Accessory XL at Rozz-Tox -- November 16.
Sunday, November 16, 8 p.m.
Rozz-Tox, 2108 Third Avenue, Rock Island IL
Hailed as the guitarist of Chicago's three-piece indie rock band Dehd, Jason Balla brings his super-group Accessory XL to Rock Island venue Rozz-Tox on November 16, the exhilarating bedroom-pop ensemble boasting the talents of Balla, Adam Schubert (Bnny), Nic Ghol, Kevin Fairbairn and Shiraz Bhatti (Deeper), Sarah Jane Quillin (Desert Liminal), Whitney Johnson (Matchess / Circuit Des Yeux), Chris Sutter (Meat Wave), and Eli Schmitt (TV Buddha).
As Balla told Matter News in a February interview, Accessory XL " is built to be a little more improvisational, and it’s something that feels a little more alive and ephemeral than just being up there playing this tight song. I have [an Accessory] record that I’m sitting on, and some of the songs we’re playing off of it are entirely different live. … It’s been refreshing to take those songs and sort of wander and process the emotions of the day – especially with everything that’s going on right now. Having these improvisational sections in the set as a conduit for getting some of that stuff out has really been cathartic.”
Speaking on the band, he continued, "It’s sort of a who’s who of the Chicago music scene that I came up in. So rather than bend everyone to sort of hit this blueprint I made in my room, it’s nice to let everyone develop their own interpretation. It’s always going to sound better if they’re doing what comes naturally, what comes from the heart, rather than just trying to fit to some cookie cutter, paint-by-numbers thing.
“Over the last year, there’s been so much pain in the world, and also anger and helplessness. And I know that music isn’t necessarily going to solve any problems, but it certainly is a way I can at least try to make sense of it and to interface with it, in a way. Overall, in Chicago, there’s been an emphasis on getting together. … And I know this idea isn’t new, but time and time again the systems are presenting themselves to us, like, ‘Yep, we’re still broken.’ So I think there is this circling of the wagons that happens, because your community is one immediate thing you actually have some influence and control over.”
Accessory XL performs in Rock Island on November 16 with a solo set by Desert Liminal, who will be delivering "dream-like poetry and looping vocal melody within a lush cloud of analog synth textures, alchemizing bleak memories into something beautiful and distant." Admission to the 8 p.m. all-ages show is $10 in advance and $15 at the door (cash only), and more information on the evening is available by calling (309)200-0978 and visiting RozzTox.com.
