"On April 26, deep in the heart of Evanston, long after sundown, some serious queerness went down: the inauguration of the Nevin's Live/Windy City Times & WC Radio Music Series. How Nevin's booking wizard Mitch Marlow pulled this together, I'll never know, but somehow he got three of the strongest gay talents on one stage. Dylan Rice (whose CD is due later in the year), the Ellen Rosner Band (still fresh from the release of Count to 3) and John Kamys (who recorded his set for a live CD) all turned in exemplary sets, each full of surprises."

"1.  The Ellen Rosner Band. Right after I reviewed Count to 3 in March, I stopped playing it because it drove me nuts. It's a reputation-making recording...a CD so pure emotionally and musically that it cleans the brain on six or seven levels simultaneously. That it's about the peaks and depths of romantic love makes it cut even deeper. Richard Thompson sang "Read About Love," but Count to 3 is about first-hand experience. It's a front-seat ride through a carnival fun house of love without the sentiment and all of the immediacy; love at its most cynical and unjaded."

"Seeing the Rosner Band doing whole chunks of "3" for the third time in two months was an education on chemistry and cohesion. To witness bassist Tony Stompanato, guitarist Tom Valenzano and drummer Chuck Harling bite into the material with crack precision and unbridled fury is always a pleasure. Rosner herself, sexy as all get out in a silk pajama top, hair flying and at the top of her game, stuck out like an obvious jewel."

"Opening with "Month of Sundays," the best pre-summer single in years, and closing with "Vacancy," the set was such an emotional spin that it resembled a sugar rush. "Vacancy" in particular...one of Count to 3's highlights with its aroma of needy desperation, unguarded vulnerability, and Rosner's haunting sustained cries into the night was both gorgeous and scary."

"2.  Dylan Rice. The last time I saw him he was alone on stage with just a guitar and he wore me out. This time he brought a full band (guitarist Matt Neuroth, bassist Mark Vignaroli, and drummer John Van-Bladel) and not only wore me out but beat me senseless as well. On my first observation I couldn't imagine him with a full band because his arrangements were so perfectly placed that solo he was completely fulfilling. Add to this his lyrical craftsmanship and a voice of such arresting beauty, that, like Rosner, he effortlessly can make the hair on the back of your neck stand up."

"So the full band treatment of "I Do and I Don't," about a reckless philandering father from the wife's point of view, was not only painful lyrically but had a numbing punch of drama like the instant of impact in a car crash. Brutal, searing, and scary, it's the side of love you never want to receive, or be irresponsible enough to dish out. "One Pure Thing," a demand for truth, was just as good...a spit-flying universal rocker that was appropriately angry and relevant."

"More telling was Rice's cover of Chris Isaack's "Wicked Game." Solo and acoustic, it was a nightmare of guilty desire, but here it was, a chugging rocker with frayed edges, closing with a frat boy take on Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London." Madness and mirth (?), this man is telling us something."

"3.  John Kamys. Last year's Guns was probably the best unreleased CD of the decade. A non-stop gem of such variety and pure pop craftsmanship that like Count to 3 it feels like a career maker. When I saw the Guns show last fall, Kamys was augmented with a full band, a trio of back-up singers, and a string section. This time he came with Scared Straight...a sloppy, thrashing quartet resembling the Ramones with better haircuts. With tony credentials (Kamys has won a Jeff and does a lot of music for theater), the expectation was of a show of pop finesse and subtlety. Wrong."

"Hitting the stage wired and with a bottle of hooch in a brown paper bag, Kamys' set was a blistering hayride of savage lewdness. A hilarious hot-air blast of good-natured bawdiness and leering humor that summoned up the spirits of the Divine Ms. M. and Screamin' Jay Hawkins. This was the kind of wild saucy fun that you're supposed to get at gay bars, but don't anymore."

"Where Rosner and Rice took you to hell and back, Kamys attacked romance from a demented but truthful angle. "I Will Destroy You" was a blatant valentine/warning to a new lover that made more sense in this day of cynical romance than anything I've heard in ages. "Here Comes Your Hearse" was such a blunt satirical spin on barebacking that the obviousness of the humor made it stinging. My favorite, "You Smell Like Dinner" was both lewdly suggestive and savagely lusty. But the humor in all of it (especially "Dinner") was not what Kamys said, but how he said it. Like Midler's live version of "Long John Blues," Kamys' delivery was pungent without a word of vulgarity: the fun of it was watching him make perfectly innocent words sound positively filthy."

"Heads up! Three Dollar Bill will perform at The Note, 1565 N. Milwaukee, May 8. It will be their Summer Fiesta Show."

John Kamys, Dylan Rice and Ellen Rosner. Photos by Vern Hesterquot;

Article © copyright 2002 Windy City Times