I Shot the Band: Pipe Dream

By Steve Rhodes

Band: Pipe Dream

Song: I Touch Myself

YouTube Added Date: May 17, 2009

Shooter: pipedreamband

Locale: Chicago City Limits, Schaumburg

Video Quality: Generally strong, with slight focus problems offset by nicely capture color contrasts.

Sound Quality: Barely adequate, with muddy vocals and tinny guitars not doing the band any favors.

Overall Beachwood Shaky-Cam Rating: 8.5 (out of 10)

Comments: The video is stronger than the band's performance, keeping lead singer Fantasy front and center with occasional smart cuts to other band members in a way that doesn't distract from the main focus, which, in a song like this, is inevitably the performance of Fantasy.

Truth be told, Fantasy doesn't seem particularly inspired by the song and at times seems pained to have to look into the crowd while singing it. The band doesn't really bring anything but rote recitation to the selection, but the crowd seems pleased enough. This is Schaumburg, after all.

In fact, the absence of overwhelming crowd buzz and talking over the music is refreshing. The videographer also found a clear visual path with an unobstructed view of the band, which is not to be underestimated.

Out of curiosity, I checked out a live performance by the original artist, the Divinyls; an unfair comparison, I know, but still instructive. The biggest difference: the Divinyls play the song at a slower, and therefore more sultry, tempo. Pipe Dream either wanted to rock it up a little or hurry through it.

(I also found Pink's take on the song.)

I also caught Pipe Dream's take on "Seether" and then headed over to the group's website, where they bill themselves as "Chicago's best rock 'n roll cover band." I'm not so sure about that, but they list about 75 bands whose work they perform, which isn't bad, even if I could do without Alannah Myles and Meredith Brooks.

Pipe Dream's next show is at the Penny Road Pub in Barrington on June 6. You can also visit them on MySpace.

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Previously in I Shot the Band:
* Company of Thieves: At Welles Park covering OutKast.

* Funhouse: At Kankakee County's famed fish fry.

* Lady Tramaine Hawkins: High praise from the Pritzker Pavilion.

* XSNRG: Transport yourself from Cermak & Harlem to that wondrous night in 1978 at the International Amphitheater.

* The Bluesbaby. Not a bad bluesman for a 13-year-old girl from the suburbs.

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