The Windy City.
It's not that kind of bootleg man.
I never’ve thought about Chicago much. For a long time all it was to me was the home of the Bears, the Cubs, and some other (much worse) baseball team. My dad grew up a bears fan in the 80s and 90s which was, to my understanding, a good time to be a bears fan. It’s been rough since. He lived in a farm town in South Central Illinois and despite being closer to St. Louis, was not a Cardinals fan.
Then when I was growing up, I started paying attention and learned about the Chicago Bulls, but was never a big basketball fan. And as I’ve mentioned before on the blog, I have a sentimental connection to the Cubs because it’s where Joe Maddon went after managing the Rays. There he finally broke the Curse of the Billy Goat; it was a big deal. I also grew up a big Eddie Vedder fan (he shared the same birthday with my dad exactly 10 years apart), and for reasons still unexplained to me, Eddie (a West Coast native), is a huge Cubbies fan.
Recently, Chicago has mostly captured my heart as the gritty, hardworking city that Jeremy Allen White’s Carmy Berzatto calls home in Christopher Storer’s The Bear. There are plenty of stacks and Youtube video essays about why it’s awesome. I won’t get into it. And during college I started hearing about O-Block and was introduced to my favorite Kanye West song, Homecoming, featuring Chris Martin of Coldplay infamy (second highest grossing touring band of all time btw).
Then in college and high school I’ve met a few people that are “from Chicago.” I used to say “okay,” but I’ve since learned it’s a very very big city surrounded by not much of anything, so I’ve started asking follow-up questions. For a while when someone would tell me they were “from Chicago,” I would ask “which part.” This would prompt them to tell me the town/village they were from which was not helpful even a little bit. Recently though I’ve noticed that people have started responding not with their village but with a compass direction and then “suburbs.” So I would say “Hey where are you from?”
“Chicago!”
“Oh, which part.”
“I’m from the Western Suburbs.”
Now I’m getting some useful information. Thank you. My dad and I started working this in. For example, as aforementioned he grew up in South Central Illinois. We call those “the Very Southwestern Suburbs.”
I’m not sure it’s caught on yet.
My parents, brother, and I were able to visit last weekend and I wasn’t prepared for how big the city was. Whether you’re ranking based on population by city limits or metro area, Chicago ranks third in the United States (behind NYC and LA). I’ve never been to LA, but I have been to NYC twice and it feels so much more nodular than Chicago. It feels like you can take the train to Manhattan and “do” Manhattan or go to Brooklyn and “do” Brooklyn. Chicago, notably, did not feel like that. I’m not even sure where I was, and I think I did probably only 10% of it.
And yes, I know NYC isn’t like that either. Side note, I had a boss once that told me Lakeland was “just like New York City. You have to find your neighborhood and just meet people there. It makes the city feel small really quick.” Lakeland is literally 1.5% the size of NYC (124,000 vs. 8.5 million)! Despite being a very funny piece of advice, I still think about it every time I go anywhere that isn’t Lakeland.
I think a major contributing factor to Chicago’s vibe as a “larger” less “doable” city is that it’s sorta just…long? It’s squeezed up against Lake Michigan and if you stand on Navy Pier you can look “across” the lake and see…more Chicago? Indiana? Is that Gary, Indiana? Which, according to Google maps, is a part of the Chicago Metro Area? I don’t know. The scale of the city is borderline incomprehensible to me, and I’m from Tampa, a famously geographically “weird” city.
I don’t have much to say about the city other than I was not expecting its size. I could tell there was a lot of great food there. We got to see Second City perform their current sketch show. I tried to play it off as “some improv or sketch group that’s apparently pretty influential,” and Luke immediately called me out. He told me that I’ve been talking about their work for years. Caught.
Two more semi-notable things happened on the trip.
First, we were shuttled from Reggie’s to Huntington Bank Pavilion to see Goose. At 6:34 the shuttle master walked into the bar and said to us “do you want to take the 6:40 or the 7:00 shuttle.”
I said, “Ah the 6:40, but we just ordered another round. Probably the 7 I guess.”
The shuttle master looked at me like it was my first day on Earth and said with a completely straight face, “Dude. You can drink on the shuttle,” and walked away. The shuttle was an old spraypainted school bus and every one was double fisting. I appreciate the lax rules and it reminded my brother and me of our middle school bus-riding days
Secondly, we were walking into the show and there was a guy standing outside the gate selling bootleg shirts. “Get your shirts. Bootleg shirts!” he yelled. So I did what any self respecting “grifter” would do (thanks Adam). I hit em with the ol’ “how much are the shirts? Oh I only have ______.”
“Hey man, how much are the shirts?”
“$30”
“Oh. I’ve only got $10.”
“They aren’t that kind of bootleg man. Get lost.”
What? What do you mean they aren’t that kind of bootleg? Did you buy them at the show in Michigan last night? You are literally standing outside a concert selling fake shirts?! I was in disbelief. The entire crowd I was with was confused. And I still have no idea what he could have possibly meant. That was frustrating.
The show was great and for those of you curious about the setlist (Marissa) here it is. “Eminence Front > Drive” to open the show was great. I’m really partial to “Dr. Darkness.” And they covered “Peach” for the first time ever. Saturday night was my first time hearing dance classic “So Ready” in the 4 shows I’ve been too. Then they opened Set 2 with their hit “Hungersite” and the 1-2-3 punch of “Tumble,” “Empress of Organos,” and “Jed Stone.” That alone was worth price of admission.
The city was great, and I’ll spare you guys my commentary on their use of “adaptive reuse” to create dense but diverse live/work/play options along the rivers in Downtown. Maybe there will be a section about that the next time I visit.
MUSICAL CODA
Dude, thanks for the shoutout and the setlist recap. “Dr. Darkness” is one of my favorites, too.