One of the most remarkable things about Chicago is its complex relationship with crime. The criminal-justice and court system is often so flawed, discriminatory, and unjust that it can seem as harmful as the crimes it seeks to control. For more than a century we’ve also had an entire industry dedicated to sensationalizing and mythologizing Mafia figures, bank robbers, gang leaders, and serial killers. None of these institutions appears to care much about the suffering involved, especially that of violent criminals or people brutalized by the system itself—and that’s even more true when those people are one and the same. If anyone can find empathy for them, it might be Adele Nicholas, a local civil-rights lawyer and activist (she’s worked extensively in support of the Chicago Community Bond Fund) who’s also front woman of indie-rock trio Axons. The group’s upcoming release, I Object to Everything, is based on one of the city’s most astonishing incidents (criminal or otherwise) in recent memory: one night in December 2012, Joseph “Jose” Banks and Kenneth Conley, two federal prisoners awaiting sentencing for bank robbery, escaped out a window at downtown’s Metropolitan Correctional Center and rappelled 17 stories to the ground on a rope made of bedsheets and dental floss. They were eventually recaptured.
The audaciousness of that feat aside, it brings up questions about what it must be like inside American jails and prisons for a potentially suicidal mission to look like a better option. With tenderness and open eyes, Axons explore the events surrounding the escape and look at the damaged, dangerous men who lived to tell their story. That respect for everyone’s humanity rings clear throughout I Object to Everything, even when the songs touch on the absurdities that can coexist with crime and punishment. On the Pixies-influenced “Shove It,” Axons manage to turn Conley’s retort to the judge who sentenced him in 2014 into a poppy melody (“You told him he could shove it right up his ass”). The band don’t let anyone off the hook—the lighthearted “A Lot of Petty Stuff,” about robbing a store with a toy gun, turns somber at the mention of consequences—but they also keep the focus on the destructiveness of the justice system and on their admiration for the human spirit’s capacity to carry on in dire circumstances. Album closer “Twenty More Years” resists the idea of getting comfortable with imprisonment, no matter how long it lasts.
Deep Fake, Shannon Candy, Axons, Thu 4/7, 9:30 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, $12, 21+
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