“Well I’ve been elected to rock your asses ‘till midnight,” Chris Ballew wails as he starts The Presidents of the United States of America set with their version of the MC5 classic ‘Kick Out The Jams’ at House of Blues Chicago on a Tuesday night in June. The night began with a local Chicago band known as Workout Music who were fast paced and helped keep the anxious crowd pumped for the main act.
Luckily in between sets there wasn’t much of a wait so when it came time to Kick Out The Jams with The Presidents the excitement was still thick in the air. From the MC5 cover they went into one of their more well known songs ‘Kitty’ which prompted the entire venue of adults meowing in unison. These three men exuded more energy than the six guys in the opening band which I didn’t think was possible. The set continued with more classics and also a few tracks from their new album Kudos to You! that was released on this past Valentine’s Day. Of course their two most popular songs ‘Lump’ and ‘Peaches’ were played during their set along with a personal favorite of mine ‘Some Postman.’
Although it wasn’t a sold out show you can tell everyone there was a big Presidents fan and knew every single lyric to every song. It was a small yet powerful crowd. The same could be said for the three-piece band. Lead singer and bassist Chris Ballew was all over the stage dancing around and jumping off chairs keeping the crowd riled up the entire time. Between Chris and guitarist Andrew McKeag there were only 5 strings total between their two instruments (2 strings on the bass, 3 on the guitar), which was completely out of the ordinary but it worked for them and had a bigger sound than you would expect. Last but not least drummer Jason Finn kept the jams going upstage with constantly changing facial expressions of both joy and maybe a little bit of exhaustion from their fast paced set.
For their encore they played their cover of the Buggles’ ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’, ‘Lunatic to Love’ from their second album, and a surprising second round of ‘Kick Out The Jams’ to bookend their set. It was kind of cool to have the set start and end on the same note and if there was a band to pull it off it would be The Presidents, yet a part of me thinks about some other songs I love that I would have liked in place of a song being played a second time. Overall it was a solid, energetic set, from a band that puts out pure feel good music through and through. You could tell both the band and the audience were having a blast and that is what counts. They done kicked 'em out.
Photo credit for top picture goes to Ginger Thomas.
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