AktarAktar at the Beat Kitchen

           

           Wheaton band AktarAktar has been steadily gaining a reputation as one of Chicago's best local groups, and their show last Friday at The Beat Kitchen didn't disappoint.

            A cadre of fans filled the venue on west Belmont to take in the rock combo's unique, danceable sound. Although Aktar (the Arabic word for “more”) has recently been playing in much bigger halls like their headlining performance at the Metro last November, last Friday's show demonstrated that the band is built for energetic shows in beer-soaked rock clubs. Will Buffe, a current student at Marquette University in Milwaukee, said that he's been to several AktarAktar shows, and loves it every time. "The energy they built in the crowd was amazing," he said.

            The crowd was indeed energetic: halfway through Aktar’s set, a fan jumped onstage to dance with the band for a short while before being unceremoniously shoved off by lead singer Jake Swearson. The crowd was young and danced despite the hot and cramped conditions at the little venue on Belmont. The show ended with Brad Haptas, bassist, diving over Wes Kosakowski’s drumkit in a flying tackle.

            Despite the reckless onstage antics and anarchic lyrics, AktarAktar doesn’t want to be seen as a punk band. "We're a melodic indie-rock group," said Haptas after the show. "We don't like to all just jam on the same chord. Every instrument has its own melody."

            Tim Maguire, who plays lead guitar and sings for the band, had a more colorful description of their sound. "If The Beatles and The Raconteurs had an abortion," he said backstage, "that abortion would be AktarAktar."

            The group was started by front-man Jake Swearson in 2008, playing music in his basement with friend and former drummer for AktarAktar Jacob Hoefnagel. A few shows for house parties around Northern Illinois University where the two Jakes were students snowballed into playing bars around Wheaton. Maguire was added to the band after Swearson noticed him playing air guitar at the Red Robin where they both worked. The last member to join was Haptas. “I just got tired of watching the shows, and I wanted in,” he said after Friday’s concert. “I couldn’t play an instrument, though. So I learned a bunch of Rage Against the Machine songs on bass and begged the guys to let me play.”

            Since then, the quartet replaced Jacob Hoefnagel with current drummer Wes Kosakowski and has been touring the Midwest tirelessly, playing Summerfest 2010 in Milwaukee and headlining a showcase at Chciago’s legendary Metro theatre. They are currently unsigned but sell their music independently on iTunes, and try to record as much material as they can. In an interview with Chicago music blog Reviewsic, Swearson says “When you’re a workaholic you’re not quite happy unless you’re overwhelmed. The worst is still having the day job… reality blows.”

            AktarAktar’s carefree rock’n’roll attitude showed well at their performance at the Beat Kitchen last Friday. With a group of loyal fans who follow the band around Chicago dancing feverishly to the group’s hypnotic melodies, it’s easy to imagine why Swearson is ready to trade in his job at Red Robin. After the show ended, people filed out of the venue as the same fan who ran on stage earlier tottered drunkenly over to the drum set and began slapping the snare with her palms. Someone pointed this out to Tim Maguire, saying maybe somebody should get her off the stage.

            “Nah,” he said. “That’s actually kind of what we’re all about. “