Day 43: Chicago, IL
Welcome
Yesterday we played at Beach Bunny’s Pool Party in Chicago, Illinois.
The dark glass and aluminium exterior of the Bruce Willis Tower was gleaming magnificently on this warm Chicago morning, its two laser cannons reaching up into a deep blue sky and extending this structure’s height up to a staggering 527m. I walked a few blocks from our hotel to gain a better vantage point but found that the closer I got the more difficult it was to comprehend the scale of this tower which for 22 years held the title of the world’s tallest building. And to all those Torontonians are preparing to blast me in the comments claiming that their 553m CN Tower should have taken that title, I simpy point you towards the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) who have defined the Toronto tower as a structure as it doesn’t have floors from the ground up. This non-profit organisation with a membership numbering nearly half a million also widely considered to be an authority on the official height of tall buildings and contributes annual awards into this field such as Best Tall Building, Best Tall Office Building, Best Tall Building under 100 metres, and Best Tall Non-Building.
We arrived at the Salt Shed just after midday right as Chicago was experiencing its peak heat for the day, a scorching 38°C (100°F) that we could really feel on the large concrete outdoor area where the stage was constructed. This was our second visit to the Salt Shed, the historic Morton’s Salt facility that has just finished its conversion into a large multi-use venue. Last time we attended the indoor room was still just a giant concrete and corrugated iron shed, rusty and dusty and looking ready to be torn down. This time we arrived to a powerfully airconditioned space that had been completely reborn as a state of the art 3500 capacity room, tiered seating at the back, a mezzanine along one side, and plenty of standing room on the polished concrete floor. There was a brand-new stage and a hi-spec PA system that Gabe drooled over, and the ceiling was covered with fabric mats to keep the sound reflections from getting out of hand.
All of us would have been more than happy to play in this cool, dark room but the evening’s festival had sold too many tickets, so it was to be held outdoors in the searing sun. The indoor and outdoor venues share the same backstage facilities, so our greenroom was cool and comfortable and came equipped with the latest in smart toilet technology. It was also equipped with a small kitchenette and a heavily laden fruit bowl from which I withdrew a peach, an orange, and a kiwifruit, and combined these with some fresh berries, nuts, and raisins to make a refreshing breakfast spread.
We sheltered in the greenroom until it was time for our soundcheck and then carried ourselves and our instruments outside all the while cringing at the extreme changes in temperature that our wooden guitars and drums would have to endure. This was one of the rougher soundchecks we’ve experienced. The gremlins living in the festival sound system worked hard to ensure that the patch wouldn’t function. Microphone channels that we could hear through in our in-ear-monitors weren’t being sent out to Gabe’s mixing console and to the PA speakers, and on top of that there was hissing and popping on most of the lines.
Our full hour on stage was taken up by troubleshooting these problems and after considerable frustration we finally managed to soundcheck half a song though we were still missing several channels. The evening got better after that. There was a fantastic line-up of bands to watch beginning with alt-rock band Elita, all the way from Newfoundland, Chicago indie-folk artist Squirrel Flower, and then New York power pop band Charly Bliss who got us thoroughly in the mood to play.
When we began our set at 7.20pm the temperature was still in the mid-thirties (high nineties) and we had thoroughly preloaded with water and electrolyte drinks as a safety precaution. The colour of the sky was beginning to deepen as dusk arrived and it was as beautiful of a setting as one could ask for, this spot next to the Chicago River with the city skyline providing a glorious backdrop for the stage. This might have been my favourite show of the tour. The fact that so many things had already gone wrong wrong gives you a certain freedom to approach playing your instrument with a reckless abandon that doesn’t often happen. Sparks were flying off Jon’s strings as he ripped one potent solo after another. Tristan played his drums with such a vigour that the high tom escaped the rest of the drum set in protest. Liz sang brilliantly and did a couple of very nice small stage jumps. It wasn’t the most note-perfect performance we’ve ever done but it was fun and memorable.
The final act were hometown heroes Beach Bunny, the hosts of this this fine event, and a great band that left the crowd very satisfied at the end of the night. While there might not have been a real swimming pool at Beach Bunny’s Pool Party, they did play a song from their 2016 EP Pool Party, and that made up for the lack of swimmable water at the event.
Our last task of the night was to part ways with our amps and drums which we didn’t want to have with us when we turned up at the airport the next morning. Bang on time at 11.30pm a man turned up with a cargo van and loaded everything up for the trip to the freight depot where it would be stacked onto a pallet and secured with about ninety metres of cling wrap for the journey down to Grand Praire, Texas, where our October tour kicks off. With this completed we could head to the hotel and grab a few hours of sleep before the next morning’s early flight.
The tour bat heads off in the top of the drum hardware case.
