I spent Monday August 8th, 2016 doing adult things. After work I went to the dentist, only to find out that my old fillings are falling apart, so I need to get my old cavities that were already filled, filled again. And I thought I couldn't get any more cavities since all my teeth are filled. How lucky. Afterwards I headed out to sports clips to get my hair cut. The woman was very kind to ask me if I was getting ready to go back to school. Yep, still look like I am in high school. With my fresh 'do, I headed to my parents and did some laundry, then cleaned my car seats for the first time ever. They sure were dirty! Saw a pretty cool little leaf bug while that was going on. Talk about being an adult. This is what I do with my free time!
On Tuesday August 9, I got creative at work and set up some lax Olympics. The kids seemed to have fun with it. I even made a medal podium. For lunch we headed to Draft Picks where I got some steak fajitas. Tasty. After work, I picked up Rachel in New Lenox, then we drove down to Kankakee, to spend time with Rach's grandma. When we got back to Chicago that night, we watched the Olympics and Rach tried on her new Patagonia sweater that my mom won. For an even more attractive look, they put a Mountain DEWcision logo on the back of the hoodie. Looks like this will be worn with the hood down always. Quality sweater though!
Wednesday August 10th was an extremely say day. Rachel's Grandma passed away at the age of 93. Such an amazing and remarkable woman. I feel lucky to have been able to meet and spend time with her, but wish I could have known her longer (read more about her inspiring me to blog more here).
That evening for dinner Rachel cooked up a blue apron dinner for us. Spicy chicken and korean rice cakes. Very enjoyable with such scrumptious flavors. I had too many drinks that evening and bumped our new little pot thing off of the bathroom sink. Needless to say, it shattered, but I barely touched it. It was ridiculous. That night we watched Mr. Robot Season 2 Episode 3. On my way home from work I also started a new podcast that is similar to Serial. The podcast documentary is about the unsolved disappearance of Tara Grinstead. She went missing on October 22, 2005 from her home in Ocilla, Georgia and hasn't been seen since. It is called Up and Vanished and is produced by Payne Lindsey. The founding member and director of all the classic Right Side of the Tree videos. Which actually all are no longer on YouTube for some reason, but I was able to dig up this one. My guess is they were removed so Payne could focus on a more serious career as a director and now investigative podcaster? But who knows.
Happy 2 month anniversary! Wow time flies. The last two months have been extremely busy, but also super fun and amazing. I love being married to the most wonderful wife! I love you Rachel! I spent Thursday August 11th, at work watching the beast put on a faceoff clinic. When I got home from work I was pretty tired so I took a nap. We celebrated our 2 month anniversary by getting some Papa Johns. I ordered a pepperoni zaa, but as I was walking home with it, I realized they gave me a cheese. When I went back in they apologized, made me a new one and even gave me a free 20oz soda. Wow, the perks for having to wait an extra 10 minutes.
I worked late on Friday August 12th, went to my parents, drank a six pack of bud lights and ate two bags of popcorn because what else would you do on a Friday night with your rents?
On Saturday August 13, I was hosting a Neuqua alumni game at Commish turf. The park district actually pulled nets out for us at our request, but they of course were still locked to the fence when I got there. I had no idea how many people were going to show up, and since it was the first game in about 7 years, but I had promoted it to all the alumni I knew, as well as offered it up to current players to participate as well. With the short week notice we still had about 12 alumni and 12 current players come to play. I called the PD and got the goals unlocked and we actually scrimmaged for about 2 hours. It was super fun and a great success considering the short notice and gap in time since the last game. Hopefully I can make this an annual thing and at least double if not triple the participation for next year. After the game I headed to Nevins with Carron and Curley, the only other 2 "old" alumni as we were about 6 years older than anyone else there ha. I had a pretty tasty burger and a couple of drinks as we discussed life, lacrosse, and alumni games for the future. Fun times. I then hopped in my car and headed back to Chicago.
