Recapturing Youth with Beach Fossils and Turnover
Photos and Article by Josie Stahler
On a peculiarly warm November night in Chicago, Beach Fossils, Turnover and Sword II arrived to play a sold out show at Metro for the Bunny Record Release tour. The lineup was bound to bring an exciting evening of mellow tunes and youthful reminiscing.
Sword II opened the show, a moody complement to the music that would play later. Their music has this mystifying shoegaze feel, with vocals that are otherworldly. Mari González (bass and vocals), Travis Arnold (guitar and vocals), Corey Zuko (guitar and vocals) and José “Frio” Izaquirre (drums and vocals) create an atmosphere on stage, performing as a melded unit that captures audience members. Tracks off their recent release, Spirit World Tour, were featured alongside other tracks off their EP, Between II Gardens. Their song, “First Rule of the Bug” feels particularly contemplative and would be a great song to put in rotation for the cold winter ahead.
Not long after Sword II, projections flashed across the stage signaling the start of Turnover’s set. The band was greeted with effervescent warmth by fans as they took the stage. Visuals of the band playing beneath filters projected onto a screen, transforming them into Etch A Sketch figures and colorful caricatures. Austin Getz (guitar, keyboard, vocals), Casey Getz (drums), Danny Dempsey (bass) and Nick Rayfield (guitar) played a mix of their discography, from the cozy “Super Natural” to last year’s collaboration “Myself in the Way” with Turnstile’s Brendan Yates. The band expressed their love for the city of Chicago and Metro throughout the set. “The first time we played [Metro] was in 2011,” Getz explains to audience members. How times have changed since. They closed with “Take My Head” off their 2015 album Peripheral Vision, which is equal parts reflective and grungy. Watching their set was a big hug to the teenage years.
Finally it was time for Beach Fossils to take the stage. The band opened with “Don’t Fade Away” off their latest record, Bunny. The song has a chorus dripping with honey-sweet instrumentation and soft spoken lyrics of love, lust or somewhere in between. Dustin Payseur (vocals, guitar), Tommy Davidson (guitar), Jack Doyle Smith (bass), and Anton Hochheim (drums) brought the energy for audience members, playing with vigor under a haze of colorful lights. Payseur on multiple occasions said he was excited to be there, and jokingly hoped Jeremy Allen White from Chicago-set show The Bear was in the crowd. The band played a good mix of their discography, from their 2013 hit “Sleep Apnea” to the trippy “Sugar” which hadn’t been played on tour in a while according to the band. At the end of their set audience members craved more, feeling an emotional high from the nostalgic tunes.
Inside Metro Beach Fossils, Turnover and Sword II delivered a pleasant feeling that comes with recalling memories of youth. Bunny talks cigarettes, bike rides and staying up until the sun rises, and for a moment audience members were living in it. Youth recaptured no matter the age via a musical pipeline. The night left everyone feeling warm and satisfied.
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