good psychedelic sheen

For dinner last night I had the second half of a sandwich I had for lunch and right before heading into the metro I had a shot of whiskey followed by an energy drink. Which tells you that I am a cheap date/a sad person. Thus prepared I walked into the Metro like I've done on many, many other occasions. The Metro is one of my favorite venues despite the fact that I've been kicked out twice ("I'm sorry, I thought this was a rock and roll show! Get offa me!" - me), it's got a good vibe for the most part, plenty of vantage points and places to hang out. The floor is it's real down fall, either cheap movie house sticky or slick as oil the second a drop of beer hits it and making you lose your footing and you look like a stooge. There I was. Tuesday night. Sure things change. I don't see many people straight up smoking joints at smaller venues anymore, mainly due to the indoor smoking ban, but people get high with TECHNOLOGY now. Vape pens with some sort of weed oil in it, ELECTRIC JOINTS, THE FUTURE MAN. Or you could just get fucked up before hand, which isn't a bad idea at the Metro, what with a few cool bars just steps away. Or fuck it, get messed up at the venue. They got Murphy's Irish Stout, which is like if Guiness gave up any pretentiousness. Just don't get the well whiskey, I have learned this the hard way, a few times. I had entirely missed The Shrine, a band that I would seemingly love, but at best enjoy. On record they sound anemic and entirely too clean. But they got good guitar lines and a good hard rocking vibe, which actually shine brightly on stage. They would be a stellar band to see at some horrible dive, especially if you had never heard of them. Yeah you could do bong hits to them, but from a not so well constructed home made bong, where you can taste the fumes of the whiffle ball bat it's made from. Danava was on stage when I went in. They play almost NWOBHM style rock, they got these great power metalish guitars, all with a good psychedelic sheen to it. The bass player was playing a Dust t shirt so they got a bit of respect from me just because of that. I had a strong feeling of deja vu seeing them last night, I might have seen them before under much blurrier conditions. They were seriously on point last night. Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats came on promptly at ten and proceeded to fucking rock. Sure Black Sabbath may be in the midst of calling it quits, but like Shub-Niggurath they have spawned 1000 young and in turn those continue to churn out mutants. Uncle Acid are clearly the children/cult of Black Sabbath. They don't play stoner metal as so much as they play absolutely bummer metal. The crowd was moderately rowdy, not too much moshing, but lots of fist in the air and headbanging. There's something comfortably ritualistic about violently nodding in the direction of LOUD NOISE. One could see that crowd at an Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats show is a clear example of D.A.R.E. being a failure. Only the drug addled and liking it go to heavy metal shows wearing flip flops (I guess they were dress up flip flops, but still). U.A. They played for a good long while, lost some steam a bit more than halfway through, but they rallied and depressed/buoyed all those involved. Good times. I also saw Baroness a few weeks ago. That was just epic. EPIC.

On the eve of the eve or Riot Fest

It's that time of year again, fucking Riot Fest time of course. Much like last year, which was my first foray into Riot Fest as an outdoor multiday show, I once again go into it with conflicted feelings. Once again I fully expect these to be swept under the rug by the force of loud guitars and screaming, as it should be. Here's the bands I'm recommending in no particular order but by day. I originally wanted to do Bands to Avoid, but that seemed really negative, so I guess I'm growing as a person or some shit.

SLAYER: Sure, some I follow on Twitter said, "50% Slayer." But goddamnit, that's still around 179% of a regular band. I saw them play during their last tour and they KILLED. It'll be weird seeing these guys out in the open, part of the atmosphere at my favorite Slayer shows has been hanging out in old, dark buildings, feeling the floor boards creaking when thousands of fuckers are chanting "kill, kill, kill" during At Dawn the Sleep, GOOD TIMES. Plus who knows how long these guys will keep touring, and when else are you gonna get the chance to scream along to Altar of Sacrifice along with all sorts of weird metalheads?

Gogol Bordello: Seeing G.B. is sorta like seeing Slayer, but instead of channeling hatred and apocalyptic mayhem, they channel fun and dancing and rock and roll. If you don't have fun during their set it's because you're dead.

Mastodon: Mastodon's Leviathan inspired me to read Moby Dick, that was 10 years ago, and while I haven't gotten very far in the novel I've seen these guys a bunch of times and have experienced some face melting metal. Once More Round the Sun is really proggy, but not in an annoying way, still heavy though. This should be fun and loud as fuck.

