Last night I had the privilege and high honor to listen to highly awesome Romanian-style, Chicago-fashioned gypsy rock band Pet Peeve at the Double Door in Wicker Park, Chicago. I met lead guitarist and vocals, Lorian Toth, Friday night and Sunday night he was joined on stage by Mark Adkison on violin, guitar, and vocals; Ryan Flanagan on drums; and Elliot Esparza on bass. Like their gypsy rock of the new Western world in the new millennium predecessors, New York’s uber-famous Gogol Bordello (largely out of the Club Mehanata, formerly in Chinatown currently in the Lower East Side), they got the crowd of young’uns largely unacquainted with the gypsy tango a-goin’. Some images from Pet Peeve’s live show:
Members of the band Pet Peeve (clockwise L-R) Elliot Esparza, Ryan Flanagan, Mark Adkison, and Lorian Toth in the green room before a live set at the Double Door in Chicago on June 5, 2011
Members of the band Pet Peeve (clockwise L-R) Ryan Flanagan, Mark Adkison, and Lorian Toth in the green room before a live set at the Double Door in Chicago on June 5, 2011.
Fake IDs confiscated at the entrance to the Double Door in Chicago on display on June 5, 2011.
Equipment on the stage floor at the Double Door in Chicago on June 5, 2011 before a live set by Pet Peeve.
Pet Peeve violin, guitar and vocalist Mark Adkison enters the stage for a live set at the Double Door in Chicago on June 5, 2011.
(L-R) Pet Peeve band members Mark Adkison and Lorian Toth before a live set at the Double Door in Chicago on June 5, 2011.
Lorian Toth of Pet Peeve during a live set at the Double Door in Chicago on June 5, 2011.
Lorian Toth of Pet Peeve during a live set at the Double Door in Chicago on June 5, 2011.
(L-R) Lorian Toth, Ryan Flanagan, and Mark Adkison of Pet Peeve during a live set at the Double Door in Chicago on June 5, 2011.
Audience members dance in a circle during a live set by Pet Peeve at the Double Door in Chicago on June 5, 2011.
(L-R) Elliot Esparza, Ryan Flanagan, Lorian Toth and Mark Adkison of Pet Peeve during a live set at the Double Door in Chicago on June 5, 2011.
Audience members dance react enthusiastically after a live set by Pet Peeve at the Double Door in Chicago on June 5, 2011.
CURRENTLY IN CHICAGO UNTIL JULY 20.
Amanda Rivkin 