Ty Segall Melts Thalia Hall
Thalia Hall is one of Chicago’s premiere venues, with beautiful architecture, a massive general admission area, a balcony, and two separate bars, the space makes for an excellent backdrop for the transcendent music of one Ty Segall. Making his return to Thalia Hall for the first time in a year and a half, Ty played music from his new record ‘Three Bells,’ released on Drag City records earlier this year and was featured on rotation at WLUW.
Segall was joined on this tour by the band Sharpie Smile, formerly known as Kamikaze Palm Tree. The band is composed of Dylan Hadley on vocals and drums, and Cole Berliner on guitar. The duo is joined on tour by Sophie Shely on keys and Rayla Delanova on bass. These members come together to create and perform extremely esoteric, featuring various levels of distortion on almost every instrument, accompanied by strange lyrics. The song Flamingo is an example of this, with lyrics like ‘I miss you so, my flamingo,’ paired with an almost stop-and-start instrumental, featuring a wood-block or cowbell kind of percussion. The band ended their set with The Hit, which starts out like a kind of rock-and-roll carnival tune, but takes a dive into a distorted guitar solo and finished with an all-encompassing jam.
Ty Segall has been releasing music as a solo act and as a part of various bands for almost 20 years. Segall’s first self titled record was released on Castle Face Records after John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees was made aware of his music, and since then, Ty Segall has defined the sound of garage and psychedelic rock, while dipping his toes into hard rock, metal and more. Segall is joined on tour by The Freedom Band, consisting of Mikal Cronin on bass, Charles Moothart on drums, Emmett Kelly on guitar and Ben Boye on keys.
Segall played multiple songs from his most recent release, including The Bell, Void, and Hi Dee Dee. The new album employs a very mystical sound, with each song sounding like the soundtrack to a witch’s incantation. It felt as if a mystical force was emanating from Segall’s guitar, and entrancing the audience, forcing them to sway back and forth. Occasionally, Segall would bust into a soaring guitar jam, causing the audience to shift all attention towards him and his guitar.
Segall also played a healthy mix of older songs, including Waxman and Imaginary Person. The former uses juxtaposing guitar sounds to create depth in the song, with a very crunchy and visceral rhythm guitar section from Kelly, but a very compressed and clean lead guitar from Segall. The two bounce off of eachother with the kind of resonance that can only come from playing together for such a long time. Imaginary Person takes a more garage-based approach, almost dipping into a surf-rock sound. The song deals with themes of reality and trust, Segall sings “You are an imaginary person, you’re in my head, but I am certain you are real.” The instrumentation after the chorus sounds almost like an old mystery or ghost movie, leaning further into the supernatural feel that Segall’s music elicits.
Segall concluded the set with an encore, featuring the songs My Lady’s On Fire and Melting. My Lady’s On Fire was an excellent fit for the encore, as the song feels like a long goodbye to someone you once knew. The echoing lyrics of ‘No, no, no no no no, no no,’ reverberated throughout Thalia Hall as the crowd swung back and forth like pendulums. The night ended with the title track from 2010’s Melted. The song builds back up what the previous song broke down, and exploded into a garage jam that melted the faces of all in attendance. The short song capped off the night, and the audience erupted in adoring applause.
Ty Segall is wrapping his U.S. tour in Sacramento this weekend, and will be continuing the tour overseas in Europe through the summer. You can also keep up with his music on his Instagram.