IL/IN

Back on the road!

Friday: Chicago--one of our favorite places to be. This would be our second time playing the House of Blues in Chicago (the first was a strange but awesome one, filled with ticket-giveaway-recipients). This time was no fluke--we've done very well at Joe's on Weed Street and Joe's in Rosemont, and now we were moving up to a bigger, more awesome venue.

Load in is an alley under Dearborn Ave, right at the river. This dude's job (evidently) is to sit in a folding chair, facing the building. I'm not sure if the plan is for him to stop people from coming out, or going in.

The last time we played here, I was immediately awed by the size of the room. This time I walked in and said, "Oh, it's a House of Blues." It's about the same size as every other HoB we've played. Funny how times change.

In between soundcheck and the show, I went for a run around town. Chicago landmarks!

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot!

 

Daley Plaza (Blues Brothers, Ferris Bueller)

Chicago Board of Trade

(for Beth)

The Bean! Not in either movie, but I had to grab a picture when I went by

Anyway...the gig! The show was pretty good, in my estimation. Maybe we were a bit rusty because we hadn't played a show in a couple of weeks, and there was a technical problem when Greg's amp died in the middle of I Can't Go for That, but my in ears mix sounded good and I was genuinely excited to play a real gig in a real venue. I guess I just love Chicago. I don't think I played anything memorable, but I still had a good time. Hope we come back to twice as many people next time (940 in the room with us for this one).

Oh yeah, nothing memorable, except that I got the first chord of the first song wrong. That was stupid, but it got better after that.

photo by Kip Conner

Saturday: Movin' on! We played the Mallow Run Winery outside of Indianapolis for our Saturday gig. We did this same gig two years ago (you can read about it right here). The place was paaaaaaacked. Like, maybe a couple of thousand people? It's entirely possible.

The weather was great (high of maybe 80?), the audience was huge, and there was, of course, big love for those of us who graduated from Indiana U. No love for Monkeyboy, though, who was introduced as not from Indiana, loves the University of Kentucky, and is a huge Tom Brady fan!

Once again, nothing memorable was played, but I had an excellent time. My in ear mix was even better than the night before. This is the best week of gigs I've had in a while.

Goodnight Indiana--we'll be back in a few weeks!