I guess I should put up something about these shows....
Friday we flew up from Tampa, met up with our friends at the airport, and took the train downtown. Checked into the hotel and pretty much crashed. I had intended to go see LoserChris and his band, but I just didn't make it...sorry bro.
Saturday night they sold out the Subterannean, which I am GUESSING held about 400 people. The bar was narrow and long, so it was hard to get a feel for how many people were there, but I know it was sold out and there were people standing outside trying to buy tickets. I overheard a dude behind me handing out free CDs and telling this chick about his band, and it turns out it was someone in Chris's band...so he pointed him out to me and I at least got to meet hime briefly - and I got a couple of free CDs!! Bonus!!! I was supposed to meet up with BearCat from the board as well, but I screwed up and left his phone number at home...I suck. Sorry guys!!!
The show was an all ages show, which meant that it had to be over by 10:30pm for some reason. Lucero took the stage just after 9pm, so we didn't get the typical 30+ songs that I normally associate with an Lucero show, but we did get some of the new songs, including the first live version of SMOKE, which was excellent. Ben and Rick also did the song "Mom" which was pretty cool, despite all the crowd chatter. I captured a lot of it on video, so I will post that soon. The show ended way too soon for my liking, but it wasn't the bands fault.
On Sunday we screwed around Chicago for a good portion of the day, dodging rain and lightning. Finally, around 5pm we headed over to the Green Festival to see what was going on. Due to the wether, the schedule was off by quite a bit, but we did get to catch some of the Catfish set, as well as Murder By Death. Finally, Lucero got on stage shortly after 9pm. The crowd had grew quite a bit by that time, and everyone was having a good time. They played about 50 minutes and then were told that they had to stop...there was a 10pm curfew/noise ordinance.
Ben kept asking if they could just play one more song, but they were told that they had to quit....end of story.
Ben told the crowd, "I am going to grab my acoustic guitar, and I will play some songs right out there in the park!" Rick grabbed the accordian and decided to join him, and they set up with a crowd gathered around. I pulled out my Blackberry and captured the first song on video....
Overall, both shows were disappointing, simply due to the length....however, we got to spend a lot of time with the guys, chilling on thier super deluxe tour bus, eating and drinking, and just having a good time, so it was definitely worth the trip.
Four dates in Florida in November, and I can't wait!!!
