5_6 - 8. Chicago

I don't think I'm going to add too much commentary about this weekend. Overall, I had a blast and realized that I had a lot more friends living out there than I thought. Always wanted to go to Chicago before the school year ended and this seemed like the best time to do so.

I took the Megabus up to this city to hang out with some Ohio University friends and celebrate the quarter of a century's worth of Miss Julie Wainwright's life. She's a dear friend of mine and former co-conspirator of the Athens punk scene back in '08. The food and beverage menu of the party consist of Taco Bell hard shells and a Baja Blast mixed drink - which was as dangerous, if not more, as the green turkey drink the girls had back at the Zack Morris house. Absent from the party were igniting bottle rockets and a long list of peeps who were part of the '07-'08 crew.

I had plenty of time on my hands to explore the city and its night life. When I wasn't chilling on Chicago Ave. and eating over some wine with the roommates, who are both me and Julie's good friends, I was tagging along my friend Kevin. Friday night, we went to some warehouse where a bunch of artists lived and threw free shows. Broken Water played on the bill, and aside from technological difficulties that often involved some inconsiderate individuals stepping on the guitar pedal, they put on one hell of a show - singer/drummer in her underwear and sheer tee and all. I was pretty happy about this, because I had to ditch their Athens show earlier that week for an all-nighter on an English paper/presentation due the following day. Saturday, before going to Julie's birthday fete, we went and saw Libyans, Skrapyard, Daylight Robbery, Scabs, and The Outs at a relatively new space not far from Kevin's house. I ended up seeing only the last three bands because I had to walk out the whole neighborhood to figure out that N Albany is split by 3 streets. I lost it when I saw the Jack Skellington come to force in the pit, because you don't see that anywhere unless you're at a Chicago show or a Chicago band and its crew come to your town.

Sunday I accompanied him on a museum trip to the Art Institute. We only had 30 minutes to explore the museum because the place closed at 5 on Sundays, and somehow we managed to snake our way through - if I remember - 16th century, post-impressionist, and the contemporary exhibits before we were forced to scram. After watching tourists stare in amazement at the Cloud Gate with their Nikon D40s in tow, we made a brief stop around the corner at Reckless records before parting ways. I came home to the roommates throwing a small slumber dinner party over Smoking Aces 2 on Netflix, sat through the atrocity of the film, then frantically packed and took a taxi downtown when I realized my bus leaves Union Square at 10 p.m. sharp. Taking an overnight bus to your 10 a.m. class is a miserable experience.