After hearing Catfish Haven’s new record, Devastator (Secretly Canadian), I went back and listened to their two EPs and their first full-length, trying to figure out how anybody had ever pegged them as an indie-rock band. Turns out I’d remembered those discs as poppier than they really are—these guys are so deep into 70s rock that they make their retro-loving labelmates Jason Molina and David Vandervelde look like futurists. Though they’ve got scruffy Logan Square facial hair and they’re not nearly old or jaded enough for the job, they sound like they ought to be playing a weekly gig at a blue-collar suburban bar, not a record-release party at Metro.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Maybe we all got fooled by Catfish Haven’s modest, unflashy approach—in the past they’ve favored a stripped-down trio setup and made heavy use of acoustic guitar. No chance of that here: for the new one the band chucked that MO out the window and instead went for a massive, electrified retro-rock sound. If their early material was like a sensitive country boy who’d moved to the city, Devastator is like that boy’s older brother back home, with his Camaro parked proudly in front of his double-wide.
Catfish Haven have never sweated their image, but still, this is ballsy: they’ve gone from “not necessarily trying to seem cool” all the way to “very possibly totally uncool.” Though Seger’s raw late-60s recordings with the Bob Seger System have been decreed awesome by crate-digging garage freaks, no self-respecting music snob has ever admitted to liking his popular stuff. The band crowds the stage with auxiliary members—at the last show I saw, I think there were five extra musicians up there—but not in the way that’s trendy in indie rock, with that communitarian “Hey, everybody, let’s put on a show!” kind of vibe. Catfish Haven brings in hired guns to deliver studio-grade support and pays them all by the gig. At their show this Saturday, the core three-piece—Hunter, bassist Miguel Castillo, and drummer Ryan Farnham—will be joined by TK BACKING VOCALISTS, TK HORN PLAYERS, TK KEYBOARDIST OR OTHERS, and Mike Lust of Tight Phantomz on lead guitar.
sharp darts
Sat 10/11, 9 PM, Metro, 3730 N. Clark, 773-549-0203, $10, 18+.
