PHOTOS BY ALEXIS WILSON-CASTALDI
"All we ever think about is sex / Nothing really matters to me now," drawled the lips of a leather jacket-clad Donald Cumming and his crew of Virgins. The words came from a new Strokes-type feet-shuffler called "Fast Times," which lived up to its name in the pit of Chicago's Schubas venue Friday night (Feb. 1), while a fleet of underage girls teased their hair with one hand and snapped digital mementos with the other.
All five Virgins tracks, with their tales of twenty-something promiscuity and big-city social cliques, flash big neon Strokes-like bulbs (albeit steeped in blues). But now that the full-length record-less quartet has had a little time to brood over what they essentially consider their demos, cuts like "Radio Christiane" and "One Week of Danger" saw some bold new cymbal and guitar fills. Like watching a teenage Stones strut through some half-assed Clash covers, the four also winked in to a funkified new intro of "Rich Girls," with Cumming confiding to the already hot-stepping crowd, "I'll tell you everything I know, every little thing I know." Show headliner Ra Ra Riot was now put in the backseat of a steamy car situation, however the six-piece cunningly etched out a seductive message with a string-driven, Cure-tinged cover of Kate Bush's "Hounds of Love." Guess Cumming was right about sex on the brain.
We asked: Word has it that Atlantic skipped the foreplay and signed the Virgins before catching a single performance. Do you have a favorite unsigned band that demands the same kind of love right now?
Name: Kristen Eide
Age: 25
Hometown: Houston, TX
Occupation: Photographer
"The Prototypes. They're from Paris and they're just fun."
Name: Mica Trivisonno
Age: 25
Hometown: Kentucky
Occupation: Music/animator
"Technicolor Stallion. They just have a charm and an expansive sound."
Name: Olympia Diamond
Age: 23
Hometown: Glen Ridge, NJ
Occupation: Assistant soccer coach
"Cake On Cake. She's lots of fun, a great performer."
Name: Bridgette Mitchell
Age: 24
Hometown: Palatine, IL
Occupation: Whole Foods associate
"My friend's in a band called Slut Barf. We need to bring back an age
where meaningless names mean fabulous music. There needs to be more
Slut Barf in the world."
Name: Dean Hespett
Age: 27
Hometown: Lincoln, NE
Occupation: Entrepreneur
"Tsunami -- they're from Lincoln. I have faith in their songwriting."
Name: Annie Sloan
Age: 18
Hometown: North Carolina
Occupation: Student
"Baby Teeth, because they have really substantial music."
Name: Royal Rarick
Age: 28
Hometown: Omaha, NE
Occupation: Grad student
"The Bonnie Situation. Don't know anything about them, but I would sign them just on the name."
Name: Julia Ciaccio
Age: 24
Hometown: Chicago, IL
Occupation: Painter
"1997 for sure, without a doubt. They sound like Mates of State, but in a more up to date sort of way."
