dish of gish: sidney gish connects with crowd at wicker park fest
Photo by Sophia Denison
By Sophia Denison
21-year-old singer-songwriter Sidney Gish lured an impressive crowd on the evening of Sunday, July 28th at Chicago’s Wicker Park Fest. This was the Boston artist’s second year in a row playing this highly anticipated indie street festival in the city. Gish set a soft, seasoned tone during her performance that wonderfully mirrored her recordings. Despite the mellow nature of her music, Gish successfully sugar-coated her songs with artistic charm and enthusiasm that certainly turned the heads of many casual listeners.
On a stage set with no more than her guitar, a few amps, a loop pedal, and a microphone, Gish showcased her incredible musicianship and talent throughout her set. Confirming her extraordinary capabilities as an artist, she built each of her songs from the ground up and only used a simple background track on a select few of her songs. She layered her own guitar, bass, and even percussion lines.
Gish opened with her song titled “Mouth Log” off of her latest album, No Dogs Allowed, released last year. This personality track gave the audience immediate insight into who she is as an artist as well as as a person. Just listening to a verse or two of this self-defining song instantly transports listeners into the mind of Gish, filled with scattered thoughts and worries of weight loss, friendships, growing up, and juggling her own overwhelming emotions. The lyrics “I’m kinda pissed if this is the real me / But at least I know who I’ve kissed and what I eat” concluded this introductory piece and gave the audience some lackadaisical self-reflection to chew on.
“Sophisticated Space” followed “I’m Filled with Steak and Cannot Dance”, both alike in their lighthearted essence. Each song was made live and entirely from scratch using her loop pedal with her guitar. She layered various guitar riffs and bass lines that eventually formed her sweet, tasty melodies. Satirical, daydream-inducing lyrics were finally drizzled on top to solidify the whimsical and intimate feel of the show. Inevitably, she ran into some minor mishaps but confidently laughed them off and continued her performance. Her realness exposing the natural imperfections of her art heightened the show’s charm and made the performance more cozy and personal.
After addressing the crowd, next on Gish’s setlist was a cover of “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)” by the Talking Heads. After some eager shouts from the crowd followed her announcement of the song, she cracked a smirk and quickly took the microphone. Her groovy rendition of this ‘80s staple was most definitely a hit. Her creative interpretation of this classic had everyone, including crowd members that were less familiar with her previous music, energetically reciting the catchy chorus.
Concluding the last half of the concert with “Rat of the City”, “Sin Triangle”, “Persephone”, and “Presumably Dead Arm”, Gish continued to thrill the crowd with her witty verses and remarkable artistry. She maintained her focus through the very end of each song, her mind often too occupied to even look up from her guitar. Her impressive multitasking abilities elevated as she consistently sang each note and every lyric flawlessly. Although her intense concentration often led to her glancing down, she still managed to keep the energy up and lay out her emotions.
At last, her set came to a close ending with her most popular song, “Not But For You, Bunny”. Like many other songs she performed, only slight modifications were made to the live version for fluency and cohesiveness. Changes such as cutting a verse or bridge were hardly noticeable and did not take away from the set as a whole.
Overall, the chill and comfortable environment made the crowd more enticed to stand and listen more than dance. At first, there were only about three rows of attentive audience members, but by the end of her last song, the explosive eruption from the crowd shocked me. I looked back to find that there was no end to the sea of new audience members. Her music blended seamlessly with the ambiance of a summer afternoon in the city, promptly drawing the attention of many casual bypassers. The vulnerability she established from early on during the concert made audience members feel a rare and deeper connection to her and her art.