WTII Minifest 2
June 9, 2011 – June 12, 2011
Chicago, Illinois, United States @ The Abbey Pub

Review By: Eric Gottesman

So in the Summer of 1999, I went to work for 21st Circuitry Records. I had just finished my freshman year of college, and a friend gave me the company’s email address, so I wrote and asked if they could use a volunteer. It turned out that the label was in the process of shutting down, and shipping what remained of their stock to Metropolis- a difficult and depressing task. I came in for a week or two to assist, and Don Blanchard, the label’s owner, gave me one copy of every disc he had, in lieu of payment. Meanwhile, I was busy being an angst-ridden teenager, pursuing some ridiculous Goth girl who had no interest in me and bemoaning my wretched, solitary fate while plowing through this huge new collection of music I’d suddenly come upon.

Much of that music went on to define not only this late period of my youth, but also my musical trajectory for the next decade. Bands like Hate Dept. and Steril are still on my playlist every week. One band, however, stood out as defining music of that summer and the year that followed, perfectly expressing all of my anger and frustration and feelings of futility about that Goth girl and my parents complaining about my hair and my piercings and whatever other crap seemed important at the time. That band was Unit:187. “Loaded” got me through that summer. I probably would have jumped plummeted off a bridge by September without it. So at the beginning of this June, just after six weeks on the road with my own band, when I re-read the WTII Minifest lineup that last time, trying to decide whether I could really justify flying back across the country with a week’s notice, Unit:187 was the band that pushed me over. I’d waited 12 years to see them. It was time. (more…)