Two shows in two days (plus some spit)

Thanks for the birthday wishes, everyone. It was a pretty darn good one. Slept late then headed with Tara to ComedySportz for pizza and cake with my C-Spo office buddies. Always a laugh riot with that bunch, let me tell you. A restful afternoon was then followed by the Nickel Creek concert.

And what a concert it was.

The Vic is a great venue - large floor space and HUGE balcony with great sight lines. Tara and I got there right when the show was supposed to start and we wanted to have seats (we're old), so we had to go pretty high up. But we could still see all the action and everything sounded great. Kudos to you, The Vic, for being a classy old theater that's still rockin' it.

The string of fantastic (and fantastically weird) opening acts continued in this show with The Ditty Bops. They were a female duo that played very folksy, circus-y, "Triplets of Belleville"-y music. I say circus-y, mostly because the show pretty much had its own sideshow. There was this one dude whose only apparent job was to be weird. He started the show on stilts, then wore a tux to very formally play the windchimes, did a bit where he stomped out as a one-man band, juggled, and engaged in fake swordplay with one of the girls. Undescribably weird and inexplicably amusing.

Then came Nickel Creek. And wow - what amazing musicians these three are. The amount of time they've put into their art to have such absolute mastery over their instruments just blows my mind. And not only did they provide amazing renditions of their own songs (often with extended endings and instrumental jam sessions that frequently tore the house down) they covered Radiohead's "Nice Dream" and Britney Spears' "Toxic" (and it was 100 times better.) Just a fantastic show. I am far from a county or bluegrass fan, but this is one of those groups I recommend to anyone who enjoys music. Period.

I pretty much have a big crush on Sara, the fiddle player from Nickel Creek. (Yeah, I love a girl who plays fiddle.) So when they mentioned they love Intelligensia, a indie coffehouse here in Chi-town, I swing by there today, half just to see what the fuss was about and half just hoping to run into them. They weren't there, but apparently the place has a quota of one rock star at all times, because who should be hanging around but Jon Foreman of Switchfoot. I overheard him talking about Nickel Creel and told him I was at the concert last night. He then complimented my Sleeping at Last hoodie, I said I was a big fan of his, and we parted ways. So let it be known: Intelligensia is THE place for random rock star run-ins in the city of Chi-town.

At this moment, there are people gathering here at the apartment for the oddest reason. Joey Bland, an improviser here and Tara's good friend was on Jeopardy a while back and his episode aired today. A bunch of ComedySportzers gathered at 3:00 this afternoon to watch, but it was pre-empted by the WHITE SOX'S PLANE LANDING. Most pointless coverage ever. We cursed the network endlessly. Many even called the local affiliate to complain. After some time, we were informed that the episode would air at 1:40 am. So what do improvisers with no day jobs do? Gather at 11:30 for another watching party. It's exciting.

Anyway, tonight was concert central in Chi-town. Ben Folds was at the Chicago Theater downtown, Eisley and Switchfoot were at The Vic, but what did I do? I went to Beat Kitchen to see three pop-punk bands and The Rocket Summer. (I've seen Ben before, when he came to Drake. Plus, his tickets were expensive. Switchfoot just plain sold out.) And while The Rocket Summer was much better than Mattie gave them credit for, one thing made me very uncomfortable.

I was much too old for this show. And also much too male.

Seriously, the crowd was me and about 85 high school girls.

I know what you're saying - ideal situation for me, right? I should be in heaven. But I just felt creepy. I could have guessed that The R.S.' audience would skew young, but never did I think I'd be walking into a bona-fide teeny-bopper pop-punk event of "the scene." You should have heard the high-pitched crowd singalongs. Ugh. Just makes me feel dirty. I need to listen to my new Decemberists albums to feel better.

This is a long post, but I can't leave without a random Chicago story. There was a gross dirty guy on the bus I took to Beat Kitchen. At one point, he covered his mouth and spit on the floor of the bus. I'm gagging just thinking about it. I just find it funny that he's gross enough to spit on the bus, yet courteous enough to cover his mouth.

People, huh? They're the worst.