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Life is a Cabaret

Gallery Cabaret hosts a showcase with soul.

Friday Jul 21, 2006.     By Ben Rubenstein

Music Feed

"I like to get high and just read the atlas, you know?" This is one of the first things I overhear upon settling down in a chair near the tiny stage at the Gallery Cabaret. If the brick exterior, dim lighting and unique decorations (a giant fake pencil, eerie clown art and what look to be distorted portraits of Joyce, Poe and Ferlinghetti above the bar) hadn't already convinced me that this was my kind of place, this quote has pretty much sealed the deal.

There's some sort of live music at this Bucktown establishment every night of the week, from the Sunday Recording Series (where you can get a CD of your performance) to the Tuesday night blues jam with Fish and the Blue Fins. But Wednesdays belong to Garrett Lane, the burly host of the singer/songwriter showcase, a cheerful man who's single-handedly bringing back the "bald head with rat tail" look (word is he also possesses a rockin' falsetto).

Garrett seems to know pretty much everyone in the bar, and if you don't know him, you probably will soon. He introduces the performers, most of whom use his own Taylor guitar, and lip-synchs along to many of their songs (all originals; "this isn't cover night," he explains to an audience member who asks for a Lennon tune). Technically, each singer is allotted three, maybe four songs, but it's a loose rule; often, Garrett will shout out a hearty "play one more!" if he decides the crowd is digging it.

The whole event feels less like a showcase and more like a group of friends getting together to play their songs for one another. Apart from blues singer Nate Marsh, who promotes his CD as a way for the crowd to "support my drug and alcohol habit," there's little evidence that anyone is playing here for any personal gain.

It's not hard to feel welcome, either. Soon after sitting down, my friend Dave and I are offered communal popcorn, and like everybody else, we have to dodge Enzo, the fast-footed black lab who scampers around the bar, fetching his slobber-encrusted tennis ball for whoever has decided to indulge her. Linda, one of the performers, even borrows Dave's cellphone to record a lyric she's just composed on her own voicemail. It may bear a strong resemblance to something Stephen Stills once wrote, but we let it pass.

Much of the musical fare here could be described as country, but that can't really capture the breadth and energy of the performances. From William's dark, rambling stories to Nancy's contemplative, romantic ballads, the night is truly a showcase for the varying inspirations of the everyday Chicagoan.

The most memorable performance comes from Pat O'Keefe, the wry storyteller who belongs on a kids show somewhere. After leading off his set with a tale about his pet cog ("the head of a cat and the body of a dog"), he proceeds to instruct an unknown caretaker to embalm him with cookie dough so as to appease the worms who feed on his dead body. His closing tune, the nostalgic "Sesame Street Revival," includes this couplet (apologies for any mistakes, Pat): "Some people say that Bert and Ernie are gay/who really cares about that, anyway?/They're just a couple of puppets on sticks/they don't have _____ and they don't have _______."

As I said before, this is my kind of place.

The Gallery Cabaret, 2020 N. Oakley, hosts (mostly) free live music every night of the week, as well as daily beer specials.

Ben Rubenstein jumps under the covers every other week in an ongoing search for freebie music that rocks. If you know of a no-cover night he should check out, email him.