I'm laughing and I'm dancing and it's fun!
March 31, 2006 7:31 PM   Subscribe

Chic-a-go-go is an all-ages dance party that airs weekly on local access in Chicago, hosted by Miss Mia and Ratso, a teenage rat puppet. Costumed hipsters, youngsters and oldsters shake their groove things in a sparsely decorated studio, often while musical guests lip-synch their hits. Ratso gets to interview some real legends too. (Although Lemmy dissed him, and Vanilla Ice was too freaked out.) They've spawned at least one imitator. This Saturday, they'll be taping their tenth anniversary show. (More inside)
posted by hydrophonic (16 comments total)
 
Here are few videos of bands on the show:
1 (scroll down a bit, and keep watching for the El Train Line), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

The main site needs updating (but give the producer a break, he's a busy man), and the "Watch Chic-a-go-go Online" link takes you to defunkt video links. But it looks like you can still order the best-of video--good news, because it has the most amazing performance by Monotrona and a young adoring fan who copies her every move. Which you'd be able to see right now if only the video link here worked..
posted by hydrophonic at 7:33 PM on March 31, 2006


New York Public Access has always been, to me, something to avoid at all costs -- full of sex and stupidity. Chicago Public Access, on the other hand, has always had a special place in my heart, because it's full of people just goofing off with relatively little pretension. This is a key example of that.
posted by davejay at 7:35 PM on March 31, 2006


i haven't checked mefi for months and then i find this. thanks hydrophic, i'm so glad this is happening in my city.
posted by zod at 8:29 PM on March 31, 2006


There is goodness on the planet.
Chic-a-go-go rocks.
posted by Bighappyfunhouse at 8:42 PM on March 31, 2006


i found this myspace page via the host's site
posted by zod at 8:43 PM on March 31, 2006


OMG, I wish I could drive up for that taping. I've been a fan for most of these ten years, although I always thought that the soul rebel was a poseur because I never saw him at any Ska shows.
posted by Eamon at 9:23 PM on March 31, 2006


So this is the show in that Bobby Conn video for 'Never Gonna Get Ahead'? I always assumed it was fake, 'cause some of those dancers were just so damned creepy.
posted by macdara at 12:51 AM on April 1, 2006


Oh man, Supersphere! (the site with the defunkt clippes de video) Whatever happened to that place? I remember everything seemed to shut down around the end of 2001 but never had any idea why.
posted by chrominance at 12:53 AM on April 1, 2006


That looks like fun.
posted by jb at 1:02 AM on April 1, 2006


Oh, man, don't miss the Pancake Mountain clips: Go! Team, Metric, Arcade Fire, Fiery Furnaces and Shonen Knife!
posted by dhartung at 3:19 AM on April 1, 2006


Any place that has Lucy Lui on guitar, Drew Barrymore in a sombrero, a giant rubber monkey and conga dancing Imperial Storm Troopers gets my vote.
posted by Enron Hubbard at 5:30 AM on April 1, 2006


Oh yeah! I forgot about the Bobby Conn video. I like how he'd recorded a clean version for the show--"saying yes" instead of "giving head"--but had slipped up a couple of times, and then had to lip-synch it with the mistakes.
posted by hydrophonic at 8:19 AM on April 1, 2006


I think this has restored my faith in humans. Look at it: some stupid cable access show with kids and adults dancing on a crappy set. With Imperial Storm Troopers. Totally hokey. Wow!
posted by Turtles all the way down at 1:20 PM on April 1, 2006


I always thought that the soul rebel was a poseur because I never saw him at any Ska shows.

Soul Rebel is no poseur, just....long winded. Right now, he's at the Pilsen little-league benefit hardcore show, but, as you know, his name is "Soul Rebel"; look for him at mod dance nights with no cover.

The taping was alright today, not one of their best but they played multiple tracks off the new Prince record, and Plastic Crimewave can't dance. This comes as no surprise.
posted by elr at 8:07 PM on April 1, 2006


Also, Ratso is Chicago's most charming skinhead.
posted by elr at 8:10 PM on April 1, 2006


If anyone knows, what's the story with Gentleman John Battles? I was at a show where he got up and basically yelled at the audience for 10 minutes.
posted by Mid at 8:23 PM on April 1, 2006


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