Best. Weekend. Ever.
Wow. I mean ... just, wow. That has to have been one of the most fun, intense, artistically and intellectually stimulating, music-saturated, frenzied-media-buying weekends that I have ever experienced, and the fact that I spent it with my cool cousin Rachel and her even cooler husband Mike just suffused the whole thing with a warm, loving glow of family that kicked the whole thing up to 11. Maybe even 12. Truly amazing concerts, great shopping, fabulous conversations, good food, unexpected artistic experiences ... I'm feeling all pumped up, energized, renewed, whatever you want to call it. Hopefully it'll carry over into work over the next few weeks, where I'll have to be seriously busting my ass on a whole range of projects. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
A straight up narrative on the weekend would take forever, and I may want to go into greater detail about some of this stuff later in separate entries, so I'm going to start off with sort of a highlights version.
Iconic Chicago Commercial Tourism Experiences, Check!
"Chezborgers" and Cokes at The Billy Goat Tavern. I could have sworn it was "No Coke, Pepsi" on SNL, though. Did I just kill off those particular brain cells, or did Coke come along and offer them a pile of money back in the '70s to make the switch? Not that I'm prone to conspiracy theories or anything, mind you.
Overly expensive, messy, delicious popcorn from Garrett's. Yes, I know that the combination of greasy cheese corn and sticky caramel corn sounds gross, but you really owe it to yourself to try it. Of course, I could only manage about half the bag. but that's because I'm a wimp. And I was sober.
Spending too much money on indie comics at the Chris Ware-inspired and -decorated Quimby's.
Spending even more money on CDs at the Jazz Record Mart, which had the most amazing collection of jazz, blues, gospel, and world music I've ever seen, and the vast majority of it was on vinyl. It's a good thing that I didn't have the ability to carry LPs in either of my carry-on bags, or I might have ended up spending a LOT more money, even despite the fact that I don't have a working needle or a good set-up location for my turntable.
How Many Amazing Concerts Can You Fit Into Two Days?
Friday, 6 p.m.: Amadou & Maryam, in-store performance at Borders on Michigan. Five songs that displayed the raw appeal of their music and made me even more anxious to hear it fleshed out with Manu Chao's production. He was also there, and much punier than I'd have thought, but he didn't play along.
Friday, 7 p.m.: Lila Downs, Pritzer Pavilion. I'm not so enamored of Frank Gehry lately but this bandstand in Millenium Park is fucking amazing. Seriously. And Downs' unbelievably rich voice completely filled the gigantic space, as she danced and twisted and drummed her way around the stage. We showed up right as she was being introduced, spread our makeshift picnic on the lawn among the thousands in attendance, and were blown away. She performed with her own band (which included a cajon player on a few songs), and then sang lead in front of a great, if somewhat corny mariachi ensemble. The fact that was Mexican Independence Day, and the crowd was at least half Latino, added another level of depth and richness to the whole thing
Friday, 9 p.m.: Laura Veirs (with the Tortured Souls), Metro. Okay, so she was the opening act of the show I really flew out to Chicago to see but I'm going to count her separately because she was really good. I didn't want to fight the crowd to see if she had any CDs at the merch table, but she was the coolest, cutest, normal-est seeming glasses-wearing indie girl rocker I've ever seen, with a tight, talented band a bunch of good songs. Like Lisa Loeb with talent and no twee at all. Nothing remarkably catchy or transporting like Sufjan, but definitely solid, and worth a listen.
Friday, 10:45 p.m.: Sufjan Stevens & the Illinoisemakers, Metro. Un-be-fucking-lievable. Yes, I'm a true believer. Yes,I drank the Kool-Aid. I don't care, this was an utterly amazing show with a rapt, enthusiastic participating audience, almost all of whom seemed practically giddy to be there. There were cheerleader uniforms and actual cheerleading, ("Ready ... Okay!"), a human pyramid, an absolutely astonishing amount of instrument swapping, spot-on perfect vocals from nearly everyone on the stage, the Illinois seal and state flag, and pretty much all of the songs I most wanted to hear, including a heartbreakingly beautiful rendition of "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." Utter silence from the crowd during the quiet songs, enthusiastic cheering and clapping along when asked ... we were putty in the palm of his hand. And the band looked like they were having even more fun than we all were. One for the ages, and they may have been recording the whole thing for a DVD, so you won't just have to take my word for it.
Saturday, 3:00 p.m.: Uilleann piper Elliot Grasso, Celtic Music Festival. Okay, he's from Baltimore, and he doesn't have a particularly Irish name, but boy, this guy could play the pipes. For those unawares, these are a kind of bagpipe but one that's played completely by pumping bellows with the arms rather than blowing. Multiple drones give them a really full sound, and they're not quite as whiny as the Scottish bagpipe. My cousin and I wandered around this festival for about 90 minutes, sampling a bunch of different music tents and stages, but this guy was definitely the highlight. All right, you caught me, this one doesn't really live up to the standards of the others listed but I needed to get the Celtic Music Festival in there somehow.
