CHIRP: Chicago Independent Radio Project

Posted by Dustin D. on August 18, 2008 around 10am

In the mid 90s, amongst a small and relatively cool group of my friends there was this whole anglophile divide between fans of Oasis and fans of Blur. I was most definitely in the Blur camp, as I felt they were much more weird and punky than their middle of the road competitors. Somewhere in all that Brit-Rock fever was the band Elastica who released their self-titled album in 1995. I’ll readily admit that I thought Connection was an incredibly fun and catchy song made even more appealing by the fact that I found Elastica’s lead singer Justine to be incredibly dreamy.

The group played a show in Chicago on June 3rd of 1995, which I sadly did not attend. I did however attend their 2nd show that year, which was on October 31st at the Metro. This was in the days of my overzealous youth, so of course I arrived as soon as doors opened, and staked my front row realty. Near the end of the show, Justine invited the crowd to join the band on stage, and she reached her hand down to help me up. The stage filled quickly and as the band tore into Connection I jumped around like a madman….giddy with the excitement of dancing on stage with Justine. Years later, in a box of old papers, I found that I had snagged the setlist from the stage that night, and I present it to you here.