Written by: Alex Green

Photos By Brett Widmann

SEM’s Digital Director Brett Widmann caught Poptone the other night in Chicago and sent us the below photos in real time.

Playing the historic Concord Music Hall, the band continued their recent winning streak in fine fashion, tearing through the songbooks of Tones On Tail, Love and Rockets and Bauhaus with darkness and grace. The trio–Daniel Ash, Kevin Haskins and Diva Dompe–have a preternatural chemistry that’s based on history (Ash and Haskins have been playing together since they were teens) and DNA (Diva is Haskins’ daughter). As a result, the synergy between the band members provides an effortless and seamless element to their sound that most bands don’t have the luxury of having access to.

Coincidentally, SEM’s Chicago correspondent Matt Sloan was also there and he had this to say about the band’s performance. “There’s a new dark power that surges through numbers like “Mirror People” and “Rain.” The band has added to their many legendary songbooks a sonic augmentation that’s buoyed by a newfound muscle that flexes itself with smoky elegance. Whether it was the haunting cabaret of “Happiness” or the majestic “All In My Mind,” Poptone have found a secret gear and they’re using it perfectly to ride smoothly through the wildest waters of the deepest Goth oceans. This was sheer bliss.”