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Review by Marty Cusack/Photos by Dave Miller

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Previous visits by Peter Case to Chicago -- at the Old Town School of Folk Music, FitzGerald's and Park West -- featured his acoustic troubadour style of his early solo albums.

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Case's performance Sunday night at the Empty Bottle served as a loud reminder that he can still rock with a band.

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On a national club tour revisiting songs from his Plimsouls, Nerves, Breakaways and Beat recordings of the late 1970s and early '80s, Case showed his mastery of combining garage rock, power pop, British Invasion-inspired punk and maximum R&B in a 21-song set before an enthusiastic, mixed-aged crowd. A tight trio of ex-Beat guitraist Tim Schweiger, bassist Timm Buechler and drummer Amos Pitsch backed him.

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Case led off with "How Long Will It Take" and followed the rocker with his only reference to the elephant in the room -- the dismissal of Nerves partner Paul Collins from the tour just days earlier. "This is a song from the first time Paul and I stopped working together," Case said introducing "Now." In a Facebook post three days earlier, Case was more direct about Collins:

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"He was continually abusive to the band and others supporting the tour, and when I stuck up for them, he repeatedly showered me with loud abuse. That road doesn't go through anymore. This is a problem that went back to day 1 of the tour and (not only) never improved for long but got worse. It's amazing that we were able to get through as many shows as we did...The Nerves didn't work out in the seventies and they couldn't now."

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Raucous versions of "I'll Get Lucky," "Great Big World," "House on the Hill" and "Makin' Time,'" a song by The Creation that the Plimsouls used to cover, came next. Case got the crowd boppin' with "Oldest Story in the World" -- one of his more well-known Plimsouls songs due to it being featured in the 1983 movie "Valley Girl." Another multi-media connection followed. "The best thing that can happen to a songwriter these days is to have one of your songs in a vampire movie, Case joked before launching into a rocked-out version of the oft-covered "Two Angels" from his second solo album, The Man with the Blue Post-Modern Fragmented Neo-Traditionalist Guitar. The song was featured in HBO's "True Blood."

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Case followed with three songs from his early work with the Nerves -- "Give Me Some Time," "When You Find Out" and "Hanging on the Telephone," the last number, which Blondie covered, was written by Case in 1974 when he made his first trip from his native Buffalo, N.Y., to San Francisco. "I thought I had really made it," Case said.

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Speaking of covers, Case played Link Wray's classic instrumental "Rumble," then gave tribute to one of his early rock-and-roll heroes with a true-to-heart, all-out verson of Chuck Berry's "Nadine."

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The regular set closed with the most familiar Plimsouls song, which Case said he wrote after a grueling tour. "I got dropped off at the corner of Sunset and LeBrea, it was late in the afternoon and I was all alone with a bag full of comic books and dirty laundry...I was tired and I felt like I was 'A Million Miles Away'!"

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The three-song encore ended with a surprise. Case went off the written setlist and big everyone adieu with The Kinks' "I Gotta Go Now."

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If you missed seeing Case this time -- and he does make only the occasional visit to Chicago -- you can still listen to the powerhouse performance of Case and the Plimsouls on the recently-released live album Beach Town Confidential (Alive Naturalsounds Records) from the band's 1983 show at the Golden Bear in Huntington, Calif.

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Peter Case setlist:

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How Long Will It Take

Now

I'll Get Lucky

Great Big World

Makin' Time

House on the Hill

Oldest Story in the World

Zero Hour

Two Angels

Women

Give Me Some Time

When You Find Out

Hanging on the Telephone

Rumble

Nadine

Everyday Things

Hush

Million Miles Away

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In This Town

Paper Dolls

I Gotta Go Now

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Start: 9:17 p.m./Finish: 10:36 p.m.

Totals: 20 songs, one hour 19 minutes

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Summer Twins setlist:

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Got Somebody to Dream About

I Don't Care

Stars Aligned

Apple Orchards

Try

The More I Think of You

Teardrops on My Pillow

Pickin' Daisies

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Start: 8:20 p.m./Finish: 8:55 p.m.

Totals: Eight songs, 35 minutes

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The evening opened with a short set by local band, The Sleepovers. Consisting of singer Annie Boldon, her husband, Dan, on guitar and vocals, his twin, Doug, on drums, and Schuyer Mehal, who played his bass like a lead guitar, the band combined Ramones-like driving beats with Kinks-inspired riffs. Expect a debut album of power-bubblegum pop soon from Hozac Records.

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The Sleepovers setlist*:

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Heart Beat

Hang Out

Summertime

Cherry

Girls

Jupiter

Right or Wrong

Rodeo

Milkshake

Step on the Gas

Thinking Days

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*As written on the stage setlist

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Start: 7:35 p.m./Finish: 8:07 p.m.

Totals: 11 songs, 32 minutes

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Peter Case

March 25, 2012 @ Empty Bottle

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Peter Case

March 25, 2012 @ Empty Bottle

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Peter Case

March 25, 2012 @ Empty Bottle