We spent Friday and Saturday night with the Great Lake Swimmers and, while both performances were fantastic and different, we managed to walk away from the weekend even bigger fans than we were prior.

If the two performances did anything it was to bolster my admiration for their recent album, Ongiara. I’ll be honest and admit that compared to their previous albums I was somewhat lukewarm on the album comparatively, but it was the songs off that album that are still swimming through my head on this Monday morning. Particularly songs “I Am Part of a Large Family,” “Changing Colours,” “Where in the World Are You,” and “Passenger Song” have become new favorites, not just on the album, but of their entire repertoire.

The venues and the setting contained within for each show could not have been any different, and, therefore, led to very different performances/experiences. The first took place in the intimate confines of Madison’s Café Montmartre. This show was hushed and there was the typical distance between the mostly seated audience and band, providing an overall atmosphere as if the group were performing in your living room. The crowd at Schuba’s in Chicago was full and packed right up next to the stage which afforded the band to play louder and made the overall show performance seem much more concert-like.

One of the absolute highlights was hearing their take on Leonard Cohen’s “The Partisan” and buying a copy of the Hands In Dirty Ground EP, which features a gorgeous cover of Tom Waits’ “Innocent When You Dream” recorded, coincidentally at Schuba’s.

Read our 5 Questions w/Tony Dekker of the Great Lake Swimmers.

Buy: Ongiara and Hands In Dirty Groud EP at Weewerk
Myspace: Great Lake Swimmers
MP3: Great Lake Swimmers – I Am Part Of A Large Family
MP3: Great Lake Swimmers – Your Rocky Spine