Navy Pier
Chicago, IL
August 13, 2004
Click here to skip all the pre-show nonsense. :)
Ahhhh…. CT in Chicago. What could be better?
How about joining my buds for another road trip? And a sweet deal on airfare?!? $200 to fly to Chicago from Midland. What a country!
The three downsides:
#1 – Departure Time:
I affectionately refer to this as the buttcrack of dawn.
#2 – Houston layover:
There is absolutely NO affection whatsoever when I refer to this as a big, fat, pain. For the heck of it, I looked to see if I could hop an earlier flight, but they wanted $100.
Ummmm…
No.
Thank god for the iPod, is all I’m sayin’. I took it as a good omen when the random play selected several CT tunes. :)
#3 – The Missing Comrade
Stephanie from Boston couldn’t make it for health reasons. All of us were very bummed out that our party of four became three.
Her absence did nothing to deter Cara and I from saying, "wicked retahded" a wicked number of times. High-sterical! :D
Upon my arrival at Chicago’s Midway, I scanned the crowds for TV crews filming upcoming episodes of "Airline." :D I saw a dude carrying a boom mic, but that was it. Oh well. I wasn’t drunk so I’d prolly not make the cut anyway.
Since my last visit, my bro’s family traded in their city condo for a house in the suburbs. Nice digs! And my nephew Jason is a total doll.
True story:
He loved toddling back and forth between me and his dad. Every time he came to me, he’d point at Tom’s picture on my S1 t-shirt and smile. :)
Since I’m in full blather mode, here’s another adorable CT toddler story…
So I’m wearing my CT77 shirt and Zach recognizes the logo, as usual. Then he wants to know the names of the guys. We practice several times. The next time he saw the shirt, he pointed at RN and said, "Rick!"
I always knew he was a super genius!
DAY o’ THE SHOW
Some Chicagoans weren’t happy with the fall-like temps, but I was quite pleased.
While waiting for the one and only Junko to arrive at O’Hare I suddenly realized that Homer hadn’t made it to Chi-town! My trusty signage remained on the floor of my car in the economy parking lot in Midland.
I think they could hear me yell "DOH!!!!!!!!!!" all the way out in Wheaton.
Next stop: Midway to pick up Brian and Cara! When I whined about my lack of Homer sign, Cara’s smart ass comment was, "Oh no! Now they’ll never recognize you!" :P
We began the arduous journey downtown, complete with a harrowing mishap at a toll plaza.
I swear to god I’m a better driver than my travel mates must think. There’s something about a rental car that turns me into Rainman.
Yeah… Definitely. Definitely an excellent driver.
The drive up Lakeshore was absolutely gorgeous, affording great views of the skyline to the west and Lake Michigan to the east... Makes ya wanna sing "My Kind of Town" at the top of your lungs. :D
We arrived at the venue about 20 minutes late for sound check. Wah! I was particularly bitter to hear that RN had done a bit of "Ramblin’ Rose."
Oh well. I stopped pouting long enough to greet the gathering of fans… Debbie, George, Kim G, Patricia, Stacey, Dawn, Buckwheat… Who was having folks sign a card for Bunnylove79 – another fan who couldn’t make the show due to health reasons.
Buckwheat protested when we told him how sweet he is.
Sorry Buckwheat – but YOU ARE A TOTAL SWEETHEART!!!!
On our way to the Hard Rock Café for Junko’s traditional shopping trip, we found Jimmy and dragged him along.
I felt guilty eating at a HRC in a city full of fantastic restaurants, but convenience won out over quality. LOL While we ate, Junko made a dash to the Hard Rock Hotel to check out the RN outfit on display, making me feel like a bad fan.
Choosing food over CT memorabilia gazing!? What’s my problem!??!?!
Hey Brian! Thanks for dinner! What a guy. :D
During dinner, Cara and I took turns freaking out and checking our bags, certain that we’d lost our tickets…
Back at Navy Pier, the freak out got worse. Inside the gate, I became convinced that my stub was gone. I ran back in the bathroom, checking every stall, sweating and swearing up a storm.
I was about to dump the contents of my bag on the baby changing station, when Cara reached into my jacket pocket and pulled out the ticket.
Only one word (from my very limited Japanese vocabulary) came to mind.
BAKA
DAMNWELLS
Those damn Damnwells started before I was in my seat, dangit!
Anyway, The Damnwells welcomed everyone and played a nice, albeit short set. Alex told us with a smirk that they were CT. Silly boy.
Their set included some of my faves ("What You Get" and "Sleepsinging") plus a new one.
A couple songs in, I saw Rick loitering backstage. The Damnwells saw him too and were clearly thrilled. Huge smiles and "extra hard" playing all around. It was freakin’ adorable. LOL!
SOME OTHER OPENER
I didn’t stay for them. I chose to hang out with fans instead. Got to meet Rieko and caught up with other good folks like Carmie, Cherkell and Sayuri.
All apologies to folks whose names I may have forgotten…
Jimmy asked me where my ticket was.
LMAO! Bitch!
After that I think I reminded Buckwheat how sweet he is. ;)
The unnamed opener sang a couple cool covers of Elvis Costello and Neil Young tunes.
