Back when I first saw the Functional Blackouts, they... sucked.

There was a rumor that it was their last show, though I quickly learned that many shows had been their last. However, they've been banned from almost every venue in Chicago, so I hear, due to their violent and destructive nature. I think they just didn't care anymore. Based on their performance that night, they'd clearly given up. There was anger, so much anger and frustration, and they took it out on their instruments, the sound guy, the audience, and me. That's right, I had a monitor pushed off the stage and onto myself.

Needless to say, noisewise, it sounded like... well it was loud, anyway, like pots and pans banging together and the occasional accidental vibration of a guitar string, or maybe a really taut rubber band.

I'm here to tell you, the Functional Blackouts are a completely different band.

Let me say that again, lest you, I don't know, skipped a line: the Functional Blackouts have changed.

They delivered tight, in-tune, in-rhythm, great sounding MUSIC last night at the Empty Bottle. Yup, actual music. The anger was still there although in heavily checked form, the vocals were evil sounding, the guitars were, well, guitars. Honestly I can't even describe any more because I was standing there in shock for the whole show. I haven't even really formed an opinion yet because I'm still in shock and don't know what to think. I know this much though; they cared about their performance this time.

Here's the thing - despite what I said above, I actually liked the Functional Blackouts before. The anger, the mayhem, the violence all served a great escape from the tedium of our lives, a semi-safe steam valve for our self-destructive natures that could otherwise get the better of us. I declared them the angriest and most violent band I knew after that first night, and for that they held a special place in Chicago for me. (Of course, that place didn't exist technically, because they had nowhere to play.) Now that they've taken the higher road, who's on the lower road? Who will fill the void?

Functional Blackouts, I just have to say: it's not you, it's me.