THE CONSOLATION
Kathy, Steve and Mat have been making music together for twenty years.
It started in 1993 when Steve and Mat, along with Jim Arrigo and Joe Rogers got together to record a demo of Mat’s songs. During the process a band had come into being, and the group decided to move forward.
When Joe decided he could not commit to the project, the group went searching for a new bass player, and found her right under their noses. While not a bass player proper, Kathy had played bassoon in her high school band, and rightfully, figuring that if she could play bassoon she could play bass, they asked her to join. For her decision to join she was given a recording of some demos and an old bass guitar and told to get busy.
Get busy she did. Her fingers quickly caught up with her knowledge of music, and the band got moving. Of course, they needed a name, and after a long and tedious process they got one. Sylvia Said.
Sylvia played around Chicago for many years at the usual places: Beat Kitchen, Elbo Room, Empty Bottle, The Abbey, and many clubs now long gone. Years of practice, booking, writing, and fighting took its toll. The band got restless and eventually lost their drummer. But, that did not last long.
The three decided to move on, and put Steve, their star guitar player, on drums. The name of this combo, after an off hand comment during an earlier rehearsal, was WAD.
WAD stormed forward with piss and vinegar. A leaner, meaner version of Sylvia Said, they made musical progress with this stripped down trio. Steve’s drumming seemed to powerfully communicate the new material. They started playing out and recorded a demo. All signs were moving up, and then life stepped in.
By this point the members had grown up. Real life began to overtake the importance of the band, and it seemed like it was time to let it go. Give up the dream, sure, but the music… she never leaves you.
Kathy took up steady gigging with several local bands, including the highly regarded Paddy Go Easy featuring Finbarr Fagan. Mat upgraded his studio from multi-track cassette to Protools digital, and committed to writing and recording. Steve was constantly working with other musicians, and putting together interesting combinations of players.
They reformed for a one off show for the release of Mat’s solo CD “Tin Two Star Moon”, and completely entertained the crowd with a mix of the new and old songs. The magic was still there, but the opportunity to continue was not.
C’est la vie.
Mat later joined a solid lineup that Steve had developed named wadE. This was a powerful, talented band that worked together for many years featuring Steve’s college bandmates Ron and Jimi.
The world, looking for balance, soon saw Steve join one of Mat’s projects, Jake & the Wranglers. Interestingly Mat and Steve, regularly guitarists, were the rhythm section for this combo playing bass and drums respectively.
It was during this collaboration that the seeds for The Consolation were sown. The old magic of Steve’s drumming and Mat’s arrangements came flooding back. They set out to put the band back together, but ran into roadblock after roadblock, until, like so many years ago, they asked Kathy, recently relocated back to Chicago, to bring her singular sense of musicality back to the fold.
Twenty years later, they are back together again. Older, seasoned, more cynical, and concerned about one thing, making good music. This is the future and this is the past. This is The Consolation.
