Cap'n Jazz

Photo by John Anderson

Cap'n Jazz

The promise and peril of Fun Fun Fun Fest rests on the exhumation of erstwhile heroes, exposing what ages well and what should remain relegated to the dustbins of adolescent angst. Cap'n Jazz, performing the last show of its yearlong resurrection, tipped more toward the latter. The nostalgia evoked by Tim Kinsella's screaming proto-emo fury quickly wore thin despite his early stage dive into the crowd and levering the bottom of the microphone stand against the masses. While the rest of the Chicago quintet tore rough in patches, they torqued enough melodicism into explosive bursts to reveal the seminal threads resewn by 1990s bands that followed (arguably more ably) in their wake, notably on "Puddle Splashers" and "Oh Messy Life." "We Are Scientists!" and "Yes, I Am Talking to You," however, proved worse for the wear, especially when spiked by the sadly sacrificed French horn. "Little League" provided the only clear home run of the set but was balked by the band's voice-cracked cover of A-Ha's "Take on Me." Though a clear contingent reveled in reliving the Cap'n's relevance, the band ultimately proved more a catalyst for fans' own nostalgia than a force in their own right.