Murder City Devils: Drinkin' music! But the kind of drinking where you start off alone and end up hanging out with your friends at a favorite bar and hell why not go somewhere else, sure you gotta work in the morning, but what's the point of working if you cant go to a random rock show with your buds? Yeah, the wind is cold, but someone has a flask and the whiskey warms you up.

Clutch: Okay, okay, drinking music again, but this time it's at a cookout and you got awesome brats on the grill and you're drinking some damn good beer instead of the swill you normally drink. Clutch have been around forfuckingever it seems and they're one of the originators of what I call BBQ Metal. It's not exactly stoner metal, cause instead of sitting around doing bong hits you actually do stuff to this music. I'm not saying that hanging out doing bong hits isn't doing stuff, but try and get shit done with some good weed and Sleep's Dopesmoker on the stereo. Other bands in the genre include Black Tusk, Mastodon, Red Fang, and Howl, GOOD BANDS.

GWAR: With Oderus Urungus having gone to the lands of ashes and bone I'm not entirely sure the scumdogs will manage to pull this off, but it will be ridiculous. I guarantee ridiculousness, which sounds good on paper if you haven't seen Gwar, but to the initiated it's just redundant.

Stiff Little Fingers: Old school punks on a rampage. Their the original Godzilla to Against All Authoritie's Broderickzilla. Ah that might be unfair to AAA.

Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears: The first time I heard them was while checking out the bands on the line up. These dudes play bright stompy soul that would be great in a heist movie.

Radkey: Last year at Riot Fest these guys came on stage and said "If you like rock and roll you won't like us." Which was complete and utter bullshit cause they played a damn fine set of punk rock. I missed them opening for Red Fang last winter but they've been doing a lot of touring and I cant wait to see how much sharper they are after being honed on the grindstone that is the road.

Other bands that might be worth checking out: Plauge Vendor, Baby Baby, Rise Against, Jane's Addiction.

Saturday

Wu-Tang Clan: AND IF YOU GOT BEEF THEN BRING THE RUCKUS WU TANG CLAN AINT NOTHING TO FUCK WITH

Samhain: Holy shit! In between The Misfits and Danzing, Glen Danzing started Samhain. Sure the actual thing is pronounced so when, but I bet you that this is Samhayn. It's a weird sorta almost metal band, that probably sounds closer to what the Misfits would've sounded like in Danzig's head. I'm surprised that they're one of the headliners, but I bet Danzig has an "never plays in the daylight" stipulation in his contract. It'll still be cool seeing them, plus I'm sure Danzig will do some Misfits songs and of course some Danzing. Their opener for their own tour is Goatwhore, which is a hell of an act to follow, so hopefully Samhain are on the top of their game. ;

Die Antwoord: Dystopian, but in a good way, surreal dance rap. The first time I became aware of them was when one of my friends showed me the Enter the Ninja music video. I wasn't sure if it was a serious then I wasn't sure it was real. There's a lot of shit going on with their music which I dig. This is the first time I'll be seeing them as they always sell out whatever venue they're playing at whenever they're in town. I'm so excited to see them! So zeff!

Cock Sparrer: If I go England and Cock Sparrer isn't playing in the background while there's a soccer going on, then I will have not been to England.

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones: I can't believe I've only seen this band once! ONCE! Driving with the windows down music, fun stuff!

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes: One of the nations finest cover bands around, it sounds like I'm disparaging them but I'm really not!

The Buzzcocks: why aren't The Buzzcocks and Cock Sparrer on tour toghether and calling the Cock Fight tour? Anyway... hell yeah, the Buzzcocks are playing! That's so cool! They came to town a while ago but I didn't go because I was sure I'd be really let down, but since there are so many other bands playing today that I don't think this will be an issue and yes I will be drinking beers and singing along.

7 Seconds: As if I was going to stay out of moshpits all weekend long? What better band to get into a dumbass circle pit than 7 Seconds? I'm trying to stay young til I die and fast punk rock helps a lot.

Wavves: Last time I saw them I smoked pot with some kids, got one of them a beer, slammed into a couple in the pit and the guy tried yelling at me but I just yelled "then stay outta the pit!" to them. Goddamn right. Sure Wavves have cleaned up soundwise, but I'm expecting some rocking damnit!

The Bots: Hey wanna feel old? Check out these kids. Ah, they're not the little kids I heard about a few years ago but they are at least a good 12 years younger than me and are rocking hard enough make me feel like I've wasted my life, well done Bots, well done.

