The Damn Choir is mildly provocative name for a band, and that’s sort of what the music of the intense, Chicago-based folk-rock band is.
While the music has a gentle energy, frontman Gordon Robertson’s vocals and lyrics shiver with a tension and inner conflict, underpinned by religious/spiritual issues that seem to stem from trying to break through the boundaries of his fundamentalist upbringing.
The band will release its second album, Creatures of Habit, a few days before it hits the Grog Shop here. Songs like the surging “Radiator” and the pensive, deliberate “Under the Gun” with its explosive build recall the whole wave of ’90s “alternative” rockers like Live, Bush, and Our Lady Peace in the way they dramatize deeply personal emotions in showy, arena-esque gestures.
And like so many bands these days, they include a cello, giving most songs a slightly — or strongly — mournful quality.
The band includes members who have converged on the creative mecca of Chicago from all over, including Texas, Minneapolis, Indianapolis — and Cleveland. Robertson moved to Chicago from here in 2009 and subsequently formed the Damn Choir.
Welcome him home when the band plays at the Grog Shop. Filmstrip and the Judys open.
Tickets are $8 in advance, $10 day of show.