Last night I finally had the opportunity to see The Wind And The Wave play live in Chicago. There have been many near misses over the past few years, as they’ve come to town many times while I was either away or busy the nights they were here. I made the trek up to Evanston to finally check this one off my list. I was a big fan of their 2014 album, From The Wreckage, which landed at number 30 on my Top 50 Albums of 2014.

They put out another good one in 2016 called Happiness Is Not A Place, which features a really great track called “Skin And Bones.” They’ve also released some covers over the last couple years. They even have a brand new album they just finished that they’re selling on tour but not to the public yet. It’s called Human Beings Let You Down and the songs they played from it are great.

Playing live, the songs are a lot more fun than they are on records. Probably the combination of having a full band on stage with them and the energy from the crowd. It’s great to hear Patty and Dwight riff off each other a bit, so you get the sense that they really do have great chemistry. Dwight got off a couple good jokes, but my favorite was when he explained how badly he mangled one of the song titles at a show, only to get it even more wrong.

The Chicago stop fell in the middle of their current tour, which goes through March 15th. Check out their website for the upcoming dates. If they’re going to be near you, I definitely recommend checking them out. They finished off their set with an electrifying cover of The Killers’ “When You Were Young” that allowed the guitar player who spent most of the night in the shadows to really have a moment and shine.