time
- Total History
- Skylarking
- Primary
- unknown
I Just Read About That... 
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