Also: Descendants, Anti Flag, The Crombies, The Flaming Lips, Television, Paul Weller(!), The Orwells, Streetlight Manifesto, Jessica Hernandez & the Deltas, Rose's Pawn Shop as you nurse your hangover,

Sunday

Social Distortion: Good drinking music. One of my friends went to see them a while back ago and they said that the audience consisted mostly of short guys wearing leather jackets, which sounds like the band, so they're folk music cause folk music is the folk singing to the folk. Anyway, I'm sure lots of dudes with "Sick Boy" tattooed on them will be at their set. I actually like this band, I kid because I care.

Show You Suck: Badass hip hop from Chicago! Fuck yeah! It's good times here.

Netherfriends: Yeah, another rapper from Chicago! That's kinda cool! This guy plays like a million shows a year, it's ridiculous.

Cheap Trick: The most dad rock band of the fest, but it's Cheap Trick! What the hell man, that's sorta rad! Like you don't sing along to Surrender, or I Want You to Want Me, or like you haven't blasted Live At Budokan way too many times? COOL.

Cerebral Ballzy: Drinking 40s with your crew in the summer time, playing with fire works, and making doing hilarious bong hits, plus more, all that stuff requires a soundtrack which is amply provided by C.B. To the unaware they sound like something from the late 70s/early 80s but they only formed up a few years ago! Why not run around in a circle? WHAT ELSE ARE YOU GONNA DO? DON'T LET ME TELL YOU WHAT TO DO.

Dropkick Murphys: I've seen them a few times and I really wish I could tell you more about those times, but it's like trying to look through a snorkel mask full of whiskey in an ocean of beer. So I'm going to go ahead and assumed I had a hell of a time. Goddamn I want a beer now.

Primus: There's a few bands which are the same band but from alternate realities: The Presidents of the United States and Filter, Beck and Marilyn Manson, The Flaming Lips and Primus. While I haven't been a fan of Primus or the Flaming Lips their reputation as great live bands preceeds them, which means they better goddamn rock.

Bouncing Souls: Sounds like summer time, but only now I can really appreciate it. Ah this getting older thing sucks, but I get into more moshpits now and am more willing to sing loudly in public. It kinda rules sometimes.

Andrew WK: It was my sister who introduced me to Andrew WK way back when I Get Wet came out. She said something like, "I was watching this band and these guys were headbanging and rocking and I turned it up, but they were all lame. All 'party hard.' Kinda light. You'd hate them." Of course the opposite ended up happening because I was all "HELL YEAH. PARTY HARD. This guy knows what's up." For sure I'll be partying as hard as possible during this set!

Also: Naked Ray Gun, Superchunk, The Cure, Mudhoney, Hot Snakes, Kurt Vile, Patti Smith (!), Billy Bragg, The Blue Meanie

some magnificent racket

After about an hour and a half of travel I managed to get to Do Division on friday evening. Usually it's a spur of the moment thing for me, usually I find out what bands are playing a few days before hand, this time I already knew I was going to go a couple of weeks ahead of time because High On fucking Fire were going to be performing. I had already slept on getting tickets to their shows at the Empty Bottle, which must have fucking killed, so there was no way I was going to miss them for a suggested 5 bucks.

By the time I got there Oozing Wound was making some magnificent racket. They're a local band who play some fierce metal, the kind of thing that would be a great soundtrack to one of those nights were you end up smoking that weed that hypes you up and makes you kinda paranoid, but you still manage to go out and end up seeing a hella good metal band. They sounded alright, a little muddled and way too quiet. Of course it was early so that's why the volumne wasn't as loud, of course being out in the open doesn't really help sound. There was already a bunch of rockers hanging out, drinking beers, half assedly trying to conceal their weed smoking, nodding along to the tunes and so forth. It's always disconcerting to see so many metalheads hanging out in the daylight, I'm not sure why, shouldn't you fuckers be doing bonghits somewhere?


In between Oozing wound and High On Fire I went to a bar that had $3 tallboys and drank some. Normally at Do Division I usually end up sneaking some booze in, but since I wasn't planning on meeting up with anyone there I didn't bother this time. There's something kinda bummer about bringing in a six pack to drink by yourself on the street. I did try to get a 40 from a store I passed by, but they didn't have any and I wasn't feeling like getting a small bottle of hard liquor. The bar, which name I can never remember, was pretty chill considering how many people were there. It's actually pretty chill whenever I end up there, which is great because those couple of blocks can be obnoxious with people having "fun" and shit, so cheers to that.

