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washington - cleveland - chicago :::
By warriorgrrl | September 10, 2008
Washington was wet. Big raindrops, you know, the ones that feel fat and glutinous as they break and splash over your face, soaking your clothes in seconds. I stayed in the tour bus as long as possible before sprinting the few feet to the dry venue to get some washing done, eat lovely food and generally be treated extremely well by the dedicated staff at the 9:30 Club.
It’s rare that a venue gets so much right. There are lots of great venues all over the world but there’s usually one annoying thing, like a difficult load-in up flights of stairs, stinky toilets or dressing rooms or horrendous monitors, that makes the night less than perfect. I’m not asking for five star treatment all the time, believe me, but see if you feel like playing a gig after lugging a pile of heavy gear up three spiral staircases (my worst load-in ever, at a gig in Manchester) - try it and you’ll see what I mean.
The 9:30 Club was perfection from start to finish, from the lovely breakfast laid out on our arrival to the laundry facilities (perfect timing), the nice easy load-in with the venue’s crew assisting our own to the gorgeous dinner served from their very own kitchen. It all made for a lovely night and the gig had a little something special added as a result. For me, anyway.
We drove to Cleveland overnight as a stopover before hitting Chicago. It seems unfair to say there was nothing happening there since we visited on a Sunday, but as we walked around I couldn’t see what would have been open if we’d been there on a weekday. I bought raspberry sorbet from a pharmacy and had a nice Mexican lunch complete with Bloody Mary, but that was the extent of it. I love taking photos of odd things and the sense of desolation in Cleveland only added to some of the strange sights I came across as I walked around:
And here’s home sweet home, of course:
Chicago was rainy, though thankfully the worst of it held off until the end of my 6 mile walk to The Chicago Diner - the finest vegan/vegetarian eaterie in town, so the internet had informed me. Sadly the internet had failed to inform me of the full distance of my walk between the tour bus parked outside the House of Blues and the diner on North Halsted Street. Luckily I’m pretty determined when it comes to food, and luckily the journey was well worth it. Hello vegan pancakes, vegan French toast and vegan sausages! I even bought a cookbook to take away with me so I can recreate it all at home.
As this is my first American trip outside New York I’d never had the pleasure of a visit to a House of Blues, and I was suitably impressed by the art nouveau styling and old fashioned theatrical air. An added bonus was getting the opportunity to meet up with a good friend I hadn’t seen in 10 years, his gorgeous wife and her sister AND a new Twitter buddy who’d gone to the trouble of driving three hours to come and see the show. Touring can be lonely sometimes, but getting the chance to connect and reconnect with people is a very cool part of it.
Topics: Music, Photo Post, Places, Puppy, Ramblings, Travel |
September 11th, 2008 at 4:20 am
that’s a great shot of the HOB! it was definitely an awesome show. and *super* worth the drive to meet you