Dave Chamberlain

When you go out to see local music, what's presented is too often an incomplete product.

There are bands who feel what they play, but are unable to make the audience feel it as well. There are bands who are enthusiastic, but don't seem to believe entirely in what they play. And then there are bands who feel it and shine with enthusiasm, but are just not very good.

Then there are The Dials, a local quartet who, on stage, brings enthusiasm, genuine texture and extraordinarily catchy and well-written songs. It's rare to see a relatively unknown band so polished--even more rare for a local band.

Composed of bassist/guitarist/vocalist Rebecca Crawford, guitarist Patti Gran, keyboard player Emily Dennison and drummer Doug Meis, The Dials play a superb synthesis of modern post-punk that leans a touch to the new-wave side, dirtied up with just a little garage-rock flavor and with dashes of power pop. Though the band lists its youthful influences as everything from classic rock to a little metal, you'd never know that. What The Dials produce is unique without being so obtuse as to sacrifice likeability; danceable and upbeat without falling into the saccharine package that's pushed to the back of the table.

And on stage, The Dials and their music hits with rarely felt impact. The interplay between Crawford and Gran, both of whom share vocals and add equal parts to the show, combines a sharp professionalism with a raw sense of unbridled vivacity. "We've all been in other bands," says Gran, "but this band specifically clicks really well. And I--we--are all really exuberant when we're on stage together, because it's fun."

It's also an attribute that comes naturally to The Dials, Dennison explains. "At one point we had a member--not a current member--who wanted to push in the direction of scripting things out a little more. We kicked that person out. I mean, we don't want to plan when and how we move or when we talk."

If you exclude a bit of a rotating drummer problem--Meis joined the band full-time in June after filling in on occasion--the core members of the band (Crawford, Dennison and Gran) have really only been active as The Dials for a little more than a year. Thus, to date they've only made one recording, a six-song EP "Sick Times," which hints at--but doesn't entirely uncover--their songwriting strength. They look to remedy that problem in December, when they hit the studio to record their first full-length.

It was that end which took them on the road last summer for their first--albeit small--tour. "When I joined the band," explains Meis, "it was my belief that we should get out and tour, even if only a little, before we recorded. I feel that even a week on the road shows all sorts of positives and negatives about a band. And we had a blast--we had all sorts of dumb stuff happen to us: car trouble, shitty shows, the whole gamut. But we came back even more ready to go."

The Dials have found Chicago--or more accurately, the music industry in Chicago--to be hospitable in terms of playing shows at the usual rock `n' roll venues. But being a young band in Chicago can be a daunting prospect, what with a competition of myriad others vying for the same spots on stage. "It has its plusses and its minuses," says Crawford. "There are a lot of bands, so it's hard to get on that right bill where you're in front of a national touring band that's gonna draw a bunch of people. But we've also done really well here on our own too."

The Dials face the risk of falling prey to the all-girl cliché, of being compared in the press to a stock number of other all-female bands and of unfairly getting grouped together with other local bands of said makeup. After all, how many times do you read reviews of all-female or mostly female bands that start out, "this all-girl band"? Crawford immediately answers, "too often."

"I don't think it's insulting to be grouped together with girl bands," says Gran, "but I don't want to just play shows with girl bands and festivals for girl bands. That's where the problems come from, when you get pigeonholed and you can't get any further. It seems like that happens to a lot of girl bands."

Meis takes issue on another level. "What bums me out is when you get lumped in with girl bands who are really playing on the fact that they're an all-girl band," he says. "So therefore they're all sexed out--and that's what gets me; we're booked with them under the idea that well, girl bands are girl bands. We're a serious band, and it's not the same thing."

The Dials play October 14 at Logan Square Auditorium, 2539 North Kedzie, (773)252-6179.

(2004-10-13)

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