JoCo comes to Chi Town
A trip to Chicago and some minor irritations from the weekend
Tags: Life With Mike Categories: Blog, Contributor Blog
Posted by Mike "Two Tone" McConnell on Oct 14th, 2009
Jonthan Coulton is a staple of the PAX concerts every year, but I have never been able to see him outside of that context. My live-in-sin-in is closer to obsessed with him than I could vouch for, trying to opt for a show in Chicago and Madison. I passed on the Madison, but Chicago is one of my favorite cities for music, so we jumped on the Tollway and headed for the land of Blues and bad baseball.
After making a stop in Arlington Heights to pick up some Asian snacks, we hit Chicago proper. One thing I forgot about Chicago is that it is home to some of the worst drivers in civilization. I’m not even exaggerating, trying to drive anywhere in Chicago is an exercise in self-abuse. Lane markers are blatantly ignored, and shoulders are frequently driven along like they’re an extra lane in case of idiocy.
Before I get my blood pressure back up, I’ll skip ahead to the venue. We arrived late missing Paul and Storm’s entire set. The Park West is a smaller venue, reminiscent of the classic venues with tables rather than rows of theater seats. We ended up in a balcony in a row of seats from improvised barstools. It was less than comfortable, but its my fault for forgetting that time from Point A to Point B in a city where people stop for no apparent reason is not necessarily just a function of distance.
While I was grabbing a few drinks, more on that later. Joco took the stage with Paul and Storm. Weirdly enough they were doing the opening to the They Might be Giants Record, Flood. Which like the album led right into Birdhouse in your Soul. The crowd all started glancing at each other, it dawning on them that TMBG was playing across town. The trio did the entire album in a wordless rush, with the exception of introducing NPR commentator, Peter Segal. It was a treat to be there, and one of those musical moments you don’t really see anymore.
Jonthan Coulton did his own set, which was excellent. I was quite surprised to see that he changed his set list from the PAX shows enough that there was very little overlap beyond his biggest, “hits” - JoCo is a great performer and the addition of Paul and Storm for his live show has made every show a treat. His Thing-a-Week gimmick may have made his songs a meme, and machina may have made him nerd pop culture, but his songwriting ensures him status as something more than a weird Internet phenomenon.
The show was good, we were happy as we drove back to Milwaukee. The next day I go to check my bank balance, and I find that the bar decided that my $23, $26 with tip, bar tab needed to be ran for $100. So I’m broke now, and I can’t do anything about it until they actually post it, so I’m screwed. Needless to say, I’m a little upset. It was a nice companion to the big dent in my car where an old lady hit it on Sunday. Well at least the music was good.
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Tags: Life With Mike
Posted by Mike "Two Tone" McConnell on Oct 14th, 2009 and is filed under Blog, Contributor Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
