The Academy Is…, Empires, Snakes & Suits Acoustic Tour—Urbana, IL

With a slight change in lineup to accommodate This Providence’s touring schedule, The Academy Is… appeared at the Red Herring in Urbana, IL on April 10th with Evan Taubenfeld and Empires opening the sold-out show.

The Red Herring, a remodeled Unitarian church, gave the performers a lovely backdrop of polished wood and stained glass (see left), which complemented Bill Beckett’s chosen Dickensian ambiance nicely. The venue also offers excellent acoustics, making the sound much more layered than that at the previous show I attended in Denver.

After seeing the Denver stop, I wasn’t looking forward to Evan Taubenfeld’s set, but he surprised me. His presentation is still too talky for my tastes, but he had cut that back a bit and demonstrated some serious guitar-playing chops. He even rolled out a short requests session, playing snippets from several songs by a variety of artists before segueing into his own “Boy Meets Girl.”

For me, the highlight of the evening was Empires. An unsigned band from Chicago, Empires has self-released their own first CD, which is available for free download at their website, weareempires.com. Go download it. I’ll wait.

The five-man band was pared down to three members—Sean Van Vleet on vocals (and tambourine), with Tom Conrad (above) and Max Steger on guitar. Van Vleet’s performance was high-energy and involving as he belted out songs from their CD “Howl” (have you downloaded it? Why not? I told you to…). His intense vocal attack and the powerful guitar backup proved an effective showcase even for songs that on the CD are driven by Ryan Luciani’s drums. Genuinely earnest and appreciative of the audience, this band really won me over, and I was already a fan.

With Adam Siska in Chicago awaiting surgery on a hand injury, Bill Beckett tackled his set solo. His setlist was slightly different than it was in Denver, but still provided a nice mix of older songs, new songs, and covers, as well as two B-sides from previous albums. Beckett is a consummate showman, turning even a dropped pick into an entertaining moment. His soaring voice and emotional delivery draw the audience in even on these stripped-down sets, and his earnest storytelling adds depth to his performance rather than detracting from it. He also gave us a brief rundown of what had happened to Siska, who apparently sustained his injury defending a "damsel in distress."

The show ended at 10:30, making for an early night. Beckett and Van Vleet both met fans and signed autographs at the merchandise table afterwards to round off a highly entertaining evening.