The Ditty Bops play Songs for Steve and auction art in Chicago

June 13, 2009, at the Old Town School of Folk Music

By Lori Finkel
Published: June 16th, 2009 | 12:55pm

A crowd of thick-framed glasses–wearing, public radio–supporting 20- to 50-somethings traipsed to their assigned seats in the auditorium at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music as Amanda Barrett and Abby DeWald took to the stage. Known as the Ditty Bops, the duo began their performance promptly at 8 p.m. Barrett, who managed to look delicate as she channeled a ‘70s train conductor in a black button-down shirt ruffled at the sleeve and high-wasted denim overalls, thanked the audience for “looking so pretty,” and the girls went right into the first song, “When’s She Comin’ Home?” off 2008’s Summer Rains (The Green Witch Society).

The set played like the taping of an NPR show: Barrett and DeWald invited the audience into their charming life on the east coast where the couple lives. Between songs, they discussed personal things like books they’ve read or plan to read, the $800 spent on chocolate, olive oil, and drinking vinegars at Zingerman’s Deli in Ann Arbor, and their first date. Barrett admitted DeWald almost wouldn’t go out with her upon the suggestion they go to the Renaissance Faire, and DeWald maintained a sense of humor about herself when she pointed to a leather coin satchel tied to her belt loop and admitted she looked like the one who belonged at the Renaissance Faire. “I mean it’s cool,” DeWald said, “if it’s not, like, a way of life.”

The Ditty Bops then went into the sweetly nostalgic song, “Because We Do,” before they played a few songs from an in-progress musical, performed with shadow puppets, including a song about sharks. “We’re rewriting it to increase the shark stage presence,” DeWald said. Keeping in line with the band’s agenda — to promote sustainability — DeWald further explained the simple message of the song, “I’m not your garbage man. We have a lot of litter in our waterways, and sharks don’t like it.”

After “My Baby Is Doin’ Alright,” a song about a poor man’s sweetheart who is “doing alright” because she’s married to a rich man, the duo attempted to make some quick cash of their own by auctioning off their homemade art — pictures of famous feminists cut from a calendar with their hair colored in purple, red, and blue; a black shirt with lip patches sewn all over; and a pink floral western-style shirt that Amanda’s grandmother let her borrow, which went for $40. DeWald tried to coax the Chicago audience into a competition by mentioning that Ann Arbor’s crowd paid a lot for their art.

Then, DeWald had a memory lapse when she thanked the audience and everyone from the Ark, the venue in Ann Arbor where the Ditty Bops had played the night before. But she gracefully saved herself, or rather adorably dug herself deeper, by adding, “What I meant was that Old Town is sacred to the ark — the sacred ark of the Old Town School of Folk Music.” When there was no saving herself, she laughed and jumped into the next song, and introduced it with, “This is about a person who’s sitting on a pile of trash.”

The set ended with “Crazy People,” and the Ditty Bops took hands, bowed, and left the stage, only to be cheered back for an encore which was to no one’s surprise since they had left their instruments in place, house lights still low, and aluminum water bottles on stage. “Thank you guys, you’re so kind in this sacred ark,” DeWald said. They played the last song they hadn’t played off of their new self-released EP Songs for Steve, bowed again, exited to go shake hands with the masses in the foyer, and this time took their bottles with them.

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For more photos from this show visit Venus Zine’s Flickr page

The Ditty Bops official site

The Ditty Bops MySpace page