If you didn’t catch the Joan of Arc Don’t Mind Control Variety Show in January at the Bottle, where Tim Kinsella invited more than a dozen acts that include at least one person who’s played in Joan of Arc (out of an estimated couple hundred such bands in the Chicagoland area), you missed a messy good time that combined art-rock aspirations and endearingly ramshackle “hey guys, let’s put on a show” execution. You also, as you may have heard, missed a not-so-well-kept “secret” Cap’n Jazz reunion set smack in the middle of the proceedings, a set that I can without reservation call one of the best punk shows I’ve seen in a very long time.
Now you can get that set, along with Variety Show sets from the likes of Disappears, Vacations, and Birthmark, as a high-quality soundboard recording on a free compilation from Polyvinyl. While you’re at the Polyvinyl site, consider buying the excellent members-of-Joan of Arc compilation album Don’t Mind Control or possibly a bag of coffee blended for maximum Joan of Arcness by Intelligentsia, which is extremely delicious.