The Cribs Kick Off World Tour in Chicago

In conjunction with Chicago's Lincoln Hall and Schubas' annual five-day indie fest, Tomorrow Never Knows, UK quartet the Cribs kicked off not only the first night of the festival but what will be a six-week globetrotting tour for them.

The packed house was divided into both young and old fans, some there to see the Cribs, others to catch a glimpse of legendary guitarist and recent band addition, the stately Johnny Marr. Resolute, the guys wasted no time and immediately pulverized the fierce opening song 'We Were Aborted' from their latest album, 'Ignore the Ignorant.' Twin brothers Gary and Ryan Jarman shared lead vocals, but it was Ryan who opted to turn his back to the audience and shred on his own. After playing the band's breakthrough song, 'Hey Scenesters!' Gary decisively announced, "We're the Cribs and we're from England," which was followed by shouts of "I love you, Johnny!" from the adoring audience. The ex-Smiths guitarist appeared unflappable the entire time, only quietly speaking at the end to thank the crowd.

Even though the Cribs' set centered on new songs 'Last Year's Snow,' 'We Share the Same Skies' and the ballad-driven 'Save Your Secrets' (replete with spinning mirror ball), Gary asked the crowd if any of them were old-school Cribs' fans. Gary played a quick rendition of 'The Watch Trick' from their self-titled debut record as an example of older material before segueing into 'Direction,' another oldie but goodie.

After 'Hari Kari,' Gary took a moment to tell the audience how "cool it is to come to a country and play for cool people. I'm not being insincere.' For the audio/visual portion of the show, a mysterious screen came down to reveal footage of Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo speaking the lyrics to the poetic song 'Be Safe.' While Ranaldo messed with various props onscreen, the rest of the band shouted the chorus. Ranaldo has been known to perform the song live with the group, but was there only in spirit tonight.

Before the screen was fully back up, the Cribs burst into crowd-pleaser 'Mirror Kisses' cajoling the audience to rock out with them. Epic closer 'City of Bugs' began with tinges of Sonic Youth dissonance as Marr craftily made oscillating whammy noises with his guitar. Strobes incessantly blinked leading up to the frenzied finale with Ryan kicking over his mic stand. Once the song ended and the other members departed, Marr put on his jacket, shook the hand of a fan in the front row and ambled offstage as modestly as he acted the whole night.