Impediment Conjures Laid-Back Magic at The Basement

Something bizarre happened at The Basement Monday night. As I walked up to the doors, I watched a man pull a giant dog puppet out of the back of his car. I chalked it up to load-in for some quirky set dressing: I’d never seen The Angels of Death, Jason Shapiro or Impediment, and thought maybe one of the acts would be going for an off-kilter kind of Meels thing. Instead, to my surprise, the guy took control of the puppet and took a full lap through the crowd as the show began. The dog nodded along to the music and waved at people. Another guy followed behind, filming the whole thing on his phone. Were we all unwitting participants in someone’s TikTok? Did they pay for tickets for the show for this?

Reader, I don’t know what all that was about, but I do know now that anything can happen at The Basement. I also know that The Angels of Death, a relatively new slowcore band composed of members of Chainshot, Safety Net and Long Con, are consummate professionals, able to coolly pull a crowd’s attention from even the most distracting circumstances. They adorned the stage with a black blanket and votive candles for their opening set, and led with “Hill to Die On,” most recently recorded for their 2024 EP Alpha. The song is a seven-minute slow burn, the kind that usually hits toward the end of a set — but heavy with distorted guitars and disaffected Bible references, it was the perfect way to sink into the depths.

In their demos, The Angels of Death can sound a bit like Low or Yo La Tengo: plaintive, reverential. Onstage, they opted for higher-octane versions of their recordings, adding scorching heat to “Holy Thursday” and “Tight Rope.” Around them, the atmosphere was tight-knit and relaxed. Vocalist and guitarist Sam Petschulat called for a moment of silence for late Titans announcer Coach Mac, and bassist Sean Flint fist-bumped Impediment’s Happy Haugen between songs. “Is it Impediment or Jason Shapiro up next?” Flint asked at the end of the set. “Are we doing the Nashville sandwich?”

It turned out to be a Nashville sandwich kind of night, so Chicago’s Jason Shapiro was up next, starting with a cover of The Lemonheads’ “My Drug Buddy.” Shapiro’s tongue-in-cheek anti-folk ditties remind me a little of Juan Wauters or a bluer Jonathan Richman, but he doesn’t seem to be going for the poignancy of either. Instead, he bills himself as “Chicago’s most shameless comedian,” with songs like “Boring Folk Music” and “You Need Therapy” set to quirky acoustic guitar. The tone shift was sharp after The Angels of Death’s gospel preoccupations, but as Shapiro encouraged the crowd to come closer and played his new single “I’m Alive (And It Hurts!),” his enthusiasm was infectious.

As they geared up to close out the night, Impediment put their hands together over Sean Booz’s kick drum and cheered. The longtime local favorites are teasing an album — in the notes of their March release 2026 Demo, there’s a hint to expect an “LP out later this year >:-).” They share some DNA with the twangy, fuzzy rock that’s so in favor these days, but Impediment is refreshingly unpretentious about it. Their music has an easy confidence, and it’s often strikingly heartfelt — especially the noisy, tender “All the Time!,” which shone on The Basement stage.

Impediment’s sincerity makes for a magnetic live show. Singer-guitarist Haugen grinned with his tongue between his teeth while playing, and bassist Lawrence Rogers cracked jokes about Hank Williams. At one point, Haugen jumped into the audience and played back at the band. At another, his microphone moved out of place and someone in the crowd adjusted it for him, earning a quick “Thanks, Ryan” between verses. I love the intimacy of small shows like this, their laid-back magic. I scrawled “shooting the shit, and then songs that rip” in my notebook. Can’t ask for much else on a Monday night.

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