How Chicago Rocked My World

Great to be back in town. Not. The worst part about vacations is coming back home, to reality. Flew back in wednesday just in the nick of time. Apparently flying was a real bitch on thursday because of that terrorist plot being foiled in the U.K. My day was bad enough as it was. Our shuttle (doesn't that mean fast) from south chi-town to the airport took an hour and a half so I showed up at 8:30 for a 9:00 flight. Because it wasn't busy, I was able to get on in the nick of time. From my seat in the plane I literally saw my bag get dropped off by the delivery dude, the last one to be put on before they closed the doors. Then that flight left a little late which screwed me for my connecting flight in minneapolis which I had to run pretty much from one end of the airport to the other just to catch w/ minutes to spare. I didn't eat or drink anything that day until early afternoon!

So... about Chicago. What a great city. Arriving wasn't the best mostly because we decided to take the subway to save money. First of all it was like 103 degrees and I was wearing pants and lugging around a big suitcase. Then we ended up getting off where someone told us to and were pretty much in the hood. There was not a white person for miles and it looked like we were in the projects. After various battles w/ my sister and a couple bus rides and finally a cab ride, we arrived at our destination. We were staying at international house at Chicago University, basically a dorm room with shared bathrooms. Despite there being no air conditioning and it being a 1/2 hour busride to downtown we finally decided to stay as it was $100 US cheaper than anything else out there. It ended up working out because Chicago's transit system is second to none. We bought a 7 day pass for $20 and used the hell out of it. We got so used to taking the #6 to and fro that it almost became second nature. Thursday was shopping and seeing some of the sites of downtown.

Luckily the weather had cooled down a bit (80 degrees) by the time friday arrived for concert time. We began our day with the Eels who actually wren't too bad even though I'm not a huge fan. Then we saw the Editors who were definitely one of the highlights of my day. Their sets was one of the few we watched in its entirety because we tried to maximize the amount of bands we saw moreso than I've ever done at one of these festivals. After that it was a forgettable Ryan Adams performance that did nothing for me. He could have at least been in one fo his drunken stupors to make things a little more entertaining but no dice. Pint-sized UK rapper Lady Sovereign next rocked our world, spitting fire the likes of which I've never seen. She's definitely got some spunk. You're going to be hearing a lot more about her in the next little while as she's signed to Def Jam and her album is released on this side of the pond in the fall. SOV! The Raconteurs were alright but on the same time as My Morning Jacket so we halfed it on those two. MMJ was not bad either but something was missing there. I definitely expected a lot more.
The end of the night brought the violent femmes, ween and death cab who all put on decent shows.
Day 2 brought the Go! Team as our opener. They put on a energetic, if overly cheery set which put some jump in our step. We couldn't quite make it through that whole set so we meandered over to see feist on the other side of the park. She was pretty dissapointing from what i saw. Too quiet and basically getting drowned out by whoever was on the side stage. After an unremarkable set by built to spill we saw wolfmother who had a huge crowd and didn't dissapoint. They sound a little too much like zepplin but I enjoyed it. Gnarls Barkley was cool but at that point I was feeling a little light headed as some dude from Texas had handed me and my sister some shrooms and valium. Everything slowed down at that point for awhile. Unfortunately we couldn't catch Sonic Youth's set but you can't win em' all I guess. We then caught a little bit of blackalicious then went to see the flaming lips from afar. I guess we missed the now getting old giant ball trick where he walks over the crowd. I've now been to three festivals in the last year and a half where Wayne Coyne has done that trick. It's time for a new schtick guys. They're really becoming a parody of themselves, choosing entertainment (or lack thereof on this day) over a good live show. Thievery corporation followed with a killer set from what saw of it. I was definitely shaking my groove thang, I couldn't help myself. Sadly I had to leave early and separate from my sis to travel across the park again to get a decent spot for Kanye West. Despite being marred by sound issues early on Kanye killed it with a little help from some of his friends including fellow chicagoan Lupe Fiasco, Twista and most notably his DJ A-Trak (wassup Canada!) who held it down fo' sho'. It was a great nightcap.
Day three started with Sparta who made me remember why I like them so much. We didn't even plan to be there that early but I'm glad we were. I've seen them before but this time they blew me away. After that we sauntered over to one of the side stages to get a good spot for Hot Chip. While waiting I could hear a band on another stage who sounded amazing and I wish I was watching them. It turned out it was the frames and I ended up buying their CD at the virgin store there. I guess they've been aroung for fifteen years but I hadn't heard more than one song of theirs. What a good find! So Hot Chip was awesome! Probably the highlight of my weekend. If you weren't shaking your ass for their set there was something wrong with you. They seemed to be very picky setting up and soundchecking but I can see why. There's a lot going on with their music but it sounded spot on. After some eats, a really shitty 30 Seconds To Mars set (Jared Leto should go back to his day job) and a very quiet and mostly bad sounding Shins it was soon time for Queens of the stone age. They rocked as usual. I've now seen them five times and Josh n' the boys have never dissapointed. Broken Social Scene followed with their usual sloppy but entertainign set. The real hightlight around that time was running into a couple of possible porn stars who we took some suggestive pics with. The one chick was super cute. Speaking of fine, chicago definitely has some smoking women. Wow! The whole shebang then ended with the chilly peppers who kind of sucked to be honest. It could also have been that we were pretty exhausted at that point. When leaving the grounds, the concertgoers then took over the main streets of Chicago. It was pretty cool. The busride home was crazy as well. I've never been on a bus that was so packed. We were the last ones on so my face was literally pressed against the windshield.
Monday was more relaxing as we headed down to wrigley field and just chilled on the north side a little bit until our Wolf Parade show at the Metro that night. It was a real cool small club and the show rocked. The drinks were flowing that night so it was a sweet night all around other than the unfortunate idea of inhaling a giant burrito before bed.
Tuesday was more shopping, touring and a Sox/Yankees game. We got some tickets for the sold out game from a scalper and had a great time. Alex Rodriguez even hit a homer but generally it was kind of boring. My sister was cheering for both teams at one point, not the smartest cookie in the jar that's for sure. Just kidding.

All in all, Chcago was amazing and I almost certainly have to go back. I know my way around pretty well now. The people there were also amazingly friendly and helpful when we happened to be lost. Some gay guy also screamed out how hot I was right on the street. Why couldn't one of those hot chi-town broads do that instead? This chick I saw on the bus monday wearing these little shorts, OMG! I think I need some time alone. We kind of caught eachother's eyes then she saw my sister (who she thought like most was my GF) and she didn't look at me again. Speaking of me and my sister, we had our usual travelling battles (at least 2 a day) but it didn't detract from the time we had. Were just like oil and water sometimes, she's just so freakin' stubborn!

Pictures to come tommorow...