I don’t know if I could tell what the best part of the concert was. Whether it was when the singer ordered a bowl of tater tots and passed it around the audience, when they convinced everyone but one man to stay quiet after a song, so that when the song ended there was only the one man cheering as loudly as possible, when they got everyone to sit down in the middle of a song, or simply when the band’s raw talent and ability grabbed me with every song from the very first five seconds.

Mister Heavenly is a supergroup composed of keyboard/singer Honus Honus (Man Man), Drummer Joe Plummer (The Shins, Modest Mouse, Cold War Kids), and guitarist/singer  Nicholas Thorburn (Islands, The Unicorns, Human Highway). These musicians come together in a perfect marriage of indie rock and doo wop, to deliver what they’ve jokingly described as doom wop (a song name from their first album).

Opened by the lovely Anna Burch, it was overwhelmingly clear that the headlining act was primary interest. Although Michael Cera wasn’t available to tour on bass with Mister Heavenly again, as he did the last time they were in town, the trio sounded great in the historic Lincoln Hall. The unique combo of different musical stylings proved a lot better in execution than it does in theory, and made for a spectacular live performance. Particularly Honus Honus’ signature vocal styling in tandem with Thorburn’s.

This show marked the end of their tour for the release of their second album, Boxing the Moonlight. With a 6 year gap between this album and their first, Out of Love, and 7 years since playing in Chicago last, only time will tell if and when the group will get back together for their third album. In the meantime, we can expect a lot of great things from these artists’ solo works and their other bands.

Your PG-13 Hosts,

Garrett Weidle & Patrick Bartman

AKA DJ Tater & DJ Tot