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(Live Review) KING BUFFALO + JR. PARKS - Chicago, IL (1/25/25)

Welcome friends, fans, and followers to the third episode and first rock/metal event of the 2025 season. After episode two’s visit to the land of Yacht Rock almost caused my partner Little Johnny to quit and move to Canada to work for our former boss, your hirsute reviewer knew he had better book something heavier for our next show.

    

So, despite my dislike for Chicago staple, The Empty Bottle, nevertheless off we went to see one of the current best bands in the sub-genre of psyche/rock, Rochester’s own King Buffalo, with support from acoustic act Jr. Parks.

    

Now, a little background as to why I dislike attending shows at The Empty Bottle. This establishment is (in truth) a rather excellent example of a classic “dive bar.” It’s old, it’s dingy, it’s grimy, the restrooms are small and all gender. There are no seats during a show, and they pack them in like sardines, so it is stuffy, hot, and uncomfortable.

      

Little Johnny can thrive in that kind of environment, but the Beard is old and does not do well standing shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of other people for hours and hours. Once upon a time that was okay, but now…not so much. It was a credit to how much I enjoy and respect King Buffalo’s music that I would even go here for a show.

    

Now, with that said, there were some great points to attending a dive bar show. One was prices. Tickets were a mere twenty-five bucks. CD’S were selling for ten bucks, and T-Shirts were twenty to twenty-five, so after enduring the gun-less highway robbery prices of major acts, (where they straight-faced tell you fifty bucks for a concert t-shirt and then actually think you might add a tip), Empty Bottle shows are hugely fair about pricing and I rewarded that with two shirt purchases and a tip to the guy selling them all night long.

    

A second great point is bar pricing. Now, do not expect fancy drinks with sprigs of parsley in them at this place, but the evening’s King Buffalo special included an Old Style, a shot of bar level bourbon, and a slice of sausage pizza for eight bucks.

    

Generally, in Chicago you cannot get a bottle of water for eight bucks, so this was an excellent deal and Little Johnny, and I availed ourselves of the opportunity. While Old Style is definitely NOT my brand, when in Rome, (or in this case, if you are in a dive bar anyway), then drink like it.

    

Empty Bottle is a late club meaning the opening act did not start until 9:00pm. By this point it was already quite crowded, and Johnny and I agreed that while he would be right up against the raised stage front, I would hang back a few rows where I could lean against a stairs railing and see over the main standing crowd.


 King Buffalo live review   


JR. PARKS

Opening act Jr. Parks has been a staple of the Chicago scene, (and the Empty Bottle venue), for a decade. Parks normally plays bass in the band All Them Witches which mixes blues, stoner, psyche, and southern rock and has a great Chicago based following. This evening though he simply came on stage with a single acoustic guitar and played southern folk style songs.

    

Parks has a particular tonal quality that works with his genre and his tales of sadness and woe painted musical landscapes of the deep South. Like a New Orleans Bob Dylan, his 40-minute set was engaging and received good crowd support. Parks even elicited humor when he stated that he had forgotten how one of his songs started and a fan helpfully shouted out, “1..2..3.”

    

The Beard found the Parks set enjoyable, although I do not think I would have wanted it any longer than it was given the crushing crowd, and I did all I could to stretch and move a bit during the short changeover. I am awarding this solo acoustic act an 82/100.

    

Johnny was lukewarm saying “He has a pretty good voice Beard but when does the rock part start?”

 


KING BUFFALO   

Fortunately, that would only be about twenty-five minutes later as King Buffalo took the stage by just after 10:00pm.

KING BUFFALO live Chicago, IL 2025
KING BUFFALO live Chicago, IL 2025

Having been together just over ten years, the trio of musicians making up King Buffalo have already released six albums and several splits and/or EP’s, so they have a lot of material to work from.

      

Vocalist, guitarist, and synth player Sean McVey flanked by bassist Dan Reynolds, and Scott Donaldson on drums, wasted no time kicking right into “Hours” and “Mercury” from their Regenerator release. This was one I did not own and therefore did not know either song. In King Buffalo fashion though they created the psyche/space rock kind of songs I have loved from their previous albums.

    

Third they performed “Grifter” from 2021’s The Burden of Restlessness, (which I did know but honestly it is not one of my favorite King Buffalo albums, so I don’t listen to it that often). The band though was now fully warmed up and next up was “Shadows” from 2021’s masterpiece album Acheron. There is not one poor song on that release and the layered guitar soundscapes with the chilling lyrics and Richard Wright Pink Floyd-esque keyboard stylings were fantastic to see and hear live.

    

They would follow that with “Eye of the Storm” which is the standout track from earlier release 2018’s Longing to be the Mountain. When I first heard this one years ago, I knew this band could be great within this specific style of music.

    

“Balrog” was a new song and although I like the title, (the Beard being a Tolkien fan), in the live setting I was unable to clearly hear the lyrics. Although the “wavy” live sound was good for King Buffalo’s psyche stylings, McVey’s lyrics were not real clear and if you did not already know them, this was not the best opportunity to learn them.

    

Going back to their very first release 2016’s Orien, they played “Goliath” which was another one I was unfamiliar with, but next up was “Kerosene” (which is the best song off their first album and decidedly influenced their intended musical direction).

    

“Centurion” was from an EP that I do not own and had therefore only heard on Pandora streaming. They then wound down the set with a favorite of mine from their Burden of Restlessness release “The Knocks”, before ending it with the long jam from Regenerator called “Firmament.”

    

Although the crowd hung out a while chanting for an encore, one was not forthcoming, and we made our way out the doors and headed back home. Little Johnny said he enjoyed the jam session feel of many of the songs, but lamented that psyche/stoner metal really does not lend itself to mosh or surf style crowd involvement.

    

As for me, I really enjoy both that style of metal and especially how King Buffalo performs it. For me, their music is the equivalent of sliding down a tunnel of ever-changing imagery, kind of like the introduction of that classic sci-fi show Doctor Who.

    

The magic is, King Buffalo knows how to intensify, reduce, and/or change lanes on their riffs at just the right time to keep the ride exciting. If you hear a song from them however and you do not enjoy it, chances are King Buffalo are NOT your kind of band because that is the style they operate in.

  

For me, they are masters of timing and flow, and I enjoy experiencing them and their music. I am also happy to keep going to see them in a live setting, but perhaps not at the stand and sweat Empty Bottle-type venues. I am, however, awarding King Buffalo my “Crack a Cold One” status with an early 2025 season grade of 93/100.

    


As always, we thank The Mighty Decibel for running our material, we also say thank you for being a follower and sticking with us in our new mode of reviewing anything and everything. We hope those of you who are already loyal followers spread the word and bring in new people. Remember it is now NOT just metal. Tune in regularly and often to enjoy reviews of music, plays, dinners, alcohol pairings and much much more.

    

Remember our TikTok site at thebeard0728 will always have the latest videos of shows, and of course our Facebook sites, Mark McQueen for the wordy reviews like this one, and  thebeardandlittlejohnny for less words and more rock centric material with constant updates of never-before-seen pictures and videos along with articles and more.

    

Finally, be sure to check out our website thebeardandlittlejohnnyreviews.com for occasional new content and links to the mighty decibel for all our archived material.

    

That does it for episode three and so until next time, this is the Beard & Little Johnny saying, Live Life, Stay Heavy & Horns Up.  

  

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