Rabble Rabble used to be one of those bands that seem to turn up on every third bill in town. By their own estimate, in 2009 they played more than 80 times in Chicago. And this year they had 35 shows between January and early July, when they left for almost a month on a tour of the south and east coast.
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Bands that play out as often as Rabble Rabble has don’t usually keep it up forever. A lot of them simply wear themselves out and break up—it can be pretty tough on morale to work so hard if your crowds aren’t getting any bigger. Luckier bands get popular enough to move up to better slots on bills at larger venues, where it’s even more important to have a good draw—meaning the economics of the business discourage playing every week.
This looks to be the direction Rabble Rabble are heading. Over the past few months they’ve gone from being the band whose name you see on every flyer in town to the band you see talked about on every music blog in town—including popular outlets like Loud Loop Press and Consequence of Sound. They’ve also hit several of the other milestones you tend to see these days in the bios of up-and-coming Chicago indie-rock bands, like releasing a cassette version of their 2009 EP Jailbait on Plustapes last November, being filmed in their practice space for a Giant System video in July 2009, and racking up spins on CHIRP Radio.
“We couldn’t even see each other because there was a mattress in the middle of the room,” Darski adds.
In 2011 it’s going to be a bit harder to catch them out. They’re finally starting to dial back the frequency of their local performances, saying no to almost all of the five or six show offers Darski says they get in an average week. Since returning from tour in August they’ve played a relatively sane seven times in town. They need to avoid spreading their crowd too thin and pissing off venues—and it’s just as important to look after their own mental health.
Sat 12/18, 10:15 PM, Subterranean, 2011 W. North, 773-278-6600 or 866-468-3401, $10, 17+.
