tour report - chicago

took a quick drive from cleveland to chicago, through some insane weather...it would be perfectly clear, then suddenly a massive hailstorm, then clear again! it was slow going through parts of ohio farm country, but we did manage to make it through unscathed.

arrived early at the venue, no one was there. so we had to wait around for a bit. mark, the promoter, showed up and we were able to get loaded in with a minimum of difficulty. however, the venue was not really ideal for live band concerts...small stage and kind of a wonky sound system. after some technical struggles, we made it through soundcheck, and went off to the hotel to check in and chill out.

it was a very decent turnout though, and it was nice to see a bunch of people that we knew at the venue (folks from stromkern, iris, and assemblage 23 were all in attendance). i drank polish beer for the first time, it was alright. the first band was biocarbon 13, which was more of a terror-ebm type of band. they were good at that, so if you're into that style of music, you should check them out.

i've mentioned our awesome 'super fans' before, and tonight was no different in that regard. drew and his crew of people from atlanta, who'd seen us in cleveland the previous night all showed up in chicago. there were people that had driven down from detroit, actually, there were a lot of people that we'd met in detroit on our last tour through the midwest. it was crazy awesome, and those people are fucking great!

when we went on, things went well, all our super fans were pushed up against the stage, and were all singing along with all the songs. unfortunately, since there was a gap between the PA and the front of the stage, as the fans got drunker, they also got louder, and were actually screaming along with the songs...which was throwing da5id off a bit. i guess in-ear monitors aren't a perfect solution for everything. but still, the enthusiasm and general insanity was much appreciated!! we had a great time! it was a really great show!

afterwards, aaron went back to the hotel (still recovering), and da5id, keith and i went off to neo (the defacto chicago industrial club) to keep partying, which we did until they closed. we met up with lisa q. merchbot, and hung out for a while, which was great.

in chicago, we'd like to thank the following crazy people: mark, the cafe lura staff, biocarbon 13, drew and the atlanta crew, danielle from detroit, racquel (kizzle), kevin from a23, ned and rainbow, andrew and laurie, lisa q. merchbot, and all the people who i got too drunk to remember the names of (my sincerest apologies, seriously).