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Beer Garden at Cowboy Monkey. Photo by James Kyung

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Cowboy Monkey »
Address: 6 Taylor St. Champaign, IL 61820
Phone: (217) 356-0006
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Artist: Common Loon

Location: Back2School Block Party

Cowboy Monkey

Date: Saturday, August 22

SET LIST

1. Britpop

2. Happy Ending

3. Outside

4. Wasted Show

5. Everybody Knows

6. Automatic Skin

7. Academy Smiles

8. Radium

To fill the void left behind by Band Jam, an annual campus concert last held in 2004, Ward Gollings set up the Back2School Block Party; a free all-day concert in downtown Champaign on August 22. Nine acts performed, from reformed 1980’s local legends Lonely Trailer to Ugandan-born rapper Krukid. It was a good day for Common Loon, a sort of modern-day Everly Brothers for which the diverse audience went nuts.

“Happy Ending,” with Raveonettes-style harmonies, was the first song to draw serious accolades from the audience. Common Loon introduced “Everybody Knows” as a dance song dedicated to Brianna. “Academy Smiles” was noisier, and “Radium” was dense and pulsating, a Wall of Sound without the taint of convicted murderer Phil Spector. The song ended the set somewhat abruptly, not taking away time from the next set by Hot Cops.

To date, Common Loon has only a vinyl single for sale, though an album is due in February 2010. First-time concertgoers were caught off guard, as there was no album but were very vocal in noting that Common Loon left them wanting more. On an unfortunate footnote, “Automatic Skin” and “Radium,” the two catchiest songs, were not recorded for the forthcoming album, so Common Loon will leave them wanting more for a while yet.