Raw for Lent Day 29-30 (Lincoln and Chicago)

Day 29:

Woke up in Lincoln around 10am and decided to try and get my body moving, so I strapped on my sports bra and sneakers and went for a run. It was only about a mile or so, but it was really pleasant, even though it was a little drizzly. After the run, I took a shower and Nate and I went up to Yia Yia's pizza to meet up with Jim (Shipbuilding Company) and his fiancee Ellen. While there, we ran into Darren (The Show Is The Rainbow, Bad Speler) and hung out for a little bit.

After lunch, I hung out with Jim and Ellen, then took Cathy up on her offer to let us see We Need To Talk About Kevin. The movie was a broken narrative. The premise circles around a mother and her son and their contentious relationship that is exacerbated by...well I don't know if the spoilers are out yet, but Kevin does something awful.

After the flick, Nathan ran me to the coop on South St and I picked up some bell peppers, kumquats, bananas and apples, then I headed to Zoo Bar.

The early show was still going on, so I wandered past the Bourbon...and there was Darren again. He let me into the show and I saw a couple of songs by Shipbuilding Company, who were sort of a prime example of the genre I like to call "Arcade Fire rock." Lots of descending chord progressions at moderate tempo, fogerty-esque guitar tricks and a reedy voice at the front. I don't have any real malice for the Arcade Fire or the 8000 bands that are capitalizing on their success, but I am not altogether too excited by mid-tempo big-sounding rock unless it's emo as fuck (see earlier entries on WWPJ).


I headed back to my venue, Zoo Bar, and got unpacked. The venue had been promoting the show with the wrong bands on the promotional flyer (Pink Flag, Low Horse and Pharmacy Spirits) and it turned out to be Mildred Bonk who were experimental noise mostly...a lot of feedback and effects. The sound wasn't really coming through on my phone.

Next up was Fuchsia Minutia, who are a very mathy, noisy little act. Their set is essentially organized chaos, but the sheer virtuosity of the players is pretty impressive. Word on the Lincoln street is that these guys do the best cover songs ever. I believe that they are probably really good.



I played 3rd, the was followed by the Pharmacy Spirits, whom I kind of adore. They're sort of like a spooky version of a band that's really into the beach boys. Or a Christian Death cover band that has never heard a Christian Death song in their life. Regardless, there is some sort of sunglasses-at-night coolness to the sound and I drive around listening to it sometimes and enjoy it. This song pictured is called Teen Challenge. I apologize, again, for the quality of the sound on these guys, this room was just a tin box basically and loud as hell.



After the show, we packed up and I went over to the guys from Fuschia Minutia's and hung out until (woefully) 3:30AM.

Day 30:

My notes for this day were:
"Chicago bound. Stayed up WAY too late in Lincoln. Chicago traffic. Rain."

My day was basically the wasteland that is Iowa. Iowa takes FOREVER to drive. I also rolled into Chicago at...oh exactly rush hour, which meant that I got to the skyline then sat in traffic. And it was raining. These were two days of just straight soggy shoes for me (foreshadowing!). Anyway, I got to the venue about 30 minutes early and it happened to be next door to an asian restaurant, so I got a cucumber salad and an avocado salad and used the nice clean asian restaurant bathroom.

So, musicians, folks in general, do you ever have one of those events you have to attend where you walk in the door and go "Oh Man..." and not in the good way? That's kind of how I felt walking in to Ultra Lounge. I was the first person there...by some time. I bummed around for a while until Vortis and the sound guy showed up, then loaded in.

Vortis were the punk rock mixtape that your friend Mike/Steve/John/Chris gave to you when you were 15 along with some safety pins and a Misfits patch. The group formed under the idea of the Vortis, which was a turn of the century idealogy that supports the idea of living with an adolescent clarity.  Their songs were upbeat, fun and bled one right into the next.  The energy was lost on the crowd of 5-6.  At the end of their set, per a discussion, I got up there and completely butchered "Oh Bondage Up Yours" by X-Ray Spex.

The Funs - cute, and fun.  Nothing I've never heard before (Just think about all the 4-track recording lo-fi artists in the late 80s no-wave underground and you got it), but they were still very sweet, fun to listen to and brought a great crowd of kids to the show.  Violent, bouncy, dancey kids.  I wish I were still so enthusiastic.  Really I do.

At the end of the night, I went back to Tina and Liz's place and climbed into their baby's ikea loft bed (and seriously, if I weren't starving myself to death right now that thing would have COLLAPSED under me, every time I shifted my weight, it let out a terrible shriek, threatening to drop me), and promptly passed the fuck out.

Only to wake up at 7am for the drive to Columbus.  With a cold (SOGGY SHOES!).  This is really gonna help with the high notes.  Videos to be attached later.  Can always be searched via my youtube account, though!