A Squatter Performance No. 3.1 Lionlimb from SquatBox on Vimeo.

Lionlimb pulled into the gravel parking lot at the O.K. Storage building in an identical car to my own. Well, identical except the color, the make and the model of the car. Okay, they were both jeep type cars. Stewart Bronaugh and Joshua Jaeger live in Chicago, where they first met at DePaul University. But, both are from just southeast of the Midwest, Nashville, TN (Stewart) and Louisville, KY (Joshua). And, luckily for us, Lionlimb was on a summer jaunt through their hometowns and surrounding areas, playing shows and making fans, which brought them our way. We walked across the street, with toy piano, trumpet, drums and guitar in hand, to an alleyway beneath a train overpass. Over grown with ivy and other wild organic material, pavement covered in glass and debris, the ally smelled of garbage and mildew, largely due to a packed dumpster and two abandoned couches, which reeked of urine and illicit excrement.

A Squatter Performance No. 3.2 Lionlimb from SquatBox on Vimeo.

Lionlimb set up on a long branch under the train overpass. They started playing “Pull the Switch”, the opening track of their Self-Titled album. Their poignant, indie rock resonated through the tunnel, converting the (seemingly) otherwise den of drug abuse and prostitution into a gardened recital. Stewart and Joshua sat amidst a pile of trash as they played, “Radio Tower”, which was perfectly back dropped by sun glares and hanging undergrowth. The song was interposed between an accompaniment of dogs and a train, which brought in a natural, arbitrary element to the structured organization of the track.