The might High On Fire took they're sweet time getting on stage, but when they did it was like getting run over by tank made out of hatred and weed. I can't imagine what it was for someone who doesn't go metal shows to see what was going on: a heavy metal band playing sorta complicated, while all these people in denim black shirts, the occasionally face tattoo, bashed against each other, loud as a falling sky. Some poor fucker was probably trying to have a nice relaxing night at home and High on Fire is playing like 50 ft away from his front door, ha! I ended up at the border of the mosh and people were getting rowdy, fucking ruled. H.O.F. played for almost an hour, just destroying all the while. Trying to stuff all what they did into the tiny Empty Bottle strikes me as beautiful madness. According to my twitter feed, last night the cops arrested a "freaked out naked guy." That's pretty cool.
Ethereal - High on Fire

I went with the beer

Here's a couple songs I am digging right now.


El Asesino by Juan Cirerol. It's about murder and heartbreak, either of which are fine for a country song.


Some Things Cosmic by Angel Olsen. This one was filmed at the Pitchfork fest, which I didn't go to because there was like 2 bands I actually liked playing. One of them was Trash Talk who I saw last week.

FUCKING YEAH. After much debate, well a pro/con list hastily scrawled out in a notebook, I decided to go see Trash Talk at Township. I was sorta worried that the show would be sold out by the time I got there, but there were tickets at the door, which is always cool. I got there in time to see SVLPHVRS set up and play some badass metal, sometimes thrash, sometimes bad trip stoner metal. Like half the band is in Yakuza so of course they were solid as fuck. I hung out with Sharkula as they played, but he left half way through their set. "Blood, sweat, and tears are going into that music," he told me, actually yelled at me.

The second band I saw was... I don't remember, they were a crew of guys with sharp haircuts. I stood there for a song and decided to hang out at the front bar/food area while they warmed up and got better, which they didn't. They played some sort of technical metal or some crazy thing. I considered getting a hamburger but that cost 10 bucks more or less, so it came down to either having that or drinking 5 more Old Milwuakees. I went with the beer. While I was sitting there a dude sat down next to me and said hello, I said hello back, which is common among people. He said, "You look like you go to a lot of Trash Talk shows." I laughed and said, "I will take that as a compliment." We talked a bit and then he said I looked familiar, and come to think of it so did he. We came to the realization that we had met at Delilah's, dude works there, I drink there. A HA.  We talked bout Riotfest for a while before we wandered off in our separate directions.

Sweet Cobra was the penultimate band. They always sound like the kind of music that would be perfect to drive across a desert at a very high speed to, even though they don't play really fast. Those guys never dissapoint, but hail fucking satan, they sounded good at this show. I bet they had the pretty boy band really glad that they didn't have to follow them. Good whiskey drinking music.


Awake ep by Trash Talk
The smell of weed was so strong in the air that those of a less hearty constition/hadn't been drinking whiskey and beer all night were probably getting contact highs, Trash Talk was about to come on. I knew it was an all ages show coming in, so I was wondering where all the kids where, but when T.T. started up they all flooded into the room like some kind of fucked up moshing tsunami. MAN OH MAN Trash Talked played fast as hell, barely stopping to breath, they reminded me of Municipal Waste but tighter! I knew I had to go to work in the morning, but fuck that! There was this awesome band just fucking everything up, and everyone thrashing around like fucking maniacs. A dude landed on me pretty hard, but it was okay, this wasn't the opera or anything. Monday night metal mayhem. I highly recomned seeing these cats.

After Thrash Talk's set I went to buy a t shirt from Sweet Cobra and pick up a T.T. cd or something. T.T. was set up outside, selling stuff from a van not more than 50 ft from a police station. They didn't have any CDs and t shirts and hats were too rich for my blood. I know they're on tour but I gotta get solids to eat and liquids to drink. Ah well. I went to the blue line and took a leak off the platform, not quite regretting getting beers instead of food. I sat down next to some guy and we nodded at each other. I asked him if he went to the show and he was all "Hell yeah!" Dude turned out to be super chill. He was he was here from Prague on his honeymoon ("uh... where's your wife?" "at the hotel") We ended up drinking those big "Okays" at Alice's on Belmont, despite my intention to go to Late Bar, which was closed, woops. But it was still a good time, even though it gets really blurry at that point. Ha. Dude has a cool blog here. Man, how nerdy is that? Exchanging blog addresses.

