Whenever You Might Think It’s Over: Silkworm in Chicago 9/23/25 to 9/25/25

I saw the band Silkworm live in Chicago, Illinois. Three times, in fact. The first three shows of the group’s mini-tour from The Windy City to Tolono, Illinois (that’s Champaign-Urbana, effectively), and then Gonerfest in Memphis. Originally, they’d only announced one Chicago show, and my plan had been to hit Sleeping Village and then drive down to Matt Talbot of Hum’s bar in Tolono, the Loose Cobra, but after three Chicago shows eventually showed up (“Sorry about the Tuesday night,” Andy Cohen said on the first night at The Chop Shop, the final show of the three to be added, “…but, due to overwhelming demand…”), cooler heads prevailed (note: I’ve yet to see the Loose Cobra setlist at the time of this writing, so the regret factor has probably yet to fully kick in). I took off work and prepared myself for a three-night stand in the greatest city in the world with Tim Midyett, Andrew Cohen, Joel R.L. Phelps, and Jeff Panall. 

There was a different opening act every night. Tuesday night brought OUT from Kalamazoo, made up of members of bands you might have read about on this blog like Wowza in Kalamazoo and Future Living (including Isaac Turner, who, like me, contributed a chapter to Lay It Down in Full View: Collected Writings on Silkworm and Their Music–but I’m getting ahead of myself). The “rocking in spite of themselves” vibe of OUT was markedly different from Pittsburgh’s The Gotobeds on Wednesday, who brought their renowned (in certain circles) sense of chaos to Sleeping Village (“They’ve cleaned their act up a little bit over the years,” Moon Orchids’ Jacob Simons told me after their set, implying that they must diligently rehearse their desecration of venue lighting fixtures and messing with the tuning on each others’ instruments). The Thursday opener, Dianogah, peers of the members of Silkworm for thirty years, brought to the table their two-bass guitar attack and something completely different: a Chicago post-rock (or math rock, whatever) stillness.

So: Silkworm. Aside from the four songs they played at Steve Albini’s memorial service (the entire impetus for this reunion), these were the first “Silkworm shows” in twenty years, and the first ones with Joel Phelps in (I believe) around thirty. They were as good as I could have hoped. Andy Cohen and Tim Midyett played songs from across their entire time as Silkworm co-leaders, and Phelps was there on second guitar for a bunch of songs he’d never played on before those shows. Phelps sang lead vocals on two of Midyett’s songs (“Swings” twice and “The Bones” every night) and two of Cohen’s (“White Lighting” and “Severance Pay” once apiece) over the course of the three nights, and while these were all chill-inducing, his guitar contributions were equally impressive (and despite all of the above, my favorite “Phelps on a later Silkworm song” moment might’ve been him standing up from his chair to shout “Whenever you might think it’s over” alongside Midyett during “‘Don’t Look Back’”).

(photos are by me; there are much better ones out there–plus whole videos of a lot of the shows!–if you look on social media)

The first night started with “Couldn’t You Wait?”, of course, and then “Treat the New Guy Right” and (in an inspired choice) “Insomnia”. Every song knocked my proverbial socks off: A show-stopping performance of “Raging Bull”. Andy giving his all to canonical Silkworm classics (“Don’t Make Plans This Friday”) and to songs that should be (fucking “The Old You”). Closing the non-encore set with an electric “Dirty Air” (jeez, Italian Platinum is so good), and breaking out the posthumously-released “Bar Ice” in the encore. Midyett dedicating “Clean’d Me Out” to Gerard Cosloy, who he admitted probably wasn’t there (“He’ll probably be at Gonerfest”).

They played at least one song from every album, including L’ajre (Phelps’ “Little Sister”, believe it or not). Every time Joel stepped up to the mic, the air changed and shit “got real”: this, unsurprisingly, happened with Silkworm’s performances of all three of his In the West songs, but it was no less palpable when he sang Midyett’s “Swings” (a song written in the aftermath of Phelps’ initial departure from Silkworm in the mid-90s, and the performance of that night seemed to bring something full circle). To Jeff Panall, tasked with the impossible, I bestow the highest possible compliment: he did it.

