A couple nights ago The Empty Bottle hosted one of the best nights of music I saw all year. Two Chicago bands, The Gold Web and Yoko & The Oh No’s, opened for Milwaukee’s GGOOLLDD. The excitement and fun was felt right off the bat. The Gold Web’s keyboardist/percussion player was shooting confetti all over the place. At one point balloons were released that lingered throughout the night. And that just set the mood for the Ziggy Stardust-style rock The Gold Web brought to the stage.

Yoko & The Oh No’s were every bit as enthusiastic, but toned down the stage show to let the songs speak for themselves. I’d never seen them play, and if you dig a blues/rock/dance vibe, they’re a can’t miss. The vocals sounded great in the room and the band looked like they were having a lot of fun.

GGOOLLDD started playing around midnight, so I was out well past my bedtime. It was well worth it, though. I’m only familiar with a little of their work, but I enjoyed every song they played, both old and new. Margaret Butler didn’t waste any time getting the crowd into it, sitting with her legs over the side of the stage to sing with the fans up front. If that wasn’t enough, she later jumped into the crowd to dance with some audience members.

This video might show you better than I can describe the vibe.

Shooting the show was a bit of a mess. Early on I noticed that my autofocus wasn’t working (not sure yet if it’s a real lens issue or it was just too dark or hazy in the room), so I was forced to shoot using the manual focus. Not a problem when you’re shooting a subject that isn’t moving, but a little difficult when it’s a band that’s constantly in motion.

I think they turned out ok, though. It made the first round of cuts a lot easier since a ton of the photos were at least a little blurry. I kept a few that are still pretty soft, but I liked the images anyway.