I hate breaking strings. It’s unnerving, it’s startling, on occasion it’s painful. And in an open mic setting, it’s pretty much the end of your set. There are SOME circumstances where you can play it off – but if you’re in the first half of a song, your partner’s guitar is in a different tuning, the open mic is tight on time and it’s a string that’s pretty integral to the song there’s just no recovery. I snapped a string during the second tune of a two tune set at Uncommon Ground in Chicago last night and it left me feeling like I’d let the band down.
Sigh – shit happens – but it was our first attempt at making an impression in Chicago in years and it undermined our ability to do it. Heather’s tune Phantom was still bad ass and wondrous, but we always overthink out open mic sets, and LooseN was going to counterpoint Phantom’s loss and darkness with a little bit of jam and good-old-fashioned lust and flash.
Whatever. Chicago’s amazing. It’s like a city of the future, at least in outward appearance. It shimmers and sparkles and stretches to the sky. You half-expect to see flying cars skimming through the perfect blue sky and I wouldn’t have been surprised to see an electric car charging station at every 7 Eleven.
The drivers sure are rude though. There’s a LOT of honking, a lot of gesturing, a lot of pedestrians sent scurrying and a lot of last-minute lane changes by cars that seem to all subscribe to the not-so-golden rule of “do unto others as they’d do unto you and do it first”.
Tonight we played at a bar called the Red Line Tap, and though the outside appearance was dubious and the interior appearance read as sort of a dive bar, our initial judgments were rapidly disproved. Everything from the décor to the tunes playing through the house system to the board and the stage could do with a second glance and are far more exciting than they initially appear. The bartender was quick and friendly and simply FUN and the people that greeted us as we were loading in made us feel welcomed and at home. That’s a damn rarity in an unfamiliar bar in a big city. The sound guy was awesome, the sound check painless, and the sound itself was pretty amazing. I heard some of Primus’ newest album and the bartender played some stuff from a band called the Easy Star All-Stars that made me sit the Hell up and take notice.
Slowly the sun goes down in the Edgewater district of Chicago – and the Starbucks that has been our home for about five hours is grudgingly abandoned in favour of delicious Thai food and, you know, playin’ a gig or something… In front of our venue in Chicago, IL is another stretch of murals. It really is a mighty tarted up town – and I mean that in a GOOD way! And say what you like Obama – the man would look good on the currency. (part of that mural almost directly in front of the Red Line Tap in Chicago, IL). The band we opened for was a bluegrassy quartet called the Mudflapps that i was all too sad to leave behind before getting a chance to chat. This was one of the bar specials at Red Line Tap. That’s…. like a terrible idea! (the bartender reported that he had indeed slapped three people and that the second asterisk had been added after the second one)
Betwixt Tim and an old crush from MIDDLE SCHOOL we actually had ourselves some peeps, and the rest of the crowd gathered round and paid attention shortly into our set.
It was a thoroughly satisfying gig, even though we totally failed to make any money. A good little toe-hold to think about for the future.
We were opening for a very fun band called the Mudflapps – sort of bluegrassy, high-energy and thoroughly delicious – it was a good match for us. Unfortunately we couldn’t stay much later than the first couple of songs, but hopefully we’ll get to hook up with them again later.
Chicago. I can get behind this city. It’s supposed to get snow tomorrow. We’re outta here.