Night two at Sleeping Village couldn’t possibly top the rush of night one, right? If it could’ve though, it probably would’ve went something like how Wednesday night went. A solid third of the setlist (eight out of twenty-two songs) were songs that hadn’t been played the previous night, quite impressive given everything about the circumstances (I would’ve been happy with one or two new additions!). In the main set, we got “The City Glows” (holy shit), “Grotto of Miracles” (holy shit), and “Ritz Dance” (truly one of the last songs I would’ve expected them to pull out, good on them), among others. The first encore was almost entirely new additions, featuring two Lifestyle selections and perhaps the biggest treat of the entire night, Joel Phelps’ “Yen + Janet Forever”.

(As a sidebar: everyone seems to love Phelps’ In the West songs, and of course I do too, but I’ve always believed that his Libertine tracks were even better, even though I rarely hear anyone talk about them. Perhaps because he left the band around that time, I don’t think they were played live contemporaneously very much (certainly not in comparison to the In the West ones), and I wasn’t sure if I’d ever hear any of them live. It was amazing, and if anyone from Silkworm is reading this, please learn “Oh How We Laughed” and/or “The Cigarette Lighters” and play them next time you play in Chicago. )

It’s night three and Silkworm are still pulling out surprises. It was a great night for those of use who love Italian Platinum (which, I would hope, included everybody in the room), as “The Third”, “LR72”, and “White Lightning” (as previously mentioned, with Joel singing) all made appearances. Cohen trotted out “Sheep Wait for Wolf” and “Tarnished Angel” for the first time this tour, but a lot of the highlights from night three were Silkworm’s performances of the run’s staples. I was listening to “‘Don’t Look Back’” before the show and had the thought that, despite hearing it two nights in a row, I would be disappointed if it didn’t show up the third night (I needn’t have worried). Ditto to “Treat the New Guy Right” (which they saved for the second encore that time), and repeat performances of “Yen + Janet Forever”, “Pilot”, and “The City Glows” all seemed to gain something.

And then there’s “The Bones”, which ended all three nights. It was actually one of the few Silkworm songs I’d seen live before this tour–it’s a staple of Midyett’s solo shows, along with “Young”–but given that it’s possibly my favorite Silkworm song, I was still very stoked to hear it every night. That’s not even taking into account the fact that Joel Phelps sang it: like “Swings”, there’s some incredible subtext to the performance (Midyett has said the song is “partially” about Phelps, as well as Midyett’s wife), but the emotions stirred out by the two of them singing “The Bones” together are of a different sort (the kind that unambiguously end the show–there’s nowhere to go after that).

At The Chop Shop, Phelps sang “The Bones” off-mic, and though the first half was marred by chatter from the bar and the shushing thereof, I didn’t find myself wanting him to move any closer to the microphone. The third night’s performance of “The Bones” was my favorite, though. Tuning issues threw the band for a loop, with Midyett informing Phelps and Cohen that they’d have to sing and play the song (respectively) higher than they’d previously been doing at the last minute. It turned into a duet between Midyett and Phelps–the former perhaps trying to guide the now-in-unfamiliar-territory song and the latter absolutely nailing the challenge with, if anything, even more flair (needless to say, the Hebrew Hendrix had no problem with his role either).

I’m leaving a bunch of stuff out, but I do want to acknowledge that it was nice to meet a bunch of people in person that I’d only talked to on the internet beforehand. Thanks to Paul and Jane Duffus for everything they did in putting Lay It Down in Full View together, a book I’m eager to read (finally!). Did you know they came all the way from England to see the shows (and hawk their book, I suppose, but still)? You can still purchase the book from Comedy Minus One in the States and from Jane Duffus herself in the U.K., by the way. Also, hello to Jon Solomon (who studiously refused to look at my real name when I was buying a T-shirt and tote bag so as to “not ruin the mystique”), Jacob from Moon Orchids and Dori, Galen from Repeating Cloud and Gum Parker, and Joni Elfers.

Slightly before this current run of shows commenced, Silkworm announced three more upcoming gigs in Louisville, Atlanta, and Columbia, South Carolina. As someone who grew up in Appalachia and currently lives in the Midwest, the locations of these shows warm my heart: fuck off, Coastal Elites. Hey New Yorkers, Philadelphians, Californians, etc–if you want to see Silkworm, you’re going to Kentucky or South Carolina (yes, I figure these show locations were chosen based on logistics more than anything else, I’m just having fun). The fact that these shows were announced before they’d even played the first run bodes well, I’d think. I hope to see everyone listed above (and some more of you) at a Silkworm show again sometime soon.