Something Is Waiting don’t play it safe. The Chicago trio’s idea of a 2025 statement isn’t another studio single or flashy short-form clip — it’s a full-on live album, recorded without overdubs at the Empty Bottle and dropped like a brick through the windshield of our content-saturated world. Livelick (out October 24 on Learning Curve Records) documents the band as they are: raw, nasty, and locked in.
Today, Decibel is premiering “Poster Boys (Live),” one of the record’s centerpiece tracks — and one with a surreal lyrical twist. Frontman Eddie Gobbo explains:
“Usually when I write lyrics I try to get mentally in a moment, scenario or environment, from a time or place in my life, and THEN begin writing. ‘Poster Boys’ was me in my bedroom back when I was 14 years old. The Rock posters. The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) posters. Everyone in music had their version of that same bedroom. They could look at the same poster and draw inspo for years. The attitude that oozed off of them was heavy. The main theme of that song, pretty surreal, is one day you’re ‘talking’ to the poster, giving it your power and energy, then one day that shifts and the poster kinda starts talking back.”
The concept of a poster talking back feels almost quaint in the current landscape, where anyone with a phone can point, shoot, and upload. But for Gobbo, that shift is exactly why Livelick exists:
“I’m super proud that Something Is Waiting [is] releasing a Live LP in 2025! The live album is teetering on being obsolete, yeah. I understand why. Like you mentioned, the iPhone. I love the ones done well, for example, the Hate5six stuff. But most can be bullshit. Live records in theory are meant to be a polished version of a live experience. Those that know know how powerful they can be, and were. The live record OWNED the ’70s–’90s. They’re what motivated and lathered up the fan to get up off their ass and go to the gig. Wanting to be IN that setting you’re hearing.”
Livelick is a defiant reminder that Something Is Waiting are a band, not a project. Gobbo, drummer Idin Alexzander, and guitarist William T. Fay bring chemistry you can’t fake: a gel forged by sweating it out on stages. Gobbo again:
“About 25% of music in the underground music scene aren’t bands, they’re studio projects. It’s usually spearheaded by one person playing damn near everything, who, if pressed to play MDF or whatever, will put together a lineup to present it live. Never has been my thing, no offense to it. I like watching BANDS. Bands have a gel, a chemistry. Only one way to get that: playing live together. A lot.”
That philosophy bleeds into Gobbo’s influences, too. Asked about his most memorable Empty Bottle show, he points to Coliseum a decade ago:
“They ripped through about an hour set and then Ryan Patterson goes, ‘Hey, that’s it, you guys want to hear anything else?’ And people in the crowd start shouting song titles at them. They started playing the requests, one by one, and nailed all of them! … Coliseum were a band I really pointed to, when we formed Something Is Waiting. I really wanted to be in a band that no one at all sounded like and no one CAN sound like. You can try, but no one can sound like Coliseum. They just can’t. I like to think same of us!”
Livelick also pays homage to the great live records Gobbo grew up on — Pantera’s Official Live: 101 Proof, Slayer’s Decade of Aggression, and John Fogerty’s Premonition, which he calls “THEE best sounding live record ever made.” For Gobbo, these weren’t just albums; they were a call to action. Poster Boys carries that same DNA: attitude amplified until it starts talking back.
Livelick arrives October 24 on Learning Curve Records. Pre-order it here. Follow Something Is Waiting on Instagram.
Stream “Poster Boys (Live)” below:
The post Track Premiere: Something Is Waiting – “Poster Boys” (Live) appeared first on Decibel Magazine.