Daily Updates!!!

Friday, June 29th. Day 2.

Got there a little late, like 6:30 or so. Suddenly there were all these things to do, not forgetting walking and feeding my Siberian Huskies, Jedi and Leia. And, of course, there was a fucking Brewers game that slowed down traffic all the way from the Zoo. As usual, entered through the North Gate, dug into the Rock stage for an Amber. Who was on stage there, The Lovelies, so that was a good place to stay for a bit. I was getting kinda hungry, only had cereal this morning (ok, close to noon) and I could still taste that Gator on a Stick that I had yesterday (and forgot to mention).

Got to Toy’s in the Ethnic Village before deciding what to have for dinner, went for the Combo Platter # 2, the Sweet and Sour Chicken, Shrimp with rice and some hot stuff. Oh, went for beer at Sprecher first, Black Bavarian. Let the culinary feast start! Good stuff all, but it was like the dark beer didn’t match the chinese food very well. All right, so I ate first and drank the beer afterwards.

The music? Oh yeah! I think tonight is going to be blues night. Double Trouble followed by Susan Tadeschi. You can’t get more substance than that, if you know what I mean. Especially after a musical light weight afternoon like yesterday! Speaking of light weight, to kill time I walked by the Big Backyard, where kb’smidlifecrisis was on stage. Nothing to do there but hurry on (over to the Water St Pavilion for a Weiss).

And then, hurry back the Roadhouse (and had myself a beer) for blues. Got a spot behind the last row of aluminum benches, where the sound is best. And you can always sneak in when people leave. Soon after Double Trouble took the stage with veterans from the SRV days, Chris Leyton and Tommy Shannon plus two guys on guitar and a girl lead singer. She claimed that she was auditioning for the band on this occasion, but I think she was with them at The Rave a few weeks ago. Boy, they kicked some serious ass, and when the crowd was warmed up, they booted it into overdrive with Helter Skelter and Led Zep’s Rock ‘n’ Roll. Good show.

I was talking to a couple of guys from the windy city, while waiting for Susan Tadeschi to start. We were talking about blues and who had the most old vinyl LPs. Pretty cool! Got tested some classic rock knowledge there!

Finally Susan came on, boy can she sing and play the blues. One of the Chicago guys remarked that she reminded him of Janis and I couldn’t help it, I had to say that if she would drink a lot of Southern Comfort, she might even sound like Janis (no disrespect, I love Janis). Seriously, if you like blues, you should go see Susan, if you get the chance. I know this has nothing to do with music, but what’s with the dress and high heels, huh? Oh, never mind!

  

Had to rush over to Toga night with Otis Day and The Knights. As expected, there were some die hard Animal House fans dressed in togas, but Otis did nothing but standard covers while I was there.

If nothing else, I got several snap shots there, one of a woman with more beer cups stacked up than I could muster yesterday! I’m impressed, truly.

From there, decided to go to the Rock stage to catch a few songs from The Gufs (and a last Amber). I’m not exactly a fan of these guys, in fact I don’t recall ever seeing them before, but they were not too bad. Yeah, as you can tell, I have real trouble containing my excitement here.

Except for Otis Day, all shows that I attended today were packed. Maybe, and I am hoping strongly here, that people are steering away from this corporate-five-boy-singing-band-pussy-pop-crap that’s going on right now.

Otherwise, it was a beautiful day (and night), let’s see what tomorrow brings.

Wait a minute! What about the Chicago style? Well, I’m not going to have one every night, I have decided to cut down on nitrides! See ya.