Del Water Gap's Chasing the Chimera Tour Turned Chicago's Riviera Theatre Into a Stunning Illusion of Intimate Grandeur: Live Review
- Abby Anderson
- 1 hour ago
- 3 min read
Cloaked in a cloudlike tapestry, bathed in a dreamlike haze, and framed by the ornate French Renaissance architecture of Riviera Theatre, Del Water Gap’s Chasing the Chimera Tour shimmered through a snowy February evening in Chicago with pitch-perfect alt-rock and a sense of suspended reality. This is a show that feels suspended between centuries, with the gilded arches and painted ceilings above, and below them an artist and crowd alike looking to make sense of the world through music. At the forefront of it all is Del Water Gap, the soft-spoken everyman and the impenetrable rockstar, who makes moments of mystery feel like a safe haven.
From the opening notes of “Small Town Joan of Arc,” the room was his. The command wasn’t domineering, but rather an embrace, as Del Water Gap pulled the crowd inward with a set that drifted effortlessly from stripped acoustics to glossy pop to full-bodied rock, weaving in brand-new songs making their tour debut alongside deep cuts that have long lived in the marrow of DWG setlists for years.
As Del Water Gap, or S. Holden Jaffe to those who know the name behind the moniker, moved through the sultry-sad hush of “Please Follow,” he made a point to inhabit the silence between lines and grant something of a tangibly nostalgic heartache to the crowd surrounding him by dissolving the barrier between stage and floor. With a felt joy that comes from a place of both sincerity and mischief, he pivoted toward joyful heartache, grinning at the crowd’s shouted “Hey!” interlude during “Doll House” as he engaged in the nichely iconic dance moves that punctuate the chorus.
Hitting most of his latest project and standouts from his previous album, I Miss You Already + I Haven't Left Yet, Del Water Gap drove through his discography under a layer of fog, ethereal lights, and a canopy that created a background for a black and white video screen, further creating a fresh take on the balance between intimacy and grandeur. Powering through highs like "Beach House," "Better Than I Know Myself," and "All We Ever Do Is Talk," Del Water Gap remained ever in control.
But these shows are not solely about the music, they are about the connective tissue that binds it. Jaffe slipped seamlessly between rockstar spectacle and shared humanity, inviting a fan to commandeer the lights during “NFU,” recounting his return to music as a solo artist at Chicago’s own Schubas Tavern before launching into “High Tops," the oldest song on the setlist and a testament to endurance. During “Damn,” he spun a sewing machine adorned with his own design, gifting it to a fan as a relic of the evening. He welcomed Chicago’s own Tom Higgenson of the Plain White T's to the stage for a one-off performance of "Hey There Delilah," the crowd easily singing along to a chorus that felt stitched into the city’s bones. And during “Perfume,” he leapt down into the general admission crowd itself, face to face with the center of the room, collapsing the distance entirely.
In the end, Del Water Gap makes live music less about chasing something unattainable and more about proving that the elusive can be made tangible, if only for a night. Beneath painted ceilings and heavenly lights, Del Water Gap created a space where longing felt communal, where heartache shimmered instead of shattered, and where the line between artist and audience dissolved into something softer, stranger, and beautifully shared.
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