#2 - Minneapolis to Chicago

After leaving Dubuque, we returned to Minneapolis on July 30th to play at the Fine Line Music Café. The Fine Line is one of the larger venues we’ve played; the largest this summer. The stage is big, the sound is loud, and the lights are bright...a nice change from the small, dark dive bars that we love so much. One thing that the smaller rooms offer us that a venue like the Fine Line doesn't, is a more intimate setting to connect with an audience. Besides being on a stage elevated above the audience, the bright stage lights make it almost impossible to see the crowd. As a drummer I like to watch the crowd ebb and flow with the beat. Having a visual representation of my snare and bass falling with dancing feet makes the whole experience seem more communal and fulfilling for me. We'll see how this experience evolves as we begin to play large stages on a more regular basis.

Two girls from Dubuque, Abi and Allie, decided to follow us back to Minneapolis to see the show and ended up staying until Chicago. I don't really know what to think about it, but I definitely didn't expect anyone to be "touring" with us at this point, considering we usually don't even know where we're sleeping. I never travelled in their car, so I didn't see them unless we were playing a show. Trevor was a regular in their car and according to him, lets just say it wasn't exactly a calm, relaxing atmosphere. A good friend of the band, Adam Saper (Went to school with Trevor at Tulane), joined us in Minneapolis as well. So, that makes 5 in the band, the 2 Dubuquers, and Saper...8 people, a lot harder to organize than 5 guys in 1 car. For example, 8 people couldn't stay in our friend Karl's place in Minneapolis, so we had to pitch our 5 person tent on a small patch of grass in front of his house. Like I said, I didn't worry about it too much, but Trevor seemed lose some sleep over the whole thing, especially in Chicago. All in all, it's awesome that people are willing to put everything on hold and hop on the road with us; the more the merrier, right?

We left Minneapolis on Thursday morning for Sheboygan, WI where we played an early show at a nice little joint called the Paradigm Coffeehouse. Right after loading out we headed for Chicago, about 2.5 hours drive. Driving into Chicago late at night is definitely the way to go, although 2:00 a.m. on a Chicago highway feels like noon on a smaller city's highway. We were headed to the heart of downtown, a block away from Grant Park where we would be staying with friends from Nashville. We had plans to go to the massive Lollapalooza festival on Friday, which is held every year in Grant Park...yeah, we totally lucked out with where we were staying.

In case you're unfamiliar with Lollapalooza, here's a general synopsis. Lollapalooza: A 3-day outdoor music festival on the shores of Lake Michigan attended by more than 200,000 people featuring roughly 40 bands. The headliners included Kanye West, Wilco, Nine Inch Nails, Rage Against the Machine, and Radiohead. I only saw the Friday night show, but was completely stoked that Radiohead was playing a 2 hour set on the main stage. I don't know how to put my experience into words, but I will say that it met or exceeded any expectations I had. Here is a link to pictures from the show so you can see for yourself, I was at Day 1. What made Friday different from the other nights was that Radiohead was the sole headlining act. This meant that the roughly 90,000 people there that day were at this one stage instead of being divided between two stages like the following two nights at the festival. Sea of sweaty people. I decided to miss another one of my favorites, The Raconteurs (playing from 6-8 on a different stage) so I could get closer for the Radiohead show which started at 8. Even after arriving 2.5 hours before their set began, I could only squeeze my way to about 40 yards from the stage. I've never experienced anything like this before. For over 4 hours I didn't even have enough room to bend and touch my feet. It was hot, sweaty, uncomfortable, worth it. I saw three people pass out, one of which had to be crowd surfed out above everyones heads. I can't even imagine what would have happened if there was some sort of an emergency, and don't want to.

Saturday night we played Curly's Bar in Glen Ellyn, a suburb of the city. Similar to Dubuque and other shows this summer, I was blown away at how friendly and supportive the local people were. Although we love selling merchandise, gathering emails to facilitate our efforts in growing a fan base is the most important thing for us. We're not quite sure how well this tactic works yet, but we hope it will bring people out when we return to their cities.

Sunday was spent wandering around Chicago. I'm always impressed at the aesthetic beauty of the city. The architecture, art, fountains, public transportation, river, etc., all contribute to the city's amazing vibe. The giant metallic bean was especially cool. I walked underneath the bean and took some trippy pics on my phone. I left Monday morning on a 6:00 a.m. flight to Boston. Unlike in Boston, I was able to take public transportation to the airport at 2:30 a.m. (the start/end of a really long day). I arrived in Boston at 2:00 p.m. after a long layover at JFK in New York. I'm currently writing from Espresso Royal Cafe in my old college neighborhood. Good to be back in Boston seeing friendly, familiar faces. I return to Colorado on Friday to resume shows with Frogs Gone Fishin' on Saturday.

Until next time...