Chicago's Verböten reunites for Riot Fest gig — their first show in 41 years
Riot Fest has been known to nab some pretty great reunion sets over the years — Slayer, The Replacements, Jawbreaker and Naked Raygun, to name a few.
Now, Verböten can add themselves to that impressive shortlist.
On Saturday, the legendary Evanston punk band (formed in 1982 when they were just kids) played their first show in 41 years on the Cabaret Metro Stage. The Chicago Sun-Times caught up with the band (singer Tracey Bradford, guitarist/singer Jason Narducy, bassist Chris Kean and newly initiated drummer John Carroll) afterwards to talk about the decision to reform as adults, their first-ever album coming in October and acting as musical inspiration for a young Dave Grohl.
Tracey Bradford: I've been a hospice nurse the last 17 years and I do pediatric home therapy for medically fragile children.
Chris Kean: I'm a public school teacher. I've been teaching for 30 years. I did nine years for CPS at Lincoln Park High School and now I'm in Highland Park.
John Carroll: I've played drums in various bands like 88 Fingers Louie, Mucca Pazza, Paper Mice, all local Chicago bands. And now Verböten. But I'm also a public school teacher, with CPS for seven years and currently in Evanston where this guy [Chris] went to middle school. I'm also the band director there.
Jason Narducy: We were approached by a friend who does festivals in California who put the idea in our heads. I talked to Tracey and Chris first and I was surprised [they were interested] because they haven't been playing music for a long time. But I thought this could be interesting. We don't have enough music to play a full set and the music we have is stuff I wrote when I was 11, so I figured maybe I should write new songs, too. We started working on a new record and the timing worked out perfectly to play Riot Fest. Our record comes out October 4, we are playing SPACE — our first hometown show in Evanston in 41 years — on October 5 and it's just very exciting. I'm thrilled with how this set [at Riot Fest] just went. We worked really hard and practiced a lot.
Most of the music you played today was brand-new — you picked just one "oldie'" with "He's A Panther." Do you have plans to bring out the older material again?
CK: When we play at SPACE, we're going to play a bunch of that stuff. I mean the songs are like a minute long so even if we do a medley it's going to be like four minutes of material.
the Verböten musical
JN: What kept happening was that people kept telling us this is a great story. Dave Grohl put us in his 'Sonic Highways' HBO show, he wrote a book called "Storyteller," and there's an entire chapter about Tracey and Verboten. There's a new addended version of "Come As You Are,"the Nirvana book, with a new page about Verböten, the band and the musical . The musical happened because a playwright saw 'Sonic Highways.' But then I was on Seth Meyers' [late-night show] last December promoting an entirely different thing and the producers just wanted to talk about Verböten. It just kept being like people want to know about us."
JN: I mean he can audition but we have a great drummer.
TB: John's pretty badass.
JC: He's my kind of guy, too. I saw Nirvana when I was 14 at the Aragon, during the "In Utero" tour.
TB: It's funny I'd show Dave pictures of the band now and he's like who's the beast?
JC: He's called me a big beast ... but I'll take it.
You have a new song you played today called "No More Indecision." What's the meaning of that song and what are you focusing on writing about as adults?
JN: It's about climate change. I wrote the music and it just felt so indignant and I was just thinking about what space we are in in the world right now, no more indecision, no more negotiating, we've got to get this done.
TB: It's totally different. ... it's issues of today, it's about making a difference today. ... We have to care. I want a better world.
Where do you plan on taking Verböten into the future?
