Chung Antique

Last month I was on tour with Magpies for a Midwest jaunt.. going as far East as Cleveland, OH. The highlight of the tour was playing the PRF BBQ in Chicago, which was a fantastic indie gathering. 4 days of awesome music, food, beer and smiles. While planning the tour – a Seattle band Chung Antique contacted us and noticed that we were both on tour at the same time and wanted to do some shows together. We were super stoked to make new friends and to do some shows around the country! Along with playing with them at the PRF BBQ, we also played with them in Cleveland, and finally we played with them here in Missoula, Montana.

As I mentioned, Chung Antique are from Seattle, WA. They are an instrumental band (which I absolutely love that genre of music – Explosions in the Sky, Earthless, Russian Circles, etc). A 3 piece band consisting of Charlie on guitar, Mike on bass and Whitney on drums. All are super skilled, and with an incredible natural feel for tension and vibe.. and melody. Easy to pen them as ‘math rock’, but the push pull with melody makes it more complex, more interesting – in the ‘feel’ area.

Okay.. I don’t usually do this (and I should do this more), but let’s talk about the drummer. And as I mentioned, her name is Whitney. It was pure magic watching her drum. We’re talking top-shelf drumming – open style. What’s fascinating is the duality of the complex drumming while making it look SO effortless. You can tell she is completely comfortable behind the kit. In the world of *dude* drummers, you get thrown into the how-hard-can-I-hit-the-drums as a technique, and it was completely refreshing seeing someone play at that level.

Check out this mini-documentary about their fantastic album – Sweater Weather.

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Since they were in town, I was able to get some shots (via my awesome wife – Amy Donovan Photography).

Here are Charlie’s pedals

Boss TU-3 Tuner
MXR ’78 Distortion
ProCo Turbo Rat
Korg Chorus CHR-1
Boss DD-7 Digital Delay
MXR Carbon Copy Delay

Here are Mike’s pedals

Boss TU-3 Tuner
BBE Green Screamer
Electrical Audio Destructors Chernobyl

Chung Antique – Great Band. Great People. Check ’em out