The Long Goodbye

It's been about two weeks since my summer residence in Chicago stopped and my Ohio-based life began anew. I'm still not entirely at ease with being back, there are a ton of things about the city that I continue to miss. But there's no use in moping—I had one of the best experiences of my life and learned quite a bit about what I might want to do with myself after this whole education of mine comes to its logical conclusion. Having what amounted to an all-access pass to just about any concert or event I felt like attending certainly didn't hurt either. I wanted to do a short wrap-up of my last few weeks in Chicago—which is exactly what I'm about to do.

Towards the end of August I got the chance to catch one more White Mystery show at Lincoln Hall—hands-down my favorite place to see bands in Chicago. Their set stuck pretty close to what I'd seen a bit earlier in the summer, but the unabated garage-band energy these two put forth makes it work, even on repeat viewings. Honestly, it's just awesome to see Alex White up on-stage yelling into a mic and trashing at that beautiful Rickenbacker guitar. They're doing a ton of shows around Chicago in the coming months, if you're in the area you have no excuse not to see them.

I also had the chance to make it over to Schubas—although sadly I arrived too late for one last bowl of their glorious mac and cheese—to see Lou Barlow and Wye Oak. The latter are a band who's music I'm totally familiar with, but whom I was somewhat surprised to discover to be a duo. They always struck me as at least a trio, but I suppose that's just a testament to how full they can sound thanks to one of them pulling double duty on drums and keyboard. The raw, almost alt-country sound served as an admirable lead-in to Lou Barlow's eclectic set which transitions between delicate acoustic ballads and loud, straight-ahead rock. It was pretty cool seeing the Dinosaur Jr. bassist in action with the Missingmen, turning in tracks from their Sentridoh III EP. For pictures and further thoughts, kindly direct your gaze to the post I wrote for the TOC blog.

During my last week of Chicago residency, I finally made a trip to famous Superdawg drive-in, a hot dog joint so iconic that it served as the backdrop for a particularly awesome Wilco photoshoot. While I can't say it was one of my favorite hot dogs—that honor still, and will likely forever, belong to Hot Doug's—it was pretty damn good. More than anything, it's really kind of amazing that a place like this still exists but I'm sure we have many Food Channel specials and its great local reputation to thank for that.

Throughout my last week at Time Out I was one of the only interns left, so I was assigned the (at times, arduous) task of taking photos for a feature in the magazine that mapped out walking tours based around locations shown in movies. It turned out to be a pretty good way to spend some of my last days in the city—seeing some sights I was already familiar with and making my way to some new corners of town. I walked through the High Fidelity tour of Wicker Park, took a jaunt through the sports-centric locations in Wrigleyville and completed an extremely long romantic comedy-themed journey down the Gold Coast. All in a day's work for this intrepid pseudo-photographer.

My last day at the office, a couple of the guys from Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin came in and did an in-office performance which you can see over on the TOC blog. They were nice enough to invite me to their show later in the evening, so I ended up getting one more chance to see a show at Lincoln Hall before hitting the road. I caught a set from co-headliner Telekinesis, a band that seems to have matured quite a bit since their Merge records debut. SSLYBY's set was the highlight of the night, heavy on tracks from their brand new record Let It Sway. I can't say I've ever kept track of this band in the past, but I'll definitely being keeping my eye on them in the future—years on the road have molded this group into an extremely tight and fun live act. After a few Schlitz and some words with the SSLYBY boys, I bid Lincoln Hall goodbye (for the time-being).

My last night in Chicago was—oddly enough—spent with a bunch of folks from Athens who were in town visiting friends. It got me pretty excited about getting back home, so I guess it was somewhat opportune. Regardless, I miss all the great folks I met, and all the places I became accustomed to hanging out at. If nothing else, this summer solidified my resolve that Chicago is definitely the place where I can see myself ending up. I'm extremely grateful that things panned out the way they did—Marvel, I think you actually did me a favor by rejecting me (water under the bridge, I'll still read your comics). But, like I said, there's no use in moping about it, I've got some great memories, and I'll be back soon enough.

Fun World

As I mentioned in my last post, this past weekend my good friend Danny Clay (that picture is probably his next album cover) made his way over to Chicago to visit my summer digs. We've got some pretty similar tastes in both music and food (maybe that's why we're friends?), so it was easy to spend a weekend catering to those commonalities at some of my favorite places around the city. Good times ensued.

On Wednesday we started out the day with a trip to Michigan Avenue's original Billy Goat Tavern for a couple of double cheezborgers, then made the short jaunt over to Jazz Record Mart to survey their wares. For the evening's entertainment, we journeyed over to the Hideout for another edition of the ever-reliable Immediate Sound series. This particular night featured local free-jazz super-group The Engines, made up of trombonist Jeb Bishop (he played on Eureka), saxophonist Dave Rempis, Nate McBride on bass and Tim Daisy of drums. The group delivered two really solid sets of largely improvised music, showcasing a group dynamic that seemed at once spontaneous and oddly controlled.

Thursday evening we made our way to Pritzker Pavilion for the kick-off of the Made in Chicago jazz concert series. An augmented line-up of local post-rockers Tortoise headlined the show, debuting an original composition commissioned for the occasion with the help of several Chicago improv-scene heavyweights. Tortoise acted as little more than a backing band, giving their guests plenty of room to create as they saw fit. Without a doubt, the night's highlights were Nicole Mitchell's piercing flute solo (that one drove away a good number of people) and Fred Lomberg-Holm's distorted cello refrain. As usual, the sound in Pritzker was beautiful, conveying the full range of the on-stage assemblage. The only thing that could have made the night better would have been a little vibraphone action from McEntire and Herndon. Maybe next time?