Last saturday I went to Delilah's after work to get a chill beer, but there was some crazy Oktoberfest thing going on. Nonetheless, I saw the other guy from the show and he showed me a recently healed wound that cleaved his eyebrow in half. Good times, we both said.

I MIGHT GO SEE GUITAR WOLF ON FRIDAY. I HAVENT DECIDED YET. HAWKWIND SOON.

Fuckin Riot Fest

RIGHT. Riot Fest. Of course my original plan for it was:
Show up
Get fucked up
Puke in some bushes, hopefully on some teenagers wearing matching blink 182 t shirts
Go see Motorhead and trash around.

Of course that last point was the linchpin of my whole plan and when Motorhead dropped out I was kinda bummed out. At first I was saying things like, "At least this way I wont get kicked out." Or "At least I wont get Motorhead drunk." But we all know that less Motorhead doesn't make things better, but it is rather through more Motorhead that we truly come alive. OH WELL. Fuck it, I had a two day pass, it'll be fun anyway.

When I finally got in on Friday afternoon, the sky was blue and sun was shining down on Humboldt Park, and I got a sinking feeling in my gut. The first booth I saw was one for Official Riot Fest Merchandise and it was already packed. There were some juggler motherfuckers already out front, I'd see some more of them around over the two days I was there, but they weren't a major distraction or anything. I got a hot dog from a local hot dog shaped cart that's usually downtown, and then I wandered around looking at the rides and game booths. The smell of fried foods was already wafting in the air, intermingling with the bells and whistles of the carnival amusements. Then I noticed the VIP section.

As far as I know Riot Fest has always been a punk rock thing. And I've been to a few of them, but this was the first time I went to one at the park. Of course I saw the VIP tickets on the website, but I wasn't about to pay almost double the ticket price for that bullshit, what kind of sucker would? A lot would. I was vastly disappointed. I thought this was a punk rock show. Punk rock is for everyone. VIP sections aren't for everyone. What is this shit? The whole thing isn't exactly punk rock at all, if anything Riot Fest is the exact opposite of punk rock. The monetization of public spaces and subversive music presented is fucking ridiculous. Now fearing the worst I decided to do something about it by drinking until I couldn't feel any feelings anymore. I walked around noting that I should go back to the pro wrestling ring later on and eventually found a beer tent. I went up to the beer tent and I was all, 7 FUCKING DOLLARS FOR A PBR, FUCK, FUCK. So I decided to get something else, I get up there and I was "Gimme a beer!" The lady working the counter said that I needed a wrist band. Fair enough. I went over to a different person to get a wristband and went back to get a beer and the dude working the tent told me that I had to get tickets to get beers. FUCK. Tickets? For beer?! Fucking hell man. So I went to get tickets, luckily the ratio was $1 = 1 drink ticket, or not, I mean that was still 7 dollars beers, but if you didn't use up your tickets you couldn't trade them back for cash. Luckily they had some pretty damn good beers, so I didn't have to pay for fucking 2 equis or pbr. So there I was standing in a field, drinking a 7 dollar beer, feeling fucking miserable, until I said "Fuck it, let's go watch Flatfoot 56."

Right after I walked in I went to an information tent of course they didn't have maps or schedules to hand out. The girl at the counter offered me a lanyard for my ticket, but I declined. It wasn't even a cool one with skulls or anything on it, just a lanyard. I took a picture of the schedule and the map with my phone, and found a spot to plan my day out. Luckily once I got the general layout of the place I didn't have to refer to the map too much. I think it helped that I know the streets. Flatfoot 56 was playing at the southermost stage, the same stage that later on Danzig would play at, there was already a contingent of rowdy looking fuckers in black t shirts emblazoned with a white demon skull. I hadn't seen Ff 56 in a long time, despite them being a local band, so it was good to see them. How the hell am I going to suppose to resist a fucking bagpipe and rowdy music. They rocked! After their set I wasn't feeling so down anymore. I was at a rock show. Holy shit I was going to see motherfucking Danzing later. Hatebreed was about to go at the stage a couple of blocks behind me, so I headed over there.

