my kind of town, chicago is

Feb 10 milwaukee eagles ballroom
Tis a mild 15 degrees out whence we roll into the parking lot of the eagles ballroom. I head out to check into the dayrooms, as I have heard that the showers here are scary. The last time I remember being in this building, we had to hotfoot it out of there. Different times indeed. So basically it is a day spent next to a radiator in a production office, enjoying some pretty darn good bbq. The ballroom upstairs is a beautiful round, sort of like the Hollywood palladium. And man there are an awful lot of people showing up tonight, 2840 to be exact. I think that is the sum total of audiences in Milwaukee in my entire career. It is immense.
The guys spend the day in the opium denlike backstage area watching reality tv, these things are like viruses, very virulent viruses at that. We get to groove on viva voce as they play a rocking set to the very partisan crowd. Our guys hit the stage and the place goes nuts throughout the set. It is not as brilliant as last nite in mpls, but the kinks are definitely being ironed out. By the time we hit ‘new slang’, the place is awash with cel phones and good times. This generations lighters, I guess. Afterwards we have the requisite snack session backstage, replete with red wine and a bunch of ej/s family members and some of the voce mates from chitown. We take it pretty handy out in the parking lot, as tomorrow is the windy city.
Feb 11 chicago congress theatre sold out
We get in early, breakfast at el cid, the best breakfast burrito I have had not made by my lovely missus. It is so good I cannot help but share with hernadez out on the bus. Everyone is hooked and they are off to el cid. We get inside early, introducing ourselves to the house of blues crew, and prepare ourselves for the very easy day.
I lock myself into the production office and work towards the next three tours, we have a drum tech today which is quite helpful for mr zivich and crew, things go real smooth until the IEM/s take a shite sometime during soundcheck, fortunately the kids from the grammy institute miss out on that one.
I manage a walk outside but the windchill is excruciating, as much as I may want to head out for dinner, the fish tacos for lunch sufficed, they were stellar.
So it is 630pm and al;l systems are go, the entire Johnson family seems to have arrived as well as some other familial sorts. God I love Chicago, I am beginning to think that there is no finer city in the united states. It has it all and brains to boot. The best looking crowd I have seen in sometime, I can say that much. And we get all sorts of surprise visitors, including the lemos family, nice to hang out with them, to be sure.
Vv hit the stage to a sparsely populated but enthusiastic house, and by the time they are off, there are an awful lot of Midwesterners out there tonight, and it becomes very apparent which side their bread is buttered on, as the roar(to put it mildly) reaches a tumultuous crescendo, the one time my cel phone fails to record. It is very impressive, and they lads proceed to play the show of the tour. I manage to catch most of the show throughout various spots of the room, a beautiful old vaudeville theater near logan square. By day cold and spooky, by night all warm and fuzzy, I guess that/s the way it/s going to be. Aftershow, everyone is delighted as we have our first big post show hang with guests. We go en masses with april, the house monitor engineer, to the green eye bar under the el tracks at western. Good times and tamales ensue. Sometime later, and well scoobied, we call it a night and head for st louis.

world domination enterprises

Wednesday feb 7 2007, Minneapolis Minnesota
I arrive in the am on northwest into Minneapolis, and man are we in the greater, whiter north. All I can say is that new york is like Barbados at the moment in comparison to this scheisse. But hey, it/s winter in Minnesota!
In the cab, to the hotel, in the room , and all that jazz, I set about to having the most productive day in yonks even in battling a prehistoric internet connection and a microwave that predates Jeffrey dahmers cannibalism. As it stands, egveryone is in the air and potentially on time. So much so, that I have to turn down t wolves tix in a battle of the cellar dwellers v golden state.
Everyone arrives in good spirits despite battling 24 hour tropical nasties at home. We are finally get on the submarine, 11 men on a bus, coming to your town soon. The mood is anticipatory, as james says, ‘lets sell the fucking album’. After some brief formalities, most of the mob head off in the sky way to look for a beer and burger joint. I go and actually run two miles and have a swim before being bounced from the Jacuzzi by drunken denizens of a former soviet republic that would not go amiss on folsom street in September. I am out of there quicker than a boris yeltsin drink order at the g-8 summit, and back to the shack for duke v north Carolina, a nail biter, before settling into some law and order, my sleeping pill of choice. Ready for the first day of world domination.

Thursday feb 8 1st avenue, Minneapolis, mn SOLD OUT
So here it is, day 1, finalmente, and we are all down for breakfast, a free breakfast in our very bizarre yet charming downtown hotel. And I have to say, to a man, everyone is eating oatmeal, which makes me think, that since this is zivich/s bday, that oatmeal may come in handy later in the day.
So it is back to the shack, I managed to crawl a mile or so on the treadmill, fire off a few more emails, rally the troops on the bus and take marty and james to a radio station in the boon docks who was severely lost from block one, prompting me to offer to drive. After much rigamarole, we make it there with police escort(you got me runnin’), the lads knock it out in 5, we get an intern escort back. And man, everything has arrived but a lone Gibson el capitan bass. Conrad is our host once again, and it is familiar faces all over. We have to face our first soundcheck party today, and it aint easy considering half our shite is broken due to the cold, and when I say cold, I should preface the whole days doings by adding , 20 below. You get the picture.
So the boys fight through it, the cold, the anticipation, and the eagerness. The general consensus amongst all of us is, lets do this thing. And do it we did.
The vibe in the room is electric, and the club has done their gosh darnedest to usher them in from the bitter cold. Everyone is ready, as one punter gleefully shouts, ‘we/ve waitied two 2 fucking years for this’ during the intro to sleeping lessons. Zivich and I are on scrim duty, and man, we nailed it. What ensues is 90 minutes of indie bliss, everyone knows all of the words and the biggest knuckleheads in the room are reduced to joyous shouts. And I fail to mention the fact that viva voce came out and completely nailed the people to the floor, the family robinson left em gobsmacked. What a bill!
Afterwards, the customary post prandial patrons, its as if the guys just won game 1 in a best of 7, a well earned victory against a formidable , fickle opponent. As the boys come off the stage, a very unassuming Youngman subtly states, ‘the entire state of Minnesota is proud to have you start your tour here, thanks’. Pretty groovy.
And the night does not finish there, as it is zivich/s bday and we are off to o/donovans for car bombs, van Morrison, autograph sigining, car bombs, makers mark, roadie escorts, u2, car bombs, autograph seekers, friendly cocktail waitresses, more u2, and finally we have to get the flip out of there and crawl into our respective bunks and hammer down to Milwaukee for round 2 of this heavyweight title match. Displaced at number 2 from some chancer from American Idol, what the f*7k is wrong with