Events
No events are currently scheduled – Dan is working on mixing an album for release in the summer of 2013.
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Join the mailing list to be notified when new show dates are announced. Here’s a review of a show at Martyrs’ in Chicago:
Martyrs’, September 16, 2008 – The evening concluded with a short set by multi-instrumentalist and new new-wave composer Dan Wallace. Dan’s smart and playful compositions are loose pop songs that walk the line between organic and computational. Listeners are nearly whisked away by Wallace’s warm rounded vocals, his soft guitar, and the assortment of string and wind instruments, only to be jarred wide-eyed and mouth agape by sudden hectic polyrhythms, a staccato mandolin-like guitar interjection, a vintage 1980s guitar shred, or any other unexpected and complex progressive rock borrowing. While comparisons are cheap, summing up all of the sounds and moods of Wallace would be nearly impossible. So instead, I offer you this: imagine Wallace as the intersection of Andrew Bird and Frank Zappa.
As a frontman, Wallace was quiet, and only spoke to introduce his current band (a foursome comprised of a bassist, drummer, violinist, and a player who provided both flute and clarinet). Only drummer George Lawler played from memory; each of the other three musicians worked from sheet music to meet the demands of Wallace’s vision. After only thirty minutes (the shortest set of the night) Wallace announced the band’s final song, choosing to close with “Invisible Lines” from his most recent CD Reattachment. The track, like the rest of his work, is beautiful in its complexity and equally as complex in its beauty. This song, if for no other reason, made me glad that I had not continued on to the lake.
Review by S. Sowder at TooMuchRock.com
Sampling of Chicago venues played:
Abbey Pub, Schubas, Martyrs’, Empty Bottle, HotHouse, Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind (opening act), Congress Theater, Beat Kitchen, Elbo Room, Green Mill, Heartland Cafe
