18:10, 02/09/2007

Heavy Weather - tour diary #3

Chicago / Madison, 23 August 07

The Annex, Madison
The Annex, Madison

Previously...

We drove out of the lot and onto the freeway, it was hot and sunny and we had over four hours before we had to be there. The aircon was on and the FM radio was blasting. It was all good.

Nothing could possibly go wrong...

Could it...?

We finally seemed to have left the 'British' weather behind.

As we took the ramp onto the i-90 that would see us all the way to Madison, though, clouds were already scudding over from the East. It was unbelievable how quickly the storm gathered, but suddenly we were gridlocked in gingerly crawling traffic, being lashed by unbelievable rain and wind. The water was standing on the surface of the freeway's tarmac making any movement perilous.

Having missed a turnoff earlier and doubling back, we were still within Chicago's city limits. The news on the radio was rumbling ominously about "historic" levels of rain and urging Chicagoans to stay in their homes.

It was terrifying.

I called Tyler back home in New York to see if he could get us more detailed forecasts. He was in the laundromat but he assured us that Midwestern storms tend to be savage but to pass quickly, so we decided to press on for a while.

Crawling along at about 20mph we seemed to come to the end of the storm which gave way to grey drizzle after about half an hour. Soon we'd picked up pace and left Chicago behind in brightening skies and I was starting to think about grabbing a bite to eat. I tend to get hangry (hungry-angry) if I get too low in blood sugar and we hadn't eaten since breakfast at LaGuardia about 8 hours earlier.

The radio was still rumbling about potential flooding in the counties north of Chicago but the weather didn't look that bad.

Then we began to see it on the horizon.

Into the storm
↑ into the heart of darkness

At first a darkening, then as we got closer, an absolutely colossal stormhead, the likes of which I'd never seen before. A curved wall of cloud, almost pitch black underneath though it was barely 4.30 in the afternoon. IN the flat midwestern countryside where you can literally see for miles, it seemed to have no end.

"I don't like the look of this," said Jennie, "and we're driving straight into it."

Droplets of rain began to strike the windscreen. Taillights began to disappear in the murk ahead. Traffic slowed to a crawl as the downpour began.

Wet
Wet

I rarely use the word "Biblical" but this rain made the previous deluge we'd been in seem like a light shower. We literally couldn't see the front of our car, the rain was so heavy. We struggled on at walking pace but after an hour or so it became clear that we'd have to get off the freeway. It was too dangerous.

Fortunately all the drivers around us were going responsibly. We pulled off at a service area hoping to sit out the storm with some food, but all the food outlets seemed to be closed. We heard there had been power cuts. It was academic anyway. If we'd left the car we would probably have drowned.

I was unable to decide what to do. In fact I was so hungry that I couldn't even think straight and we had our first big argument of the trip as we waited in the eerie silence of the rainswept services, barely able to see the cars all round us, full of hunched figures waiting for the rain to lift.

Time passed and there was a lightening of the sky to the North as the edge of the storm finally began to reach us. Jennie bravely decided to press on. Probably wise as all the storms seemed to be happening behind us in Northern Illinois so if we'd turned back we'd have run into them again.

It was now coming up to half five (we were due at the venue by six) and we were probably about two hours away from there. We pressed on, finally stopping to quell my 'hanger' at the next services which thankfully were open.

The sky was almost bright as I ate a slice of spinach pizza and drank some water. Jennie tucking into a chicken gyro. Food never tasted this good.

Soon we were through Rockford at the north-western edge of Illinois and into Wisconsin. Thanks to Google maps, the rest of the journey passed uneventfully and we arrived at the Annex club in a dry, hot and humid Madison soon after 7pm.

Made it We knocked on the door to find the promoter, Darwin, mopping the floor of the entranceway. Apparently the storms had passed through earlier and flooded the basement earlier.

He came out and looked at the car. "Jesus, that's a fucking tank" he said. It was indeed the biggest saloon car that either Jennie and I had been in.

