Girl at the Rock Shows

Sometimes, all it takes is a super cool promo shot to get me to a show. That’s how I found myself at First Avenue on Monday night. The promo shot for Geordie Greep showed him sitting cross-legged but not on the ground. He was elevated a few inches off the ground being held up by only one finger on each hand. It was a simple image but one that intrigued me and made me want to go and check out whatever Geordie Greep was. It wasn’t until the day of the show that I realized Nnamdï was opening the show. I adore Nnamdï and saw it as a sign that this was exactly where I was supposed to be on Monday night.

Born Nnamdi Ogbonnaya, Nnamdï is a Chicago-based musician with a sound all of his own. It’s not for everyone, I’ll be the first to admit that, and it was clear that not everyone in the quickly growing crowd at First Avenue’s legendary mainroom was catching onto what he was putting out there, but I was in love the second he took the stage. Stylistically, Nnamdï weaves between genres, including rap, rock, punk, spoken word, and indie. His sound can go from aggressive to tender in the blink of an eye, and some of his instrumentation can feel super approachable, while other moments can feel insanely abrasive. He’s the kind of musician who keeps you on your toes and is clearly putting his heart and soul out there with his music.

Nnamdï blasted through his nearly forty-minute set playing songs spanning his six-album career dating back to 2013, but it was his performance of “Sudafed” from his 2022 album ‘Please Have A Seat’ that really spoke to my soul. This song has always been a favorite of mine. It’s about having a mental breakdown while being on public transportation in Chicago. It’s a quirky song, but it’s also raw and honest. Seeing him perform it was everything I could have asked for. The song starts off simply enough, but after the line “An old man said, “Son, you’ll be okay,” Nnamdï flips a switch and delivers the next line with a sinister and metal-forward edge. “And I Yelled, “Fuck you, get outta my face!” It rang through the room and brought chills up my spine, but they were quickly soothed with the next line, “Then I apologized like immediately, and I broke down again.” It’s words like that and a delivery like what Nnamdï gave the audience on Monday night that will continue to put this fantastic performer in the forefront of my brain.

After a slightly lengthy changeover, it was time for the headliner of the night- Geordie Greep. Again, I really didn’t know anything about this man when I decided that this was the show I wanted to see on Monday night, but it didn’t take long for me to start hearing chatter as the show neared. People were talking about how excited they were to have a chance to see this brilliant musician from Black Midi after Black Midi announced an indefinite hiatus. What I know about Black Midi is minimal, but I know that I’ve seen pictures from fellow photographers and envied them. The shows looked intense and insane, but also with virtuosic music at the forefront. Was that going to be the case for a solo Geordie Greep show? We were about to find out.

I was caught off guard by the sound pumping through the speakers as Geordie and his band started playing. It was experimental and, quite frankly, strange to me (which is not a bad thing). Geordie’s vocals had a slightly Frank Sinatra crooner element to them, and the instrumentation seemed to be a jazz-forward-jam-induced, indie-tinted rock style. I know that sounds insane, but that’s the best way I could describe it. There were moments where the beat and the pattern of notes floating above said beat made sense and clicked with me, but there were other moments where I felt the layering came off as almost experimental. To add to the confusion, there were moments of primal yelling that quickly turned to more crooner-styled vocals. It was random, it was weird, it was quirky, and it was perfect.

Although I didn’t quite get the images that I had expected purely based off of the photos I had seen from past Black Midi shows, I did get swept away into Geordie’s world. Something about his performance consumed you whether you wanted it to or not. You could feel a sense of passion as he played and sang and could see the unspoken yet amazing connection that he had with his fellow musicians. On top of it all, I was absolutely enamored by the talent I was witnessing. There’s no denying that, like Nnamdï, the music of Geordie Greep isn’t for everyone, but there’s also no mistaking the fact that the talent on the stage on Monday night was insane and truly an honor to witness.

I know you aren’t supposed to judge a book by its cover, and me picking this show purely based on the promo picture is kind of like doing that, but, at the end of the night, it worked out well for me, and was the perfect way to kick off a week full of incredible live music.

Line Up:

Nnamdï

Geordie Greep

Venue: First Avenue

Smell-O-Meter: Nothing Notable

Average Age of the Crowd: 38

Crowd Surfers- None

Stage Divers- None

Mosh-ability- 1 out of 10

Amount of Beer Spilled On Me While Walking Around- 0

Broken Bones- None Noticed

Spotted Flying Through The Air- Nothing

Fights- None Witnessed

Pukers- 0

Passed Out People- 0

Idiots Taken Out By Security – 1

How Many Times I’ve Seen These Bands Before (or at least how many times I can remember)-

Nnamdï – 2

Geordie Greep – 0

Celebrity Sightings – None

Overall Score – 8 out of 10

Show on Deck — The Get Up Kids / Smoking Popes

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