The Killers vs. the Killers

How do these pretty boys stack up against some real dealers of death?

A A A Comments (0) Thursday, Aug 18 2005

Part 73: "The seventh-grade girls say, 'We can go to our house, Daddy ain't there'/ I say, 'Great! Just show me where!'/ And, 'Can I plug a video camera in up there?'/ Now the three of us are upstairs rockin'/ Ain't no way I'm stoppin'/ Look out, the Kelly volcano's about to start pop--" [remaining words are smeared and indecipherable].

Part 1,379: "Now I'm flying a spaceship with 20-inch rims."

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Part 73,431: "People of Earth/ This is your master, R. Kelly/ You will obey me as I am the one and true leader of all men/ Now who wanna go fuck in a kitchen?" -- Garrett Kamps and Tamara Palmer

HOUSTON VS. CHICAGO

Earth, Wind and Fire and Chicago are certainly two of the Windy City's most durable exports and their arrival here this week at the Woodlands Pavilion reminds me of a hypothesis I have always had.

Namely, this: Houston and Chicago are mirror images of each other. I mean that in the sense that the two are alike but opposite. Think about it. They're both huge cities and inland ports with thriving blues scenes, but Chicago's a Blue State city, Houston's Red. Chicago boomed in the 19th Century, Houston in the 20th. Chicago's immigrants are mainly from Europe; Houston's from Asia and Latin America. Chicago is unendurable in the winter, Houston in the summer. Chicago is comparatively dense and packed with all manner of public transport, Houston's spread out and only starting to cotton on to passenger trains.

Press assistant Night & Day Editor (and walking music encyclopedia) Scott Faingold spent his young adulthood in Chi-Town, so I thought the two of us could take the momentous occasion of having these Second City auteurs to chart the parallel musical histories of the two metropolises. (Click on the caption, above right, to enlarge the graphic.)