so, where was i ? oh yes, getting over the fact that 20 minute funk jams by a band from nyc playing a free gig in a big park in chicago could end up being the highlight of my time here.
if only i knew then what i know now.
following this revelation on thursday, friday was all about a very different american experience : ice hockey + sports bar.
turns out that one of the cities teams, the blackhawks, are doing rather well, and have made it through to the final of a fancy big cup called stanley (or is it actually stanleys cup and he hands it over every year, i’m not too sure).
now for some reason, a final is not a one match situation. instead this involves several matches played over several days, so when they lost the match on friday, little did i know that this sport was going to become the source of so much madness in the following week.
musically speaking though, friday was a wash out other than the realisation just how big bump-n-grind autotuned to f*ck r-n-b crap is here.
oh the (t-)pain.
thankfully this all meant on the saturday i had the all clear to head for the division street festival. checking the grid map that lay on the coffee table, i thought a nice 30 minute walk, followed by a couple of local bands would be a rather lovely way to kill time.
so, i started walking.
one hour and 20 minutes later and i’m still walking and no sight, nor sound of any such festivities.
then out of the barren flat lands came the oasis that was the festival grounds.
with all manner of left field arty stalls, cool bars, car wash lots being taken over by a soundsystem to play more of that bump-n-grind autotunedto f*ck junk, and a mass of stoners, goths, emos, and bikers, i suddenly felt like i stumbled into the chicago equivalent of camden town.
with 2 stages set up at either end of the 10 block zone i chanced my luck and hung in there for the appearance by pelican given that i had a memory of the band getting some love from the always reliable team over at the quietus.
after a few too many wet downpours, the band are allowed on stage by some annoying ‘comedian’ and start up with their take on atmospheric epic instrumental metal monsters. i can’t say anything more than it was a big sound from 4 fairly normal looking blokes. one point of interest that provided unintentional laughs is that one of the guitarists, a skinny waif of a lad, throws the biggest rock shapes this side of a bon jovi gig.
i jokingly turned to my neighbour in the aural assault experience and said :
‘he’s only showing off cos his mum/mom is in the audience’
no word of a lie, 10 minutes later, 4 silver surfers beaming from ear to ear with parental pride wearing stain free, pristine pelican t-shirts walk past.
oh how we smiled and bonded on that.
despite the ireallylovemusic archive not really being a vital source for atmospheric epic instrumental metal monsters, i cant deny their noise had quite an appeal. of particular note was during certain sludgey sections, when out of downbeat mood would be an unexpected clean guitar line providing a melodic rise from the darkness, and their final atmospheric epic instrumental monster almost had a funky groove.
i stress the word, almost.
so, following another downpour, the next source of entertainment were to be the net phenomenon the hood internet. research told me that the hip hop/mashup collective are one of the hottest set ups on the wire, and who am i to contest such a claim.
all i can say is their blends of electro grooves and hip hop vocals went down a storm.
the crowd was vibrant, and totally up for their brand of partying. personally, while it was perfectly enjoyable hearing cut ups of lcd soundsystem, basement jaxx, justice mashed up with hip hop vocals, the music was nothing more than a well crafted mixtape, the likes of which flood the wire.
still a cracking way to spend a few hours, but due to the distance from my homebase, i decided to not trek back on sunday (and with headliners being a dfa affiliated yacht, was not an easy decision to make).
instead, i spent sunday experiencing noise pollution from the chicago gospel festival that was going on in the park.
by sunset i thought i’d go watch the proceedings given that back in my normal world, such an event is not going to be of the same magnitude. and how right i was.
i was greeted by the sight of 1000s of rapturous, god loving people welcoming the festivals closer, fred hammond with a fervour that you’d never get at your standard indie concert (well, apart from a snow patrol fan convention of course). fred then set into his back catalogue with a variety of happy piano funk, a little aor rock, and a lot of love. vocally he was dripping quality, and with backing from a huge joyous choir doing the happy clappy dance the overall impact could not help but be very impressive.
a fitting way to end the weekend.
hallelujah.
on monday the plan was simple : finish work, back to the room to get changed into more suitable attire, and then across the road i head to catch local band hollows, and she & him on monday night back over in the park.
as i said that was the plan.
all went perfectly well until i crossed the road, whereupon i was met by tens of thousands of chicagos young beautiful people.
masses and masses of them.
all over the bloody place. picnic rugs, wine bottles, sushi, and i hadn’t even got to the actual field. surely this lot can’t be all here for she & him ? i know little about them other than the girl (‘she’) has been in a couple of movies, and the man (‘him’), has made music under another guise, m.ward.
oh one other thing i do know, they are perfect fodder for radio 2s dreary o’leary saturday afternoon slot (and was i alone in hearing him try and interview them a few months ago, when even dreary said after he played back the pre-recorded interview, said it was like having a tooth extraction).
who could have ever guessed a band so twee that they make belle and sebastian look like slipknot with a dose of road rage, could pull in so many people ?
with my head reeling from such madness, i held firm on a spot of accessible concrete and watched and listened to the age old festival ritual:
‘i can’t get a network connection .. oh yes i can .. hello john, where are you ? on a red picnic rug on the gra!hello john ? john ?’
yet, despite the obvious excess of human form, people still fought through the throng with their sun chairs (not all which were of the folding form) in hope that somehow magically a spot of grass would appear as they approached.
it was fascinating, yet baffling at the same time.
i stood and listened (visible confirmation of the bands presence on the stage was not possible) to the clearly stunned hollows do their b52s vs 60s tacky horror organ riffs monochromatic thing for 40 or so minutes. whether they will ever get to play an audience quite that large again, only time will tell, but i wouldn’t put money on it.
once the girls (and their one bloke in tow) had finished, i came to the conclusion i had had enough and headed out of the park back to the sanity of my room.
next up : she wants revenge/the psychedelic furs @ the metro