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SSW Chicago Tribune On The Town Section 5 Friday, November 6, 2015 Polyphonic Spree celebrates 15 Pop-rock outfit with orchestral theatrics has traveled long, circuitous road By Chrissie Dickinson Chicago Tribune For a band known for exuding love and joy, Polyphonic Spree rose from the ashes of great sorrow. Band founder Tim DeLaughter formed the group 15 years ago in the wake of a beloved friend's death. The singer, songwriter and guitarist had spent nearly the entire 1990s in the psychedelic rock band Tripping Daisy. His band-mate, guitarist Wes Berg-gren, died of a drug overdose in fall 1999. By the following December, Tripping Daisy had disbanded.

A year later Polyphonic Spree was born, a large orchestral pop-rock outfit known for its effusive theatrics. Shortly after forming, the band recorded a 10-song demo, which was later released as the group's first album. Did Berggren's tragic passing influence those initial songs? "Without a doubt," says DeLaughter, calling from a tour stop in Athens, Ga. "It was one of the most devastating times in my life. Wes wasn't just our guitar player; he was a dear friend.

It knocked me off my feet when it happened. I had just lived through the '90s being in my 20s. We could be extremely destructive to ourselves. When (Wes passed away), it showed me how fragile we were. It gutted us all.

A lot of the lyrics of our first record were a direct reaction to that." In celebration of its 15 th anniversary, Polyphonic Spree will play that debut release, "The Beginning Stages of (which includes the hit "Light and in its entirety at City Winery on Sunday. The band will also perform a number of fan favorites and cover songs. It has been a long and circuitous road for this high-energy outfit with its charismatic frontman and rotating cast of musicians. In the past, band members have numbered as many as 28, including musician and singer-songwriter Annie Clark, who went on to solo fame as St. Vincent.

For this tour, there will be 18 musicians and singers onstage. Polyphonic Spree's soaring sound is built on the LAUREN LOGAN PHOTO Founder and frontman Tim DeLaughter and Polyphonic Spree are known for shows that resemble high-octane tent revivals. with lots of jubilation, dancing, clapping, singing and positive vibes. Does DeLaughter hear from fans who feel a spiritual connection to the music? "Oh, God, yes," he says. "Big time.

A lot of people come up after a show, or write through email or social media, and tell me how much this band means to them, how it saved their life and how it's made such a difference. People have told me they wanted to kill themselves, and all of a sudden they listen to Polyphonic Spree and they change their minds. It's testimony after testimony. There is a spiritual element that is definitely in the air with this band." There is also a strong feeling of community in the crowd. "It's liberating to let your guard down, and a Polyphonic Spree show is a safe place to do that," he says." Chrissie Dickinson is a freelance writer.

The Polyphonic Spree keeps going. I'm still talking about it 15 years later. Everyone doubted but us. And here we are." When DeLaughter formed the group, he thought he was just coming up with the concept and orchestrating the first show. Initially, he didn't foresee himself being a featured player, let alone fronting die large ensemble on the road.

But after the group pulled off a well-received debut gig in its Dallas home base, he began to think the band might have legs. Not everyone felt the same. In the beginning there were naysayers skeptical that this hard-to-categorize group could make a go of it in the post-grunge era They also insisted that such a large band would be a logistical nightmare on the road. DeLaughter was undaunted and pushed forward. The going was indeed tough at first.

"We couldn't get gigs because we were too big," he recalls. "There were club owners DeLaughter got a call from David Bowie. The rock star was curating the Meltdown Festival in England and wanted the band to fly to London to play the fest "When we got over there the band blew up big time," DeLaughter recalls. "There were huge bidding wars for the band. It was unbelievable how fast something so unorthodox took off." Polyphonic Spree has since toured the world several times over.

It played the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in 2004 and made guest appearances on the TV series "Scrubs" and "Las Vegas." With its robed costumes, confetti machine and upbeat music and lyrics, the band's shows resemble high-octane tent revivals. "I grew up in the South," DeLaughter says. "My grandfather was a preacher. I went to big ol' Baptist church throwdowns when I was a kid. I'm not dialed into any of those religions, but I do love the spectacle." A Polyphonic Spree concert feels much like a secular church service, and promoters who just didn't get it.

That's when we made the CD 'The Beginning Stages in three days as a demo." With that promotional release in hand, the group started playing as many venues as possible. They landed a fortuitous slot at the 2002 South by Southwest Music Conference. That year, The Band's legendary guitarist and songwriter Robbie Robertson was scheduled to give the event's keynote address. Polyphonic Spree was booked to play an opening set before his speech. "It was at 8:30 in the morning, the worst gig you could possibly get," DeLaughter remembers with a laugh.

"We played, and it turned out that every journalist in the country was there to cover Robbie Robertson's speech. We got a standing ovation. We just killed that show." The showcase instantly changed the band's fortunes. A lot of important folks took notice. Two weeks after the South by Southwest appearance, When: 8 p.m.

