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Feature and sidebar:
“Live rock, warts and all:
Catch local bands as they get their shot onstage and on camera with ‘E > N > E Chicago Rocks'”
By Benjamin Ortiz, Special to the Chicago Tribune
Section: On the Town
Date: November 6, 2009


Quiet on the set!
The Cobra Lounge slowly picks up life on a generally slow Sunday night, but for local band GreenSugar this is a chance to lay its sound down for posterity and expand its reach. The Southern-rockish combo does a microphone check that not only has the sound tech toggling switches — two video cameras are setting up, boom-mics are being tested and another audio-tech guy is patching into the sound board.
Because taping is about to start for “E>N>E Chicago Rocks,” a TV show and music series featuring local bands — with you in the audience making devil horns as you head bang, right there on the screen. But it’s also a show with your favorite venue as the backdrop to a rock ‘n’ roll experience that you can enjoy in person and at home on the Wednesday after the gig. Just tune in to Chicago cable channel 25 at 9 p.m.
Maybe you haven’t had the chance to see a good concert in a while, so why not let the show come to you, with its flavor of being right at center stage and an all-access pass to the whole scene, including band interviews and a taste of Chicago’s rock lifestyle.
GreenSugar boasts two drummers, which the “E>N>E” production crew hasn’t anticipated. “How are we going to mic that?” asks cameraman Jose Calvo, one of the cable-access show’s crew. Director Hector Ivan Garcia works with him to jury-rig a solution, while producer Sandra Trevino checks in with volunteers who will help coordinate, host, produce segments and interview bands throughout the night.
At tapings, “E>N>E” has eight to 12 volunteers, and Garcia says, “The show’s put together with a lot of great people that are dedicated — it’s a volunteer army, and they’re there every week because they believe in it just as much as we do, and this show really gets done by the people of Chicago.”
“E>N>E” started in 2002 with Garcia and Trevino wanting to document the alternative Latino music scene. The duo’s sometimes guerrilla-style footage and band interviews were broadcast on public access TV. It was sort of a Latino “Wayne’s World” that was trying to capture Chicago’s Spanish rock, even though most local attention has gone to typical regional Mexican music and salsa, or the big names of Latino pop appearing at the biggest venues.
Although Garcia studied film production at Columbia College Chicago, he admits their first attempts to shoot video were amateurish, : “We tried to do it with one camera and the onboard mic, attempting to capture a band performing live, and it was ridiculously bad audio, but the bands were happy to be on the show.”
Trevino remembers how some footage came out shaky when she became exhausted holding up the camera and running around for hours to shoot.
They produced some shows for CAN-TV, and then the City of Chicago’s Cable 25 for 2 1/2 years, but “since channel 25 started charging, we eventually couldn’t pay because it was all out of pocket,” Garcia says.
They restarted “E>N>E” in April with renewed vigor and a plan to sell ads that would pay for airtime and production, along with the current format of visiting venues around town to capture three bands on video in front of a live audience, to sample the atmosphere of a living, breathing rock show. “I can go on record saying we were the first Latin alternative rock show in Chicago, not as a one-off little ‘look at these rockeros’ segment or Sabado Gigante thing,” Garcia says.
“E>N>E” is now produced by Enchufate, the Latin alternative media and entertainment company that Garcia and Trevino created in 2005 out of a music blog. Now Enchufate (Spanish slang for “hook yourself up with the scene”) is a multimedia Web site and organization that promotes just about every Latino touring act, and many local shows that fall into the alt-Latin category, connecting with a broad network of radio programs and rock venues and producing a weekly Spanish karaoke series, with information and giveaways for coming shows.
Since April they’ve shot and featured bands at Cobra Lounge, Reggie’s Music Joint, Betty’s Blue Star Lounge and Tiger O’Stylies in Berwyn, with coming shows at Subterranean. The format now has bands prep for a nine-minute live segment with an on-site audience, followed by a three-to-five minute interview.
“E>N>E” also showcases bands from outside the Latino-rock world. Sunday’s show with GreenSugar was all English-language music, with a bill that included a heavy-metal combo and a glam-rock sounding group.
The taped product cuts quickly from band to band, with bilingual hosts introducing and interviewing while showcasing venue environs, from street-level signage to bar-side babble. Lasting an hour, the program also throws in older and more recent snippets of interviews that Garcia and Trevino get from touring acts.
They keep a dry set while taping, making sure their volunteers and bands don’t bring drinks into the mix, and though their approach is much more professional these days, the show still has the flavor of their on-the-fly days. “E>N>E stands for Errores No Eliminados, Errors Not Eliminated,” says Garcia, “and it came out of the idea that we were sick of all the polished (stuff) and wanted to show everything real on camera, warts and all — I think that if we ever do playback on the show, I’m out of here, you know, if we ever put on a CD for bands to lip-sync to, because they’re performing live, whether they mess up or not.”
Trevino talks about how bands sometimes freeze from nerves when the lights go on and the video starts rolling: “It’s fun to participate in a live program and to cheer on local talent, and whatever comes out of those nine minutes is what’s going on TV — you’ll see bands and how their mood changes a little bit when they realize they’re on camera.”
“Every show, it’s like what the hell’s gonna happen next,” Garcia says. “But being there cheering and knowing the cameras are rolling gets the crowd excited, and bands will bring out their whole family like it’s The Ed Sullivan Show,’ like TV matters again.”
SIDEBAR: “A look ahead at ‘E>N>E’”
The “E>N>E Chicago Rocks” series features free live music at 9 p.m. every Sunday this month at Subterranean (2011 W. North Ave.). Most nights see three local bands, each playing a nine-minute set for a chance to be on TV when the videotaped show airs at 9 p.m. Wednesday on Chicago’s Cable25 channel.
Bands range from Latino alternative music to electronica and straight-up rock ‘n’ roll, but November is unplugged and acoustic, offering a folksy take on “E>N>E>’s” typically raucous lineup.
Sunday: Singer-songwriter Edwin Days performs bilingual, electronica-influenced tracks from a coming release.
Nov. 15: The series matches rumba-flamenco fusion with rock en Espanol when Vivian Garcia and Sobre appear.
Singer and guitarist Garcia says she doesn’t really do “flamenco puro” but instead mixes “Spanish traditions with Cuban rhythms.” Usually appearing in a trio with a flamenco dancer, Garcia will perform at Subterranean with her lead guitarist in a pairing reminiscent of Mexican duo Rodrigo y Gabriela.

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