Friday, June 23rd @ Gunther Murphy’s - Chicago

We got into Chicago with plenty of time to spare before our show at Gunther’s and hung out our good friends, the Suhars-Matt, Susan, and Stella.

We showed up at Gunther Murphy’s around 8pm, had plenty of time to hang out, drink, and be merry before our show. Michael McDermott, a Chicago singer-songwriter, was there with Matt and others as our support group for the night. Half of Rogue Wave showed up to the gig. They had an early gig on a tv show in the morning and another in the afternoon and had the night off. We were surprised to see them. It’s a small rock n’ roll world after all.

There were too very kind and friendly local bands on the bill that night, one called The Demilos, who set up the show, and the other was Forty Piece Choir. I got to talk with both bands and shoot the breeze. After the breeze was shot, we had a show to play. We had another super attentive crowd, at Murphy’s. At one point Courtney said, “could you talk, just a little, you’re making us nervous,” and so they did. However, later I wanted them talk a little less and thought to myself, “Ok, you don’t have to take us sooo literally.”

It was a great show with a great crowd, a few photo flashes in our face (made us feel all the more fabulous), lots of merch sold after the show, and a great time for Courtney and I. We even had a few drinks. When I say a few, I do mean a few, we’re not known for our drinking. In fact we don’t even like to drink much at all. A big drinking’ night for us is one with two drinks.
It was a big night.

Saturday, June 24th @ Horseshoe Bar - Chicago

In the morning of our gig I felt sicker than a dog. Man, what 3 beers can do to a lightweight. Courtney was not sick, but helped nurse me back to health. We met Matt’s parents. Matt’s mom asked me if I had a long night. She saw me with my head hanging down at the kitchen table. No wonder. Matt cooked up some eggs and brats for a very Chicago breakfast and I wondered if I’d be able to stomach them. Then little Stella calls me into her playroom in her little voice, “c’m ere." She commands me to sit down in a two-year-old sized wooden chair. We played with teddy bears and toy pianos. I found it was easy to forget about a hangover in Stella’s room.
Courtney came into the playroom and taught Stella a children’s song she wrote called “Snakes,” complete with accompanying snake dance. Later we sang the ever popular, “Elevator why don’t you take me up up, up, up,” and it became a big hit with the little lady.

After lots of hanging out and playing with Stella at the Suhar house, we drove to the gig. We’d had been added to the bill last-minute (a week in advance) and when we got to the club the management hadn’t been told about our addition to the show. A bartender/manager told us he didn’t know anything about anything about KaiserCartel. I briefly wondered if we would play at all that night. He also told us that a number of people had called the club and had even come by looking for us and asking if we would be playing that night. Not knowing about us, he turned all the people away.

Many of the people who might have come to us, had been scared away. We found out that owner/manager who arranged our booking was away on vacation in Australia and neglected to tell the management. The other bands in the room were confused when we came in, and had “who-the-hell-are-you,” looks on their faces, understandably so. We had a few friends in the bar, but over-all it was a weird scene. Nobody us and the audience was probably most inattentive and least responsive we’ve had.

It was hard for me to get too down about it. I got to meet one of my favorite indie bands from years ago, The Smoking Popes. They were chatting with Matt on business, I’m not sure what kind of business, but it was nice to know our man in Chicago was ‘working’ the room.’ It’s worth saying there were a few cool new faces. Forgive me if I can’t remember any names right now. When I’m home and the cards come out of wallets and backpacks I say “Oh yeah, I remember that guy.”

We played our usual set, with our usual zeal. The minority of people who were paying attention to our music took notice and came up to us after the show. There was a lot of talking, not much music-listening to the other bands on the bill as well, so it was hard to take the gig too seriously. We’d gotten a good-sized guarantee, for our short set, so we weren’t complaining. However, after were off stage we left as quickly as possible. We just didn’t feel like hanging out. The Suhar Home was much more fun!

VINTAGE CLOTHES- Chicago
Chicago is a great town for thrifting and we were there over a weekend so I should have been garage-sale shopping, but Stella was too cute to leave the house and we really felt like relaxing. We will see what the next show holds!