I brought my new roommate, a veritable indie-rock virgin, to her first indie show at the small, divey bar that is Chicago’s Bottom Lounge. Big mistake. I should have eased her into the scene with some more typical underground rock fare; perhaps started her off easy with some mellow Pedro the Lion, moved into some toe-tapping bands like Death Cab for Cutie or Spoon, anything before unleashing the fury of a Les Savy Fav show on her poor, unsuspecting soul. There’s no doubt she was expecting the disaffected head nods indie-rockers are notorious for; instead, she got slaughtered by the pure, unadulterated insanity that spastic lead singer Tim Harrington exudes every time he’s on stage. This man is just continually in motion, and the audience can’t help but respond with a fervor and excitement of its own. Les Savy Fav just ROCKS, pure and simple, and they do it in style. And now my roommate has been spoiled for life because no live show I try to take her to again will be able to live up to that of Tim Harrington and the Fav. “That was fun, but still not as fun as that one band with the weird name you took me to that one time,” I can already hear her saying five years from now.

If you haven’t had the pleasure of seeing this band in person, you’re seriously missing out. There’s no better way to illustrate what kind of craziness goes down at a LSF show than to do a quick play-by-play. Keep in mind that lead singer Tim Harrington is a balding, bearded, chubby man with a potbelly.

11:15 PM- Tim Harrington arrives on stage sporting an oriental shirt and proceeds to do kung fu poses as the band kicks into “The Sweat Descends.”

11:16 PM- Tim Harrington pours water all over himself and the audience members in front of him. Kind of like, sweat. Descending. Or something like that. He then takes a swig of one fan’s beer, promptly giving it back to a different fan.

11:17 PM- The aforementioned oriental shirt is removed, revealing Tim Harrington’s sexy-as-hell potbelly, which he proceeds to rub erotically.

11:20 PM- Tim Harrington climbs on a chair and tries to swing on a ceiling pipe, failing miserably. The crowd visibly breathes a sigh of relief when he gives up.

11:25 PM- Tim Harrington jumps off the stage, walks/sings through the crowd, around the corner, and into the bar connected to the venue.

11:27 PM- Our friend Tim proceeds back through the crowd, disappears for a few minutes while the rest of the band jams out, and returns wearing a white t-shirt, tight red shorts, a whistle, and some white paint on his nose.

11:28 PM- Lifeguard Tim sings half of “Tragic Monsters” through his whistle.

11:29 PM- Lifeguard Tim lets members of the audience blow his whistle.

11:34 PM- Mr. Harrington spreads the white paint from his nose all over his face, then demands eyeliner from the audience, which he promptly receives; said eyeliner is then used to draw whiskers and a cat nose on his face. The look is completed when he pulls out a mullet-y black wig with cat ears.

11:34:01 PM- Nicolemc99 falls on the floor laughing.

11:37 PM- Feline Tim turns the wig around on his head and sings part of “Reprobate’s Resume” through the thick black hair, becoming Werewolf Tim.

11:40 PM- Tim gives up on the wig, grabs an audience member’s wool hat, and pulls it over both of their heads, still screeching into the microphone.

11:41 PM- Tim grabs a male audience member’s head and grinds it into his crotch, face first.

11:41:30 PM- Tim continues to sexually assault the audience member’s head. Audience member appears to be greatly enjoying it.

11:45 PM- Tim sings literally into the neck of bandmate Syd Butler.

11:50 PM- Tim Harrington gets audience waving their hands in the air like they just don’t care at varying speeds during “No Sleeves."

11:55 PM- Tim does a personal dance for his drummer, Harrison Haynes, then climbs up onto the drum kit and onto a random ledge to sit cross-legged and sing a song I didn’t recognize.

12:05 AM- After ending with “Disco Drive,” the band leaves and then returns for the big encore. Sadly, I don’t recognize either song.

12:15 AM- The big finale: for the last song, Tim invites anyone and everyone to come on stage with the band and sing along. Throngs of indie boys throw themselves on stage in an attempt to be close to such a rock God. The song (and the show) ends with endless repeating of “Bah Bah”- after getting the entire audience to sing along, Tim gets down off the stage and sits on the ground as the band plays quieter and quieter, slowly causing a ripple effect as the majority of the audience sits down with him, quietly chanting “bah bah.” As fellow TMTer Robot said, “any rock band can get an audience waving their arms together. Only Les Savy Fav can get the whole audience to sit down together.”

12:30 AM- Big Schweaty Tim Harrington is spotted outside the venue, shaking hands and signing autographs.

# of times Tim tried to put his whole hand in his mouth: 15
# of times Tim rubbed himself down: 12
# of times Tim tried to lick his nipple: 5
# of times Tim spit water onto the audience: 4

And to that, I raise my goblet of rock.