We unloaded, checked details with the sound guy, then sat in the cool bar for a while, drinking some cold beer, trying to chill out.

Spotted Cow Stage time was after 11, so we had a fair bit of time to kill and we chatted a lot with the other bands. Headlining were The Pistols at Dawn, a local surf punk band. Very friendly guys who introduced us to some of the local brews, including a very tasty wheat beer called Spotted Cow. Also there were Ersa Miner, a fine, grungy rock duo from Chicago who'd arrived before us, also delayed by the weather.

Tyler had told us that the Annex served the best Bloody Marys in the USA. He wasn't wrong. They were bloody good. Apparently the secret ingredient is a dash of Guinness. Hmmm.

The show was really good. The Annex is for us a big venue, somewhere in the region of the size of The Forum in Kentish Town. As the students were still not back from vacation it was quite quiet but a bunch of local kids had come especially to see us so we got a really warm reception. We played a longer, heavier set and were overwhelmed by the reception we got.

The excellent Pistols at Dawn closed the night with a deafening set of instrumental surf punk covers and originals. We felt a little like we were in a David Lynch movie, especially when they launched into a version of The Pink Room from the Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me soundtrack.

We drove back to Darwin's apartment where we were staying the night sometime after 2.30am. Two cats greeted us. We slept.

The Annex (set)

  1. We Took Paris
  2. 7-1 Regime
  3. I Cannot See
  4. Labradoodle
  5. YTFU
  6. Funtime
  7. Have the Dust
  8. 17
  9. Lacka Lacka (Firecracka)

Madison → Chicago, 24 August 07

Jennie woke me at just after 8. She'd not slept a wink due to stress, my snoring, cat shenanigans. We decided to get an early start and head straight back to Chicago. Turned out to be a lucky decision in the end.

Once on the open road things felt good. It was less humid, bright. The car needed to be back at the Downtown Budget car lot by 2.30 so we had shitloads of time.

Or so it seemed. To avoid fuel penalties (an extra day's rental) we had to fill the car up and to avoid paying an extra day's rental, we had, like I said, to get it back by 2.30.

Unbelievably, we hit traffic so bad going into Chicago that we actually only made it into the Budget office at 2.29pm. I kid you not, we made it by less than a minute. The two and a half hour journey from Madison to Chicago took over five hours.

It had been a stressful 24 hours.

More by luck than design, the Budget lot was on the same block, just across the road, from the Hilton where we were staying as part of the Second Life Community Convention, so we dragged our flight cases and weary asses across the road and wearily checked in. MIracle of miracles, it was hot and sunny.

Jennie hit her bed and deservedly slept the next few hours.

I was also at the convention in a professional capacity (my company does development in Second Life) so I hit the bar and started doing some networking over a beer, meeting some friends form back in the UK as well as other people who I knew from in Second Life but had never met in person.

Apparently the storm had been spectacular the afternoon before as it broke across the skyscrapers of downtown Chicago. One person described how they'd seen it hurling sheets of plywood and other building materials from the roof of a nearby skyscraper under construction. Other more stoic Chicagoans claimed it was pretty normal for the city.

Later, when Jennie rose, we strolled round the South Loop area for a while and fetched up at a pretty restaurant called The Chicago FIrehouse (a converted fire station) and had some very very good food before a nightcap at the hotel bar and early bed.

Second Life Community Convention, 25 August 07

SLCC 2007
↑ the "long" set

For logistical reasons we had to get up at 7am to soundcheck (sigh). We found a room of bleary eyed musicians but the gear had only just arrived, we were informed by a stressed looking Elle Waters, the magnificent music organiser for the convention.

We popped off to get some coffee and breakfast. There was bedlam in the concourses of the hotel. Apart from the 1,000+ strong Second Life convention, there was also an induction for the students of nearby Columbia College, an ESPN fantasy football convention and the hotel was also playing host to the participants of the Accenture Chicago triathlon, meaning that amongst the nerds, students and sports nerds were hundreds of fit, tanned people with race numbers on their muscular thighs carting bicycles and swimwear around.