Before the show, I met Mike Graham, CT photographer extraordinaire just as Rick’s brand new 5 neck was put on display. RN never played it, but it was too cool to get a look at it! Don’t ask me for technical details. It’s gold and that’s about all I know. ;)
FASHION REPORT
| BC | Ummm… I don’t remember. Jeans? A tshirt? Gloves and a bball cap for sure! |
| RN | black suit, Piece shirt (to go with the picks) |
| RZ | white suit (sans a few buttons), white shirt, black tie and that POS hat he’s been favoring lately. He didn’t even have the decency to let his hair down for the hometown crowd |
| TP | black suit, emerald green shirt |
SET LIST
| Top of the World | An inauspicious start with Robin opening his mouth to sing and stopping abruptly. Eveyone else claims it was a sound issue. I thought it was a brain fart they could hear all the way out in Skokie. But what do I know?! LOL! Rick sang along with him until our favorite vocalist figured out where he was. |
| Elo Kiddies | My legs are still sore from bouncing around so much on this. Nice to hear this one again! |
| I Can't Take It | |
| Taxman (Mr. Thief) | Another gem I hadn’t heard in awhile! Nice! |
| Best Friend | Rick rattled off the three chords used in the song as way of intro and then they proceeded to use them all the play the $hit out of it. YOW!!!! Helluvan extended jam! After they polished of that number, he wagged three fingers at us, as a reminder of the chords. |
| IWYTWM | I want YOU… to TUNE RICK’S GUITAR! Seriously. WTF was the deal? It sounded like I’d been put in charge of the Gibson. |
| WUWAM | Yow! This was on the set list a lot back in 99 – I’m glad it’s back! |
| Tonight It's You | This song just rocks. Add it to the long list of CT tunes that SHOULD’VE BEEN HITS! |
| Fan Club | The usual brown nosing of the fans intro to this one. LOL Great to hear an electric version – when it’s been on the set list in the last year, it’s been acoustic. |
| California Man | Gotta love the fun jam right before they launch into this one. |
| The Flame | A real purty solo from Mr. Nielsen and Robin f***in’ nailed the money note. Wowie! And just when I thought it couldn’t get better, Tom walked over and handed me a pick! Wooooo hooooo!!!! |
| 70's Song | |
| Surrender | |
| Scent of a Woman | Before this one, Rick came downstage with his water bottle, chugged most of it then used it to make an obscene gesture at Junko before tossing it to her. LMAO! Got a Rick pick sent my way, but blew the catch. LOL! |
| Dream Police | |
| Auf Wiedersehen | YEAH, BABY! |
RICKSPEAK
In addition to the usual remarks on FTTY and S1, he thanked the openers. I had visions of the Damnwells hugging each other after getting a Rick shout out.
He wished a couple folks in the crowd happy birthday, adding best wishes to everyone who has a bday in the next year.
Some guy down front kept yelling and finally Rick said, "Wait, someone’s drunk…" When he got the mic downstage the drunk screamed, "BUN E RULES!" Bun E looked pleased. LOL!
Before WUWAM Rick talked about why they don’t play anything off this album. "Because we didn’t think anyone had listened to it."
Of course there was a huge "aawwww" from the crowd. After the song, Rick added, "There. Now you’ve all heard something from WUWAM."
Rick praised the woman down front who’d tied his shoe… If I’d had a chance I’d’ve done the same. AND fixed his lapel that was flipped under his guitar strap the entire show.
I don’t know why but that bugged the $hit outta me. LMAO!
Other introductions – one of the photographers and their lighting dude, Jolly. After LOT of goading, Jolly came out on stage and did a bizarre Mr. Roboto kinda dance to BEC’s beat. Bwahahaha! After he was gone, RN promised to never bring him out on stage again.
Rick also pointed out family and friends in the crowd. They waited too long to get tickets and were forced to stand off to the side. Whoops!
We got treated to that awful Michael Jackson knock knock joke, too, which is wrong on many levels. He blamed it on Steven Tyler. Doh!
MISC.
I was jealous of the people who saw this year’s show in London – but now I don’t have to be because we got the same setlist in Chicago! Woo hoo!
Those of us in the front row, stepped up to the stage, only to be shooed back behind the white line by security. Oh well. Can’t blame a girl for trying.
Rick threw out several fistfuls of picks tonight – and not just during Dream Police! He had a bowlful on his steps to throw out at will. Turns out they were special Piece picks made just for the Chicago show!
Is it just me or is Rick trying to drive us collectors crazy?!?! All those letter picks, then all the different colors and now this?!?! Argh! It’s enough to drive a girl insane!
Everyone seemed to be in good spirits – although we saw Bun stretching his back quite a bit. He also seemed peeved about something with his drum kit. There was a mini-band powwow upstage for a bit while that got sorted.
Rick got a couple presents tonight… One fan handed him the sheet music for "Venus." Why? I’ll never know. He used it as a pick for a few moments.
My gift to Rick was a DKT/MC5 shirt I picked up for him at the Dallas stop of their tour. Brother Wayne & Dennis "Machine Gun" Thompson had autographed it too. :D Rick showed his appreciation by swabbing his armpit with it and sticking out his tongue. LMAO!
It’s always great to see the guys in Chicago. Tonight’s show was special – thanks to them for pulling out a different set list. Loved it!
POST SHOW
Thanks to Brian’s navigation, we went the wrong way on 94 again. LOL!
Back at the Midway end of town, we searched for food and decided to eat at Burger King instead.
Boom cha!
Seriously – since when do IHOPs close?
Junko, Cara and I did our darndest to convince Brian to rearrange his flight and accompany us to Wiscahsin, but reason prevailed and we had to say good bye…
The three of us retired to the dorm, er, hotel room, and fell asleep almost instantly. Oshkosh was three hours away. Little did we know, Jimmy was already in line. LMAO!!!
Thanks for reading... Oshkosh thoughts coming up.
Peace,
Lisa J.
<insert Homer quote here>
© Copyright, Lisa Jebsen, 2004