I never thought I would see concert fans singing along and doing the finger motions to a funny gangster-fied version of “Itsy Bitsy Spider” with zero hesitation at a rock concert. But that’s exactly what Tim Fite can do to a crowd. And it is with great pleasure that I now share with you another Live Fix Enhanced Concert Review that explains why I’ve been addicted to Fite’s latest album Under The Table Tennis.
We’ve followed his hilarious newsletters for the last few months.
And the last time I saw Fite live he was handing out free watermelons while he rocked the Hideout Block Party in Chicago in 2008.
But during his recent Schubas show, Fite took us deeper into his wonderfully wacky and brilliantly twisted world with a cartoon short-film fest to compliment his carnivalistic melee of hip hop, folk, blues, spirituals, rock, pop and adult-friendly nursery rhymes.
What follows is a gallery of pictures from the show taken by Colleen with snippets from my forthcoming Ink19 concert review. You’ll also be able to enjoy a video captured by yours truly that puts it all together. And we’ll top it all off with a link to download Under The Table Tennis for free on Fite’s website.
Tim Fite vs. LOST
Yes, the last episode of LOST sucked and I’m glad I was at this concert instead of being at home and having my expectations ruined by a terrible finale that I would eventually watch on Monday.
Here’s why and how it all went down at Schubas:
Whether he was using a mic, loop tracks, a sampler or just his acoustic guitar, Fite evoked a chorus of cheers, woots and yelps from the crowd. From the front the stage to the back of the house, faces were plastered thick with elation and glimmering with a goofy sense of happiness mirroring the man on stage leading the celebration.
Without a doubt this show topped Fite’s block-rocking watermelon affair in 2008, mainly because of how he used the cartoon side-show videos which he played in-between songs. To the average person, the cartoons — which he writes, draws and produces all by himself — might appear juvenile and silly but that’s just because Fite’s so good at what he does. Among other strange creatures and quirky concepts, the series of videos featured a hilarious “Dog and Pony show,” “a little pink cockroach that crawls in your mouth when your sleeping,” and “three little pig bankers who are getting fat feeding on the relief of their porky bail outs.”
Each video was packed with subtext and metaphor that would take to much time to explain in this review alone. But at the very least I’ll say that when it comes to making videos to play on a backdropped screen during a concert, I wish his videos were the standard and that other bands would put as much creativity and originality into the production as Fite does.
Firing on all charismatic cylinders, Fite looked like a preacher floating on air who was unable to contain his joy of being caught up in the spirit. Giving way to his inner emotional surge, he jumped off the stage and raced into the crowd during the empathetic, cautionary and extremely catchy pop sing-along tune “We Didn’t Warn You.” 
After dancing in a swirling circle of celebration with fans, Fite darted from the center of attention on the floor and leaped back on stage to take us to show’s fantastic finale via the flippantly inspiring “Big Mistake” from Fair Ain’t Fair
And if you need any more convincing why you should download UTTT you’re welcome to check out my Blogcritics review of the album here.
But if you want to cut to the chase. Go right to Fite’s site for the fantastic download.
That’s all on Tim Fite for now, my friends. I hope you enjoyed it — and eventually share my addiction.