The Vic Theatre
Chicago, IL
April 12, 2003

You how the deal. Read on or…

Click here for show only stuff.

Click here for set list stuff.

Click here to read about my very special driving experience in Chicago. LOL

I think I have a disease. It’s called Compulsive Cheap Trick Disorder. I have to get in line for GA shows at a ridiculously early time. I need help. If anyone is interested, I’m gonna start a support group. LOL

You know you have CCTD if…

#1 - Dave Ruhl walks by, shakes his head and says, "You guys are f***in’ crazy."

#2 - someone walks by you on the street, asks if you’re in line for the show already, then yells, "Yeah! That’s f***in’ HARDCORE!"

#3 - you actually take some pride in being called these things.

So the four of us arrived at the venue and staked out our spots. Brian was kind enough to loan us two chairs that day, as well as some gloves since it was so freakin’ cold that day. Although it wasn’t too bad in the sun, underneath that marquee it was quite nippy. Doh! Texas has thinned my blood, ever so much.

Junko and Mutsumi coached me on how to say "very cold" in Japanese: tatemo samuri. I think I spelled it right. :D

Not too long after we got there, my brother Chris and his lovely wife Jean arrived. We’d agreed to get together for breakfast, so it was great to have a nice visit with them both.

They’re expecting in June, BTW. I’m gonna be an aunt! More than once that day I got all verclempt thinking about it. I can’t stand that I live so far away from him and the rest of my family. :(

Anyway, we went around the corner to a place called Clark’s there on Belmont. Highly recommended. The menu’s hilarious and the food’s great. We shared a big ol’ baked apple pancake.

{insert Homer drool sound here}

Late in the game, Chris decided to come to the show that night and I managed to score a ticket for him. The box office dude informed me that although the show was sold out, he had a very few that had been turned in that day.

I still don’t get how that works, but who cares? My bro was gonna get to see CT for the first time! WOO HOO! :D

Before that he and Jean had some errands to do. Before they drove off, he tossed me a coat and another pair of gloves. Although I kept the coat (it was so big, I looked like a linebacker, LOL) I gave the gloves to Junko and Mutsumi. They each took one and used it like a muff. LMAO! I tell ya, we were all unprepared for this kind of cold…

Now it’s time for…

LISA’S CHICAGO DRIVING RANT

Pull up a chair, cuz this might take awhile… LOL Click here if you wanna skip the rant. ;)

As we made plans for this trip, my friends from Japan had requested a trip to the Hard Rock Cafe. Having experienced Chicago driving many times before, I’d hoped to avoid driving in that part of the city, so the plan was that my buddy Chris would take them herself. As it turns out, I ended up doing it anyway.

DOH!

That’s the bad news. The good news is that it all came about after Mutsumi saved my a$$ - in a BIG mother f***in’ way!

There were some metered spots in front of the Vic. Many of them were bagged off for the tour bus, semi, etc. Of course I was all proud of myself for scoring one that wasn’t. After carefully checking the posted signs, I figured I was OK, as long as I kept feeing the meter and moved the car before the doors opened….

By the afternoon, the view of my car was obscured by a big white van, so I didn’t see what was happening. Thank god Mutsumi was watching! Here I am, blathering away to someone when she finally got my attention and showed me the tow truck poised to drive away with my car!!!!

As luck would have it, the driver was cool and told me he wouldn’t tow me if I took my car right then and there. He was gonna have I fight if he hadn’t. There was no sign anywhere I that I couldn’t be there!

So it’s a beautiful sunny Saturday in Chicago – lots o’ traffic and I knew there was no way I’d find another spot to park, so in a split second I decided I might as well take my friends to the HRC myself.

I said it all the way there, but I’ll say it again: DOMO ARIGATO MUTSUMI!!!! I’d prolly still be looking for my car if it wasn’t for you!!!

A big ol’ domo to Carolyn, who came along to help navigate. Of course the parking situation in that end of town sucked and of course I played our best parking option all wrong. *sigh*

Oh well – mission accomplished for Mutsumi and Junko, so that was good. I also managed to see Rick’s guitar in the HRC. Woo hoo!

Meanwhile back at the car, I got a tongue-lashing by the parking attendant at the Rock ‘n Roll McDonalds for being in their stupid lot for an extra 2 minutes.

Aaaaaaaahhhhh!

Of course my driving/parking woes were far from over. The only option back in the Vic Theatre area meant parallel parking. Into a REALLY tight spot. On Belmont. With crazy taxis whizzing by and pulling up on my a$$.

*double sigh*

Actually, IMHO I did a darn good job, considering how out of practice I am with that sort of thing. LOL

Of course when I went to ante up at the meter, the (#*&$^% thing only took quarters. The contents of my pocket? Three dimes and 2 pennies.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So after several attempts to politely ask passersby to take 30 cents for a quarter, I finally had to pull out the big guns: my loud a$$ voice. I’m not exactly sure, but I think I yelled something like this:

"I HAVE THIRTY CENTS FOR THE FIRST PERSON WHO WILL GIVE ME A QUARTER. PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WON’T SOMEBODY HELP A GIRL OUT?!!?"

That did the trick. Thanks to the kind gent for the trade. LOL

If I ever live in Chicago, I think I’d hafta have a driver. I was on the verge of going postal after only one day of driving. ;)

And this concludes Lisa’s Chicago Driving Rant. Thank you.

Oops – one last thing, then I swear to god I’ll move on. When I got back to the theatre, I couldn’t help but notice that there was a car parked in that metered spot where I’d almost been towed. And the damn thing was still there when we came out after the show.

Naturally this cheesed me off, but I felt vindicated that I’d done nothing wrong by parking there earlier that day….