Once I got back to the city Saturday evening, I did some things around the apartment, as Rachel was out at Mary's Bachelorette party. Stop, if you haven't checked out the song Dirty Sheets above by The Orwells, do so now... . I wasn't sure if the show started at 8:30p as it said on the flyer, or if that is when The Orwells went on. As you know from my blog last week, I arrived way too early to the New Madrid show. This was on my mind as I left my apartment at 8:15. As I started walking away from my building, I thought hey, there is no way I will make it to the show by catching busses and walking, but I do have a car. So I turned around, went up to my room, frantically did some research to find out when the boys would be playing, found a link that said the entire show starts at 8:30, but there are 3 bands before the Orwells, so I calmed down a little. I grabbed my keys and then headed to the show via car. I found some free parking in the neighborhoods around the venue Chop Shop & 1st Ward. I got into the venue which was a little small chop shop and restaurant in front and then some glass windows separating the concert venue in the back. Pretty cool setup. There was also a set of stairs once in the venue which I headed up to see the view from above. Once I was up there I knew this would be my spot. Not too crowded, a great view, a solid spot for a guy riding solo who was looking to record the show.
The first band was already playing once I got to my spot. Joe Bordenero & The Late Bloomers. I really only caught a couple of their songs by they were pretty decent. Next up was Post Animal, a Chicago band that had a few songs I could vibe too, but they were a little too "metal" sounding for me and I don't think I would really listen to their stuff unless I was in the metal mood. While I was watching them perform, I felt someone behind me watching. It hadn't been that crowded yet so no one was behind me before that. When I turned around to glance I saw the lead singer of The Orwells checking out the show. Pretty cool. An exceptional moment during the Post Animal set came when one of the photographers put down his camera, and then went up the side of the stage and leapt off turning his onto his back in midair. No one was expecting it and there was not enough of a crowd to hold him up so he smashed a chick and the ground pretty hard on his back. Well that was exciting! The 3rd band that took the stage was pretty awesome. The Symposium was lead by a guy who came out in vibrant gym shorts, a tee shirt, and gym shoes, my kinda guy. I really enjoyed their set and the comedy the lead guitarist/vocalist brought to the stage. The Chicago indie rock style had me head nodding to their jams. Check out their music here!
Finally around 11:30p The Orwells took the stage. A band that is out of Elmhurst, IL that has extremely high energy, pumps the crowd up, and gets the people going absolutely nuts. I have listened to their music for awhile now and really enjoy their "english" style punk rock, but wanted to get a taste of it live, and I surely did. Despite the signs, there was a lot of moshing, stage diving, and crowd surfing throughout their performance. These guys I think just turned maybe 19 or 20, but they surely know how to rock. The lead singer Mario Cuomo (who looks similar to Robert Plant) is a wild guy who only sings, and really puts on quite a show when he is up there. From swinging his blonde hair around, to standing against the wall in the back, to crowd surfing, to screaming his lungs out, and to even chugging beers and liquor mid set. These guys know how to throw a party. I could not stop head bobbing and swaying to their music. It was an incredible show with tons of highlights. I was able to record it all on audio and also get a decent amount of it on video as you can see below. Fans kept getting on stage, jumping off stage into the crowd, then crowd surfing back to the front, to do it all over again. All while this was happening other guys near the front would be smashing into each other and other people who were enjoying the show. Mosh pits and crowd surfing make me smile, but at a distance. Absolutely wild. I was glad to be in the upper deck as my mosh pitting days are long past me. At one point during the show a random fan was up on stage standing with his hands up. Mario comes up behind him while singing and pushes him forward. At the same time he lost his balance and fell down off the stage on top of the fan in the crowd. He then was down in the crowd for a little bit. While this was happening he kept singing, rock n roll baby! I moved around to a few different spots from the balcony throughout the show, and then went down to the floor level for the last song. Once Mario was done singing, he left the stage and the band jammed for a couple of minutes before ending the night. That was electric! I will definitely be going to see these guys the next time they are in town and I wouldn't be mad if ya'll joined me.
Video of the week: This John McCauley show from 2005 just surfaced on the internet and it is gold. Even before the entire band Deer Tick was a thing! Vintage stuff, McCauley explains how the bands name came to be and plays a few classics for us. Oldest footage of Deer Tick I've seen to date. A must watch!
Podcast of the Week: Up and Vanished. The podcast documentary is about the unsolved disappearance of Tara Grinstead. She went missing on October 22, 2005 from her home in Ocilla, Georgia and hasn't been seen since. Produced by once Right Side of the Tree star, Payne Lindsey.
Much more coming soon.
Josh