Saturday, 8:15 p.m.: Lura, Old Town School of Folk Music. After the first song, I turned to my cousin and said, "I think I'm in love!" And I think I am. Actually, I've loved everything I've heard of Cape Verdean music ever since being introduced to Cesaria Evora almost 15 years ago, but I've always found the music to be a little mournful, or at the very least pensive, and not really ideal for a dance mix, if you know what I mean. This woman changes all that. Her material is primarily much more uptempo traditional dance rhythms like the batuku and the furana, and she's an absolutely electric performer. Absolutely gorgeous, with a full, strident, beautiful voice, and a shake that just couldn't be stopped, she had us all grinning like little kids, singing along on command, and lining up to pay a ridiculous $20 for her debut CD. If you follow world music at all you will be hearing more about this artist, I guarantee it. I'd never actually heard anything by her before the concert, and had wondered if she'd be able to live up to the performer she was opening for. After she finished, I wondered how he would possibly be able to follow her.
Saturday, 10:00 p.m.: Waldemar Bastos, Old Town School of Folk Music. Born in Zaire, grew up in Angola, currently lives in Portugal, and saturated in the music of Brazil, Bastos is one of those perfect, liminal/borderland artists who combine African and "Western" musical traditions utterly seamlessly in almost equal quantities. He plays acoustic guitar, and his band was one other acoustic guitar and two percussionists, but the four of them filled the hall with a sound that ranged from majestic to mournful, from a joyfully energetic shout to a delicate whisper, and the audience was utterly transported. Bastos was so caught up in the emotion embedded in his own richly political and cultural music, and so overwhelmed by the warm, loud, and enthusiastic response from the audience, that he actually had tears in his eyes several times. Hell, almost all of us did, even the ones (like me) who don't speak a word of Portuguese. I'm going to stop now, because there really aren't any adjectives strong enough to convey how wonderful an experience this performance was, and together with Lura's hip-shaking opening it made up probably one of the best double bills I've ever seen. In my life. No shit. If you ever get the chance to see Waldemar Bastos, even if you don't normally listen to any world music, you should jump at it. If you aren't completely blown away, I'll send you double whatever you paid for the ticket.
CDs Purchased at Jazz Record Mart, the Virgin Superstore, and the Old Town School of Folk Music, with Prices
Ozomatli, Live at the Fillmore - &7.99 So' Forest, Bikutsi Pop: The Songs of So' Forest - $7.99 The Country Gentlemen, Joe's Last Train - $7.99 Henri Dikongue, Biso Nawa - $8.99 Fela Kuti, Ikoyi Blindness / Kalakuta Republic - $13.99 Hijas del Sol, Kchaba - $9.99 Little Brother, The Minstrel Show - $13.99 Keith B. Brown, Delta Soul: Alone & Acoustic - $8.99 Think Lizzy, Dedication: The Very Best of Thin Lizzy - $10 Leela James, A Change Is Gonna Come - $11.99 Lura, di korpu ku alma - $20
The only two of these really worthy of mention are probably also the most obscure: Hijas del Sol and Keith B. Brown. Hijas del Sol are from Equatorial Guinea and thus allow me to check another country off the map of Africa, and this album recorded as "a hommage to Fela Kuti and his powerful Afrobeat" is actually really good. The Keith B. Brown album is an acoustic Delta blues album by a guy who also has appeared as two different blues legends (Son House and Skip James) in dramatic feature films. I bought it almost entirely because my boss has the same name. My boss is from Memphis, so I figure he's got to be into the blues, so I picked this up on a whim and it turns out to be a genuinely good album. Plus, it's only been released in France, so the chances that my boss has even heard of it are pretty slim. I need a good kiss-up gift ... I waited until the last possible minute to tell him I'd be taking Friday off, and it just so happened that it was his first day back in the office after three weeks in Africa. I'm already cringing a bit in expectation of having to face him tomorrow morning!
There's actually a lot more to talk about still, including the amazing photography exhibitions my cousin and I stumbled onto accidentally, and all the amazing nooks and crannies of Millenium Park, and the nifty Apple store where we oohed and aaahed at the new Nanos, and even more importantly all the great, deep, interesting and wide-ranging conversations that ran throughout the entire weekend. But I've been typing this for over two hours. And I need a break.
A straight up narrative on the weekend would take forever, and I may want to go into greater detail about some of this stuff later in separate entries, so I'm going to start off with sort of a highlights version.
Iconic Chicago Commercial Tourism Experiences, Check!
How Many Amazing Concerts Can You Fit Into Two Days?
CDs Purchased at Jazz Record Mart, the Virgin Superstore, and the Old Town School of Folk Music, with Prices
The only two of these really worthy of mention are probably also the most obscure: Hijas del Sol and Keith B. Brown. Hijas del Sol are from Equatorial Guinea and thus allow me to check another country off the map of Africa, and this album recorded as "a hommage to Fela Kuti and his powerful Afrobeat" is actually really good. The Keith B. Brown album is an acoustic Delta blues album by a guy who also has appeared as two different blues legends (Son House and Skip James) in dramatic feature films. I bought it almost entirely because my boss has the same name. My boss is from Memphis, so I figure he's got to be into the blues, so I picked this up on a whim and it turns out to be a genuinely good album. Plus, it's only been released in France, so the chances that my boss has even heard of it are pretty slim. I need a good kiss-up gift ... I waited until the last possible minute to tell him I'd be taking Friday off, and it just so happened that it was his first day back in the office after three weeks in Africa. I'm already cringing a bit in expectation of having to face him tomorrow morning!
There's actually a lot more to talk about still, including the amazing photography exhibitions my cousin and I stumbled onto accidentally, and all the amazing nooks and crannies of Millenium Park, and the nifty Apple store where we oohed and aaahed at the new Nanos, and even more importantly all the great, deep, interesting and wide-ranging conversations that ran throughout the entire weekend. But I've been typing this for over two hours. And I need a break.