Friday began with an early morning trip to Hot Doug's, a necessity not only because Dan needed to experience some of the best hot dogs in Chicago, but also because Doug is closing up shop for the next few weeks for some well-deserved vacation time. I also made a point of taking Dan over to the Whistler to see one of Leroy Bach's solo acoustic sets, a weekly occurrence that never fails to entertain. Later in the evening, we found ourselves at Schubas for the Reds and Blue CD release show with Hollows. I was particularly impressed with Reds and Blue, which featured Time Out Chicago Music associate editor Areif Sless-Kitain on drums (do interns have to give full disclosure? Too late). Their keyboard-driven prog-rock was a nice change of pace after a couple of days of wall-to-wall jazz.

On Saturday we found our way over to Wicker Park fest, catching sets from Gaslamp Killer, Holy Fuck and Mission of Burma. The place was packed, I don't think I've been to a street fest this summer that has had the draw that this one did. I guess they're doing something right. Burma was definitely the night's high-point, finding the group in fine form and running through a nice mix of material, both old and new (while name-dropping the nearby Myopic Books).

Yesterday we wrapped things up by catching Chicago Stone Lightning Band (featuring my TOC boss, John Dugan, on the drums) at the hokey biker/guitar bar Faith & Whiskey. The day's cuisine included stops at the Fullerton Diner (for brunch), Portillo's (for Itallian beef, naturally), Revolution Brewing (for the microbrews) and the Boiler Room (for some late night pizza, beer and Jameson).

What's next? This coming weekend is Lollapalooza, which I expect to be every bit as busy and tiring as Pitchfork was (perhaps even more so, Grant Park is so big...). Currently, I'm resting up and looking forward to catching sets from the Black Keys, the New Pornographers, the National, the Strokes and Deer Tick. If you're coming out to Chicago for the big fest, make sure you get in touch with me, it'd be nice to see some of you folks!

Extended Vacation

I've been stricken with guilt about not keeping this thing as up-to-date as previously planned, but it's been a busy couple of weeks here in Chicago. With the Pitchfork Music Festival quickly approaching, I figured it was time to do a massive update because I don't think I'll be sleeping much this coming weekend, let alone have the time to write a personal blog post.

So where did we leave off? Ah yes, the On Fillmore show at Millennium Park. First off, it was woefully under-attended; you'd think 'the guys from Wilco' would entice a few more people to come out, especially in Chicago, but that didn't seem to be the case. I didn't recognize a single piece that the group played, and I have a hunch they just improvised everything. Cline was a pretty brilliant addition to the duo, mainly providing texture to compliment Kotche's and Gray's percussive tendencies. However, the real highlight of the night was when Cline and Kotche took the stage with Huntsville... pure, droning bliss for the select few of us that made it that far into the evening. You can read a bit more about the night and see some far better pictures over on the TOC blog.

Later that week, my good friend Aaron came to visit and we bummed around town and hit a couple of places I've been meaning to go to since arriving in town. I finally made it out to Kuma's Corner, braved a half-hour wait for a table and another half-hour wait for our food, but ultimately got to sink my teeth into one of the best burgers I've ever had: the Pantera. The next day we made a trip over to Chinatown and ended up searching for Gundam model kits and having some so-so Cantonese fare. Later that night I got asked to go review a house/trance show at Soldier Field headlined by a guy called Deadmau5. Not my cup of tea, but I guess the lights were pretty and all that. You can peruse my tepid reactions and see some photos right here.

That same weekend I got to spend my first Fourth of July in Chicago, which involved trekking over to a beach and waiting around for about 15 minutes of pretty impressive fireworks. When I got back to my place in Logan Square, the neighborhood was lit up with all manner of colorful explosions for the better part of the evening. It was a good night to sit out on the porch and take in the sights, never knowing when your next sentence would be punctuated by a nearby blast.

The following Monday I had the chance to check out the Thermals at Millennium Park. Everytime I've seen them, it's been a fun show and this occasion was no exception. They busted out a ton of tracks from their soon-to-be-released new record, and touched upon just about every other song I wanted to hear. To see some very nice pictures, head over here.

This past weekend, my cousin and his wife came to town and we managed to put together a pretty amazing three-day Chicago food tour. We hit the Roscoe Villiage Burger Festival, Great Seas Restaurant, Revolution Brewing, Smoque, Adobo Grill, the Boiler Room and, of course, Hot Doug's. Needless to say I was stuffed the entire weekend... in a good way.

The past week has been extremely busy over at Time Out; we've been putting together our preliminary coverage of the Pitchfork Music Festival as well as preparing for our live webcasts and live-blogging of the event. I can already tell it's going to be a totally different experience attending this festival as a member of the press, but it's a welcome challenge and I think it should end up being equally as fun. I'm looking forward to catching sets from Liars, Broken Social Scene, Modest Mouse, Kurt Vile, WHY?, St. Vincent and Pavement throughout the weekend. If you're at all interested in taking a peek at what I've been working on, you can find the majority of our coverage right here. Be sure to check in over the course of the weekend; I think we're going to have some pretty cool interviews with most of the artists in attendance.

And with that, I bid you adieu until my next post. Expect a bevy of photos from Pitchfork upon my return as well as many thoughts/reviews as I can muster. It'll be a real corker, I promise.