Time Out Chicago/ Issue 97: Jan 4–10, 2007
Top live show

Ponytail
Ronny’s; Tue 9


Baltimore foursome Ponytail has been described as the Boredoms fronted by a woman—although considering that Japanese noise-rock act’s somewhat weak performance at last summer’s Intonation Festival, perhaps Ponytail deserves a little better. As it stands, the fact that vocalist Molly Siegel’s chromosomes are of the XX persuasion is of little relevance to Ponytail’s music, because she doesn’t really sing. She revels in stretching her vocal chords through pipsqueaks and caterwauls, is generally unintelligible, and that’s okay—she serves as a nice flourish on top of her bandmates’ tight, effervescent, gleeful riffings on the new Kamehameha (Creative Capitalism). It’s a blistering affair of scatterbrained-sounding noise bursts, but this is carefully controlled chaos, proven when the band shuts down a song in tight unison, and ties the next one up in a neat little bow with a clean Telecaster strum and a stomp.

Still, there’s no doubt Ponytail is best experienced live, as Siegel thrashes about, eyelids fluttering, in a sort of revival-tent rock ecstasy and the band beats the hell out of its instruments behind her. And there should be plenty of ecstatic playing tonight, as Ponytail is sandwiched between two fine local acts: Tim Kinsella (Joan of Arc/Make Believe) and his wife, Amy Cargill, will romp through a psych-tinged noise experiment in the opening slot; and the Great Sea Serpents (full disclosure: The band includes a certain TOC employee), who just released their excellent debut, Rise Again!, headline.—Antonia Simigis