One the way there I saw my friend, Fester, and we headed over to the stage, we met up with a few more people. But when Hatebreed came on stage I said, "Dudes, I'm too short to stand here, I'm going in." I expected someone to walk into crowd with me, but no one did, which was a running theme throughout the two days I went: I'd meet up with friends, then we'd go see a band, then I'd be like "Fuck this, I'm getting closer" and I turn back and no one would be behind me. Of course I also said I wasn't going to mosh, but I don't think I said it aloud, so it doesn't count.
Look, I'm not going to do a band by band account. I'm just going to say that all of the bands sounded incredibly good. Normally I don't dig outdoor shows because of sound quality, but everyone, everyone, sounded good. Bands that would've sounded good with mediocre sound,  sounded great! And bands that sound great, that are real pros, sounded fucking phenomenal (Dinosaur Jr, Joan Jett, and many others. Of course there are highlights.

Motherfucking Danzing! I couldn't believe that I was standing in the middle of the street, in the middle of the park, looking at a waxing half moon behind the stage, a weeping willow to the right, and huge horned skull flag flowing softly in the breezed. When Danzig comes out of nowhere, punching the air and the crowd went fucking nuuuuuuts. Holy fuck. Then Doyle came on and everything got upped by at least twice as much. I didn't realize how close I was until I decided that I actually wanted to see the show a little bit (didn't have glasses on) and retreated. The place was packed with people, and everyone was singing along to Misfits songs.

A few bands I hadn't heard of, but were still cool: Masked Intruder, pop punk with a criminal deviant schtick, they fucking rocked. Radkey, a trio, that warned "if you like rock music, you're going to hate us," which was really weird because they play some fine punk rock, The Crombies, playing badass ska and what not, made up of Chicago veterans of the same scene.

I didn't see too many of the side shows, freak show, wrestling, or ride more than one ride, because I was too busy running around from stage to stage. I did manage to catch Chicago League of Lady Arm Wrestlers, which were entertaining and cool. There were a million local restaurants and stuff too, which was great, but I took most of my nourishment in beer. Mostly I had the stuff brewed by Greyskull Brewery, brewery of the Cobra Lounge.

It was really good to see a bunch of my friends. Of course it's not like I would've been so alone. I was surrounded by thousands of people who where there to dance around, mosh, and sing along to the same music I was, which is always great! These are the people  who are going to randomly high five you and help you up if you fall in a pit. If the rockers don't help the rockers, then we are fucking doomed.

Rancid! RANCID! I saw Rancid on the same day I saw fucking Dinosaur JR and Blondie! That's crazy! Of course there were a bunch of bands I didn't like, Blink 182, Fall Out Boy, the rest of them. It feels like there were more bands I didn't like than bands I dug.

For a while I was hesitant to go see Flag, but the second they started off I got up real close and into the pit. Motherfucking Black Flag! I took all of my Motorhead rage out in that pit, it was a grand old time.

MAN. A lot of these fuckers are old! I was really surprised by Bad Religion. Not that I'm anti old people or anything, but it's just a reminder that I am also getting old, and that is terrifying. The crowd tended to skew a little older, late twenties and up. Or maybe it's because I didn't notice any kids unless I was bashing into them or something, even then.

During TSOL's set, after a song, the lead singer said something like, "You fuckers! I'm blind up here so I see that there's this dog in the fucking pit and I'm like 'that's fucked up!' But now I realized it's a stuffed animal or something. What the fuck." Ha haha, It looked way funnier than I could describe.
 
I could go on and on but it's pointless. Maybe I'll go next year. I don't know. It was fun. It was mostly worth it. I got to see a lot of bands. Most of my worries and concerns all melted away when I was screaming along to songs or dancing around or high fiving strangers or drinking beers with my friends, which is the whole point of rock shows anyway. I didn't mind missing out on lucha libre, carnivals games, rides, and other assorted bulshit because I was constantly in front of some bad ass tunes. Even though it was raining like a motherfucker, it was a bummer missing out on day 3, having to go to work and deal with lack of rocking, what bullshit.

