Fri, Mar 6 - 9pm - $10

Classic soul meets rock and roll in this dynamic eight-piece collective from Chicago. The Congregation features Gina Bloom, a singer whose raw and powerful vocals are underscored by Charlie Wayne’s dynamic guitar riffs, the band’s rock and soul rhythm section and the lively call and response of a three-piece horn section. When it comes to the songwriting, you won’t find any sugarcoated love songs here–you’ll get a little bit of longing and a whole lot of wronging.While the 2012 release of "Right Now Everything" marked the band’s full-length album debut, The Congregation has been steadily gaining steam since the release of its seven-song EP, "Not for Sleepin", in late 2010. The band was named by the Chicago Tribune as one of “11 Bands to Watch in 2011” and was featured in Paste Magazine as one of “10 Illinois Bands You Should Listen to Now”. The Congregation’s stop-and-take-notice sound and electrifying live sets have earned the group the opportunity to share bills with acclaimed artist such as Wilco, Andrew Bird, the Flaming Lips and Buddy Guy! The band has also been featured on the small screen--performing on ABC7's "Windy City Live", WGN's "Music Lounge", Science Channel's "Through The Wormhole with Morgan Freeman" and an upcoming episode of BBC's "Horizon" set to air this spring. The Congregation is currently placing the finishing touches on its upcoming album release,"Record Collection".

“We call it American Gypsy, because it wanders but isn’t lost. Its a tramp, you can’t get lost when you’re in love with where you are.”Formed in 2011, songwriter/director Antony Ablan began his search for a band–a group of musicians that could handle, with grace, the wildly eclectic and dynamic changes in mood of his writing. “It was several months of working with all sorts of great players before I found the right fit. When it clicked it was so obvious to me, I knew these were the right musicians, it finally worked.”The virtuosic group developed quickly. “Once it clicked, things moved fast,” says Antony. The band soon found themselves headlining Chicago’s most notable venues, from Schubas to Lincoln Hall, to The Empty Bottle. They embarked on their first national tour in the fall of 2011, earning notoriety for their explosive live shows all the down to Texas and back. Swinging from gentle sunshine ditties to wild soaring epics, to dirty garage floor american gypsy, The Tramps had come into their own.Upon returning to Chicago, full of fire, they began recording their ambitious debut album. Over 6 winter months, the band created a completely independent, full length album. Its not a studio album, and its not a live record. Making use of portable recording gear they were able to record anywhere, at any time, with unbound freedom to experiment with sound for their anticipated debut.“We had two guiding concepts for this album,” Antony says. “We wanted the texture to be ‘wooden-electric’, and we wanted the narrative and imagery to be a ‘movie for your ears’. The band brought on engineer Matt Livensparger to realize their vision. Matt recalls: “When he called me at 4 in the morning to tell me the album needed to sound wooden-electric, I knew exactly what he meant. Antony came to me with concepts, textures, feeling, scenes for this album, but he isn’t a technical person, so I stepped in to make those ideas into sound–the mic placements, the room choices, and so on. He’d direct the music and musicians with imagery and emotion, never musical or technical terms. I was there to capture these amazing musicians performing.”The band recorded the album like making a movie, choosing locations to suit the scene. Enormous recital halls, warehouse hallways, cavernous train underpasses, intimate bedrooms, tiny closets. “We weren’t stuck in the studio trying to fake it, we could choose the room like choosing an instrument, and it affected the musician, it evoked something in us that inspired the music, inspired the scene we were recording,” Antony says.The result is stunning debut for the Chicago band. A full 63 minutes of original music that takes the listeners through wide open prairie scenes, bustling big-city streets, ragged American-gypsy grooves, intimate soulful pleas, soaring climatic instrumentals, and for the final moment of the album, a heavenly a capella choir that sends the listener endlessly upwards. The album is captivating journey from start to finish.“Its been an incredible process creating it, both in its challenges and finally, its success. None of us have created anything like this before,” says Antony.