Concert Review: The Automatic

The Automatic
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Subterranean
Chicago, IL
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I opted to see the Automatic (or as they were billed in America, The Automatic Automatic, due to some nebulous name conflict) in a late night, $10 show largely because I really liked two of their songs, Raoul and Monster, off their otherwise OK but not phenomenal album, Not Accepted Anywhere. And from their All Music Guide capsule, I'd envisioned them to be arty, if not somewhat dorky. But I was pleasantly surprised with how good, and mostly straightforward they were. Their singer/bassist was a large, affable kid named Robin Hawkins who wasn't at all what I expected, though they did have a hyperkinetic keyboardist, Alex Pennie, to provide a bit of what I did expect. Anyway, they were much more of a straightforward, rock band who made the songs sound better than they did on the album and really impressed me beyond their two best songs (solid hits in the UK). They only played 45 minutes to less then 50 people, but those there wanted more so it was a bit disappointing that they didn't play an encore to really end the night right.