What do you get when you cross garage, punk and rock ‘n’ roll, toss in a hefty dose of manic feline vocals, and get a handful of lookers to perform it? Chicago’s go-go-don’t-stop four-piece band The Dishes.
Drummer Mike Tsoulos is the only thing keeping The Dishes from being deemed an all-out grrrrl band, but even with a little testosterone driving the beat, it’s hard not to think of the Dishes as the Go-Go’s if the Go-Go’s had stayed punk-and-proud rather than turning pretty-in-pink. Guitarist Kiki Yablon dishes the dirt.
You put out the album “1-2” on your own label, No. 89, and released the new album “3” on indie label File 13. Coincidence or obsession with numerology?
Coincidence. All the other names I could think of for my label and all the album titles we thought of with words in them seemed corny after a day or so. Our first record was called “The Dishes,” but you can only get away with that once.
Since the band’s been together, there’s been a rotating cast around you and frontwoman Sarah Staskauskas. Why the constant lineup changes–are you two big, bad tyrants?
I’ve been accused of nitpicking, but never tyranny. To my face, anyway. But, actually, for the entire recorded history of the band the core has been me, Sarah and bassist Sharon Maloy. The unstable spot has historically been the drummer, and Mike Tsoulos has been drumming with us for two years. Right now, though, Sharon is well on her way to having her first baby and it remains to be seen whether she’ll want to be part of an active band again. So [Eleventh Dream Day and Tortoise bassist] Doug McCombs is playing bass at this upcoming show.
Like any good punk band, your live shows get pretty raw. What’s the most “Johnny Rotten” a show has gotten?
At a loft party we played last month, Sarah observed how stinky her armpit was and then sort of jokingly offered to pay a dollar to whoever would lick it–and a really cute girl fan ran up and did it. She’s also mooned a crowd once or twice . . . never in Chicago but once in front of my mom in Ohio. I should add that when things like that happen at our shows they’re definitely spontaneous, and that anybody who comes out expecting Nashville Pussy-style choreography will be sorely disappointed.
The Dishes
When: 10 p.m. Friday
Price: $10
Where: Empty Bottle,
1035 N. Western Ave.