Sunday Where: City Winery, 1200 W. Randolph St. Tickets: 312-733-9463 or www.citywinery traditional rock lineup of electric guitar, bass and drums combined with a wide range of symphonic instruments, including cello, chimes, horns and a vocal choir. To accommodate the sprawling ensemble, the band travels on a bus normally used to transport hockey teams. The wildly energetic stage show is a mix of gospel choir fervor and frenzied ecstasy.

With its unabashedly sincere and positive oudook, the band has never been in step with the snarkier side of pop culture. "We live in a cynical world, and God knows I've experienced all the sarcasm and cynics in the world with this band," DeLaughter says. "But I am who I am, and I'm doing what I've been doing my whole life. and Tae taking on that 'country girl' onthetowntribpub.com Twitter chitribent business face. We were so fed up with how we had to be the stereotypical girl who looks perfect in the music video; she's coming out of the water in a bikini with her long tan legs.

Not all of us are that girl." Maddie and Tae took the song to Scott Borchetta, founder of the label Big Machine, who had signed Taylor Swift. "We walked in there guns a-blazing, like, 'This is who we are. I hope you like it. If you don't, we get Marlow says. "We played 'Girl in a Country Song' in front of Scott Borchetta, and he loved it I think that's what he was attracted to with Taylor also.

She was saying what she wanted to say, and she wasn't going to hide that, and that's the same thing with us." Maddie and Tae have been touring almost nonstop since the release of their debut, have just released a new single, "Shut Up and Fish," and are in the process of buying houses in Nashville. "Girl" and "Fly" were both Top 10 country hits, the only time in eight years a new female act has achieved this. "We gave up every comfortable thing we had for this dream," Dye says. "And it was so worth it." Allison Stewart is a freelancer. onthetowntribpub.com Twitter chitribent Maddie By Allison Stewart Chicago Tribune Last year, Nashville duo Maddie and Tae released its first single, "Girl in a Country Song." It took exception to the prevailing notion, advanced in countless bro-country anthems, that women are empty-headed, bikini-wearing man vessels who exist only to dance on tailgates and serve beer.

In an interview with the Tribune last year, Brian Kelley of Florida Georgia Line, bro-country's greatest lights, claimed to be unfamiliar with the song, which he almost certainly had heard. "All I'm gonna say about that is, I don't know one girl who doesn't want to be a girl in a country song," Kelley said. "That's all I'm gonna say to you. That's it." This frosty exchange did not escape Maddie and Tae's notice. "I did see that comment, and it didn't really make sense to me," says Taylor Dye sweetly.

"He's not a girl, so how would he know?" "Girl in a Country Song" succeeded because it accurately read the national mood everyone seemed to grow tired of bro-country at the same time and because it was a catchy and funny song performed by two sunny, young blond girls. They were permitted to tweak the Nashville establishment, which When: 8:30 p.m. Saturday Where: Joe's on Weed Street, 940 W. Weed St. Tickets: Sold out; www.joesbar.com there.

We were never (really) in high school, if you know what I mean. We moved out at 17 and were living a 25-year-old's life." Marlow and Dye moved to Nashville, and began writing songs with a team of industry pros. They were broke and far from home. It was a difficult period. "I'm not really the type of person who wears my heart on my sleeve," Dye says.

"I keep everything inside. To walk into a song-writing session and tell everyone what you're feeling when you've just met them for the first time was a really scary feeling, but Maddie and I have gained a lot of confidence through songwriting." It was out of these sessions that "Girl in a Country Song" would emerge. 'Tor three months, we kept going into these writing sessions going, 'Man, I just heard this song on the radio, and it told me to slide my sugar shaker over Marlow says. "If any guy spoke to us the way those country songs spoke to women, it would not be good for that guy. I would probably punch him in the Maddie Marlow and Taylor Dye doesn't take kindly to tweaking, because they clearly meant no harm.

Read between the lines in interviews with Maddie and Tae's record label overlords, and it seems they expected "Girl in a Country Song," which went to No. 1 on the country charts, would be a novelty hit at best. Maddie and Tae weren't sure it would even get that far. "We didn't think the song was going to get released," says Maddie Marlow. "That's why we were so honest." Marlow and Dye re just released their full-length cently landed an often-elusive follow-up hit with "Fly," a lovely, harmony-heavy ode to female empowerment that sounds like a gender version of something the Dixie Chicks would have done in the mid-1990s.

(Maddie and Tae love the Dixie Chicks: "We're kind of sassy ourselves, but they brought it to a totally different level," Marlow says.) "Fly" is the highlight of their new, full-length debut, "Start Here." The album itself is a dream the women, both 20, have been working toward ALLISTER ANN PHOTO debut album, "Start Here." for almost a quarter of their lives. Marlow was raised in Sugar Land, Texas, and Dye in Ada, Okla In 2010 they met at a Dallas showcase arranged by a vocal coach and became friends. They shared a laserlike single-mindedness common to famous people: School was a means to an end. "It was different for us growing up, because our mindset was never the high school mindset," Dye says. "We were always thinking about what we wanted and how we were going to get.