"People that don't like rock and roll must live horrible lives." -  @chitlin_loaf

Yesterday I ate nothing but sandwiches

It all started around the time I woke up. I didn't feel like having cereal or anything and I remembered that there was a new dunkin donuts sandwich, the angus steak big and toasty. Hell yeah, I thought, new sandwich day. I picked one up at the DD by work, along with a medium black coffee, the guy at the counter also tossed in an order of their terribly hash browns, which are more like squashed, oniony tater tots. As usual the coffee was unsatisfying. The only reason I stop there is because it's the closest spot to the train station. The sandwich seemed like a pretty good size in the wrapper, which is always a good sign, but the whole thing cost me almost 7 bucks, which is ridiculous for a DD breakfast. I ate my sandwich outside of work while waiting for my boss to show up. It looked pretty close to the commercials, a pleasent surprise, althought I suspect that the thick bread provived a lot of cushioning and thus protection. At some point in time the meat industry (The Meat Lords?) decided to lower the bar on what could be called angus steak or something because there's a lot more "angus" than there used to be floating around. The main impression I got from the sandwich was that it was very dry, not just the bread, but the meat and the egg, not enough cheese. The main ingredient was bread. It did fill me up alright, but if I'm going to eat a "steak" "egg" and "cheese" sandwich I'm going to stick with the egg, steak, and cheese bagel from mcdonalds, it's the best thing on their menu. I'm going to give it a MEH, and rate that DD as "Well , they got solids to eat and somewhat caffeinated liquids to drink."

This is the Angus that should be more widely distributed

For lunch I had a ham sandwich from Jimmy Johns. They made it fast, I ate it fast. It was okay, nothing really outstanding, nor were there any glaring deficiencies, save for the blandness. Sometimes JJ's sandwiches are pretty good, but this one rates more of a "an edible, suitable for lunch, maybe a lame dinner."

Before I got home I stopped by a nearby grocery store to pick up some beers. I also decided to get bread because the only bread at the crib was lame Bimbo bread like food object. If it wasn't for bread we'd be eating meat and vegetables out of our hands, like savages, and they wouldn't be call sandwiches, they'd be like hand food or something stupid. I also ended up getting a lb of the Jerk Turkey by Boar's Head and some of their american cheese, along with some good deli mustard. Of course Boar's Head stuff is up there, but man o man, it's fucking good! One of my favorite sandwich shops, New York Deli, by Wellington and Clark, uses only their stuff so that's how I got hip to it. At home I had an avocado that was just ready to go, so I put some mustard on both slices, piled it up with the Jerk Turkey, which is nice and spicy!, then some avocado slices, topped off with the cheese and of course the other slice of bread. Now that, that was a sandwich! The bread I got some some local made italian bread, with the nice thick crust and everything. It would've been better if I had put it on a pan for a bit, but it was too hot to cook even that, maybe it would've complicated things and thrown off the delicate sandwichness of the whole thing. I'm just gonna go ahead and say that "You know I make some bomb sandwiches, so of course this one was the best one."

Ride the Wind

Cry Tough

My first favorite band was Poison. I’m not even kidding. My uncle introduced me to them when I first moved to Chicago, I must have been like 6 or 7 and he was taking care of me for the day and he was just listening to Poison and somehow I decided that THIS was music. He didn't play anything from Look What the Cat Dragged in but he did play Open Up and Say ...Ahh! and Flesh and Blood, and I was hooked. One of my favorite songs was Ride the Wind



I was a little kid and I was loving this shit! I loved this song because of the lines "Of the truths and lies and stories of riders in the skies/only the bravest try where eagles and angels dare to fly." That was so cool! Imagines of chromed warrriors screaming across the the bluesest sky filled my mind, the fact that I remeber that is saying a lot because I can't even remember my own phone number. Eventually I heard more bands and I pretty much refused any belief in "Hair Metal" of any sorts.


NOTHIN BUT A GOOD TIME

Until I was like 16. Nothing but a Good Time came on the Loop and I was feeling sorta down, riding the train at night after working all saturday. There's gotta be a word for riding the train on a dreary winter night, it's probably in german. When Brett Michaels goes "WOO," I thought,  "yeah... YEAH. All I want is a good time! Is that too much to ask? THAT'S ALL I'M LOOKING FOR." So of course I was smiling like a goon for almost 4 minutes.

I've seen Poison once, opening for Kiss, which is ridiculous because at some point some rocker would've died to see that. I thought it was okay, but I was at that point where I was still denying that part of me that dug that kind of shit, even though I was at my second Kiss show (and last Kiss show). Looking back on it, they were way too quiet. I probably still sung along to Talk Dirty to Me, just how I did right before I put it on before leaving work today. Of course I probably sung it louder today.


CC, pick up that guitar anda talk to me!

Poison, being my first favorite band, lead a path to my second favorite band of all time, Metallica. They had the same elements, guitars, drums, bass, riffs, rock and roll! But Metallica wasn't shiny and Metallica may have potentially ruined my life.