April 19, 2006
Fear and Loathing in Chicago
Partying with porn stars can be such fun.
Went to Chicago with The Highway Robbers this past week. This might take a few days, because the whole experience hasn't quite sunk in yet. Maybe I'll just tackle the first couple days first.
Thursday, travel day. On the plane, sitting next to 2 snoring dudes, window seat, trying to convince my bladder not to explode. Shane picked me up at Midway, and we proceeded to be stuck in traffic for the next, oh, 3 hours. LA and The Bay Area, you may think y'all have bad traffic. True, it's bad. But at least when describing it as "stop and go" you can look forward to the "go" part. In Chicago, it's just "stop" and more "stop." Finally got to bed.
Up at 5:30, and off to the radio station to play live on the Mancow Morning Madness show. We got there at about 8, and were greeted by Mini Freak (and a rolling bar) who showed us to the green room. We shared it with Mary Carey, Hannah Harper, and Gina Austin, stars of the adult silver screen. Hannah and Gina were sweet as can be. Mary is a walking train wreck. Even if you're not a devotee of porn, you may remember her from her run for governor against Arnold. Personally I think maybe a porn star in Sacto might not be such a bad idea. But please not her. Mancow was hyping us up to ridiculous degrees; "Now #5 on the country charts, sold out shows all across the country, you're probably listening to their CD right now, here are The Highway Robbers." I think I got a good insight into a pivotal precept upon which the music industry operates; lying through your teeth. By the end of the show we were all thick as thieves and exchanging signed CDs, T-shirts and smutty DVDs. As long as I live I'll never forget this day. Sorry about the red-eye...
After the Mancow show we wound up downtown at Ross's fantastic apartment for a much-needed nap in the afternoon before making our way to The Hideout for the evening show. Good crowd, 2 broken strings, and a very Spinal Tap-ish amp crap-out. We played with a couple other great bands, including locals The Siderunners. Great CD.
Thanks to Larry, Edie, Benny, Charles, Katie, Sebastian, and Ross for elegant and thoughtful hospitality way above and beyond the call.
Details about the third show later. Rhymes with 'merkin.'
Posted by eric at April 19, 2006 05:00 PM