And there was a wedding reception being prepared for later. Madness.

We soundchecked after breakfast and Jennie went back to her room to wash up while I wandered around listening to various strands of the convention and doing some more networking. Later I found out that Jennie had fallen asleep again.

We met again briefly for lunch with the other conventioneers and then she split to stroll around the downtown area.

By four I was conventioned out and I sat down with Ken Hudson, a really nice artist and educator doing Second Life based teaching projects at Toronto's Loyalist College and hit the beer. Jennie came and joined us soon afterwards.

After a few drinks we went back into listen to some of the music that was being performed to a smattering of fans in the Boulevard Room where we'd be playing later. Particularly impressive was jazz singer Ankari Holder, doing mainly unaccompanied jazz and blues standards as well as some beautiful original compositions. She has a crystal clear, expressive voice reminiscent of the likes of Astrud Gilberto.

Our slot from 8 - 9pm turned out not to be the best, as it seemed to be when people were off eating or napping after the rigours of the convention day. We had a few people enthusiastically supporting us and once again we enjoyed a terrific sound. The sound in all our gigs was terrific. The engineers in the US really seem to know their shit.

Elle informed us that there was a biggish crowd listening to us in Second Life as well, so it was good. We played all our songs, and played them very well.

That night was the only night of the tour we got really drunk. After wrapping up and taking our shit back to our rooms, we hit the bar big time, drinking frozen Margaritas with a nice German lady called Brigit who'd given one of the most interesting talks earlier that day. We looked in at the masquerade ball (a fetishy affair), but the bar arrangements were too complicated so we joined a bunch of people back in the hotel bar and continued until the small hours.

Jennie went on somewhere but I had reached my limit and staggered back to my room. I was beat and we had to fly back to New York the next day. The next morning she told me she'd done the same. Had one more drink, felt she'd had enough, and gone to bed.

The tour was done.

SLCC (set)

  1. We Took Paris
  2. I Cannot See
  3. 7-1 Regime
  4. Labradoodle
  5. YTFU
  6. Funtime
  7. Have the Dust
  8. 17
  9. Lacka Lacka (Firecracka)
  10. Cmon Cmon

The rest, 26 - 27 August 07

Leaving the conference early on a sunny, hot day, we had an uneventful journey back to New York. It really felt like coming home as we waited on the stoop of Tyler and Kate's brownstone in Park Slope for them to return from an afternoon stroll. It was lovely and warn. Sunny.

That evening we had a meal and a drink in the area before an early night.

The next morning we packed up and had a last visit to Manhattan, and a stroll around Brooklyn's beautiful Prospect Park before saying a sad goodbye to New York.

American Airlines 100
↑ heading home

It was a dazed two Deathliners who, to save costs, boarded a Piccadilly Line tube from Heathrow back to Kings Cross the next morning. The flight had arrived at 6.30am. London was ten degrees cooler and a lot drabber than the places we'd left behind.

We had a great time. We'd certainly not claim that it did our profile or our finances any good whatsoever. We pretty much lost money all along. But we played with some great bands and were overwhelmed by the friendliness and hospitality we encountered throughout the trip.

Special thanks must go to Tyler and Kate who put us up (and put up with us) for so long and Tyler especially who organised most of the dates for us. To Elle (aka Nethermind Bliss) who booked us for SLCC and started the whole ball rolling. To Nell and Frankie at Otto's who made us so welcome, and Darwin who looked after us so well at The Annex. To my company The Guild, who gave us some much needed financial support. To all the cats we met, but especially Phi and Ella, New Yorkers with attitude.

And to the fantastic bands we played with, many of whom you can find on the friends space on our MySpace now. Have a listen, they are all shit hot.

Soho
Deathline in SoHo
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