Evil Twin at the Bookclub

Riina's band!  It was hot.  Weird to be at a show with a bunch of kids who I saw grow up.

Altars 'headlined,' but Amy and I didn't stick around.  I think most everyone else did.  Jo said they were great.  Amy left the Spark on, AC running, for the entire show.  I guess that's an 'advantage' of an electric car.

Cafe Tacuba at Concord Music Hall

Anoushka Shankar, Hollie Cook at Millennium Park

Eddie Palmieri at Millenium Park

A perfectly pleasant evening picnicking downtown.  I picked up banh mi for Amy and I on my bike ride down.  I got to bike over that crazy windy "new" bridge.  Amy and i also strolled over it to gawk at the climbing wall.  I also showed her where i broke Jonah.  Oh, there was some salsa music too (we even saw folks, mostly old or young, dancing).

Wolf Alice at Lincoln Hall

Another concert Ingrid took me to.  Turns out i like this band too, but not nearly as much as Cafe Tacuba.  A perfectly fine way to spend an evening, but i didn't rush out to buy their records or anything.  I still might, though - don't tempt me...

The internet tells me that Drenge and Made Violent opened, but we showed up late and then ate at the bar, so i didn't really see or hear them.  And what little i did see and hear did not make me want to see or hear more.

Cafe Tacuba at the Portage Theater

I hadn't heard Cafe Tacuba before this.  I'm not entirely certain i had even heard OF Cafe Tacuba before this.  Ingrid talked me into going.  Well, she asked if i wanted to go and i said yes...

Anyway, the show was unbelievable.  The wait for them to start was interminable, but once they went on ... boyoboy.  Crazy costumes, crazy lights and a crazy mix of musical genres.

I'm now a fan.

Dropkick Murphys, Naked Raygun at the Congress

I had forgotten all about this show until Ingrid reminded me that we all went and she actually drove us.

Memory now jogged, i do remember driving around looking for parking, Raygun (especially Pezzati) seeming a bit stiff to start the show, and i think this was the show i saw the Murphys cover the Clash (Guns of Brixton).  I liked it; it left Johno a little cold.

The internet tells me that the Parkington Sisters joined the Dropkick Murphys, and that does sound familiar.

[EDIT - oh yeah - this is the show that Emmett was supposed to come with, but was too sick.  I seem to remember him not being that sick, but Amy does.  At any rate, him not being there really saddened me.]

Lollapalooza in Grant Park

Finally made it to Lolla after the fiasco in 1991. We (Johno, me, others most assuredly) were supposed to meet my sister Jen at the Hinsdale oasis, but we had to return a UHaul and were running late (yes, I'm always late). We got there and waited hours playing hacky-sack before giving up and going home. Turns out, she was there but headed to the venue (Tinley Park) to wait for us outside the gate. When I talked to her the next day, she was cheesed because she missed a bunch of the show waiting for us. Why she waited for us in the wrong place, I still don't know.

Anyway... My memories of this show are pretty hazy. I know we saw Social Distortion.

Ingrid tells me we saw Gogol Bordello. I believe her.

Em brought a friend maybe from summer camp (?) who went by BJ(?). I guess the name wasn't problematic for 11 year olds... Em, he and I went up close for Green Day. We could feel the pyrotechnics. This was back when Jo didn't like live shows, so she and Ian stayed in the back and did whatever those two weirdos did back then. I doubt they even watched the show...