*Whew*

Is anyone still reading?!? LOL

Back in line, it was still cold but at least the security people were very nice. I had to laugh at all the big, burly security types huddled together, sharing a package of Twizlers. Maybe it’s just me, but the sight of these guys sharing a low fat candy made me LMAO.

Vince Neil pulled up in a limo and went in through the stage door. We all wondered if he’d make an appearance that night, but he didn’t. Fine with me! Who the hell wants to hear him when you’ve got Robin Zander?! ;)

Fred the merch dude was good enough to get Brian's chairs back to him. It was around then that I met Jon, the merch dude.

Doors opened right around 7 and we all claimed our spots in the front. :)

The Vic is an older theatre that hosts bands and what they call "Brew and View" – that is, movies with full bar service. LOL

The area in front of the stage is open and there are 3 or 4 slightly raised areas just behind it with booth-type seats. There’s also a balcony with traditional seats, as well as opera boxes on two levels on house left and right. The top one on house right was full of Nielsen friends and family.

The choice of preshow music was very odd, I must say: "The Muppet Show" soundtrack. WTF? LOL

GBV

Guided by Voices took the stage right around 8.

While it seems that there is a large segment of the CT fan population that hates GBV, I enjoyed their music. I’d never seen them before – so watching Bob Pollard was a trip. The Roger Daultry moves cracked me up and scared me at the same time. Someone who puts away that much beer shouldn’t be allowed to swing a mic around like that. LOL

The biggest reaction from the crowd came when Doug Gillard played the opening riff from Clock Strikes 10. LOL I looked down at Junko and Mutsumi and they woke up a little for that. ;)

Towards the end of their set, Bob apologized to the GBV fans for not playing long enough and in the same breath he apologized to the CT fans for playing too long. Bwahahahahahaha!

THE SHOW

FASHION REPORT

SET LIST

RN SEZ

Just after "Big Eyes" Rick muttered, "Well, we were off to a good start," in reference to the problems Robin was having with his mic. I think Robin said that it was shocking him, so RN played around with it and commented that he wasn’t getting shocked. LOL

After the next song or two, there was still a problem and you could see that Robin was frustrated. Rick told Mike, the sound guy, to fix it or they’d have him fixed. LOL

Rick’s intro was great for "Best Friend" tonight – he talked briefly about how the title is misleading – you’d expect it to be a happy song.

Once again there was talk of the new album and Rick made light of the release date. "It’ll be sooner rather than later," going on to ask Tom for confirmation that they’d actually recorded a new album. Tom smirked, shrugged and Rick asked him if he remembered doing that at all. Ever the stoic, Tom shook his head. LOL!

Rick said hi to Beatle Bob. Anybody know who that is? He certainly did look like a Beatle. :) During sign reading time, someone had one that said, "We like The Doctor!"

Rick didn’t miss a beat… "Oh you’re the one!"

Someone else held up a green and read CT jacket and when asked where it came from they yelled back, "EBAY!" I think Rick made a comment about needing to go there to buy some cool stuff. LOL

He also thanked GBV for opening, calling them "teetotalers" and "fine, upstanding boys and good Christians." ;)

BEC SEZ

I forget if it was before the encores or before they left the stage but Bun E said happy birthday to, "Karen, the newlywed."

He also yelled for some light after RN introduced him. LOL From all accounts, the poor guy has been left in the dark for several shows…

MISC.

The guys seemed in an even better mood than the night before. They were all over the place, working the entire room. I think Rick knew everyone there. LOL

Have I mentioned lately how much I like "Best Friend"?! :D

When I turned to my brother afterwards, he just raised his eyebrows and said, "Wow!"

POST SHOW

A small group of us hung out by the stage door afterwards. I guess we didn’t feel like we’d stood in the cold long enough that day. ;)

Rick came out after a bit and was very gracious with all the requests for photos, autographs, etc. after I introduced my brother, he smiled and said, "Thanks for coming, Lisa and Tall Brother." LOL

(BTW – when I got home there was a message from him saying he’d never wash that hand. Smart ass! LOL!)

During all this I got to see a real live jerk eBayer in action. The guy had a lot of balls, I tell ya. He walked up with a guitar, pointed a flashlight on the front and said in the most cold, clinical voice, "Sign here please." Rick had his number. Before signing it he paused, peered over his glasses and said, "If I see this on eBay I’m coming to your house to kick your ass."

Bwahahahahahahahahahaha!

After saying goodbye to my bro and some fellow fans, the four of us caught a cab to Piece. This was my second visit to the place and the food was every bit as good as the first time. Although this time around I was so freakin’ tired, I hardly had the energy to eat. I almost fell asleep in the artichoke dip. LOL

We even got to meet Bill, the manager. He was very nice and marveled at the distances we’d traveled for CT. :D

Although I was asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow, the morning came very early. :P it’d been fun trip – just too short! I got all misty saying our goodbyes at the curb at O’Hare.

The drive back to Columbus was uneventful. And long. Long, long, long. Sora like this review. ;)

One bright spot was driving past the Star Plaza in Merrillville. Ahhhh… TF3 memories.

POST POST SHOW

Once I got home to Columbus, I had a lot of fun visiting with mom and dad. Zach did a great job while mom was away, so I was proud of him. We all knew that a visit from her grandson could only do my mom some good.

So, to wrap this up, some thank yous…

A big ol’ thanks to all the Barnetts and Jebsens for making my latest CT fix possible.

Another one to Tim for putting up with me.

Tanx to Zach for being a wonderful travel companion.

Another round of three to Junko, Mutsumi and Cara for being just as wonderful to travel with.

And finally, a thanks to those four great guys from Rockford for two more fabulous shows.