When it rains, it pours

My concert calendar seems to go in cycles. There are times, particularly from January through early March, when few bands I want to see come to town. On the other hand, there are times where it seems as if every week there are 20938201 shows I want to buy tickets for.

Right now, for me, it's the latter.

In the past two weeks, I bought tickets to see Moby, The Jesus Lizard, and Placebo. I also have several shows on the "see what my schedule looks like and if tickets are still available the week of the show" list, including Maximo Park, Dinosaur Jr., and Phoenix.

Today I found out that the Manic Street Preachers are going to do their first show in Chicago in 10 years, Bruce Springsteen is coming and will perform the Born to Run album, and the Pixies are coming to town and will be performing the Doolittle album.

Why is this happening all at once? I'm having the hardest time prioritizing these shows.

Lollapalooza Prep - White Lies

I should have known that I shouldn't call this series of posts "Artist of the Day", because I knew darn well I would never be able to post every single day. So now it's just "prep".

I tend to like a lot of bands from the UK, and White Lies epitomizes this for me. They came through Chicago a few months ago, and I missed out. I will not miss them at Lollapalooza, though. Even if it means missing Gaslight Anthem, who I loved at Coachella. Oh well. This conflict made me sad, but I didn't have to ponder hard to make a decision.

Death


To Lose My Life


Farewell to the Fairground


White Lies on MySpace

Official Site

Thax

Taken 4/30/09 at the Riviera before Franz Ferdinand's set.

Sitting on treausre

Taken on State Street, 6/24/09

At first I thought it was random to see a pirate in the middle of State Street. Then, about 10 feet away, I noticed a sign for the pirate exhibit at the Field Museum. The sign wasn't right next to the pirate, and it made me wonder how many people realized that the pirate was an advertisement.

Is this my chance?

I have a bucket list. My bucket list is bands/singers/artists/whatever I want to see live, not before I die, but before *they* die.

I started my bucket list back in 1995. Those who read this who know me well have probably heard this story a gazillion times and are rolling their eyes. For those of you in this group, skip ahead a bit.

In 1995 a girl I worked with asked if I wanted to go with her to a Grateful Dead show at Soldier Field in July. I almost said yes because I was kind of obsessed with the Dead at the time, but I had a big trip planned in August and I wanted to save my money. Besides, the Grateful Dead played Soldier Field nearly every year. I'd see them next year.

So my mom and I went on our trip in August to tour some universities I was considering for grad school. We get into a city in Ohio pretty late our first night. I think it was Toledo. I turn on Headline News, and that's when I found out Jerry Garcia died. I found out on the first day of that trip I skipped the last ever Dead show for.

Because of that event, plus Kurt Cobain's death the year before (I never saw Nirvana either), I started creating my bucket list. I vowed I would see the artists on the list at the next available opportunity. Unfortunately I've become lax. Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty have been to Chicago several times since the inception of the bucket list, and I still haven't seen them.

Anyway, I found out today that an artist on my bucket list is coming to Chicago. Now, I have to decide, do I go see Moby?

The obvious answer is yes. But with my current work responsibilities and all the money I'm shelling out for Lollapalooza and the various preshow and after shows I'm going to, I'm not sure this is the right time.

I should just go. I almost saw Moby a few years back at Q101's Twisted 3847390284320 concert (I don't remember which one it was or what number they're on now, I just remember going to the first three, then two more over the years) when he got beat up in Boston and skipped the event. I was treated to Local H instead. I like Local H and all, but the whole reason I bought tickets to Twisted 3908439043 that year was to see Moby. And Public Enemy. But mostly Moby.

So now he's coming back. On a Wednesday. Weeknight shows have been difficult for me as of late. I might have to bite the bullet and do what I have to do for this one.

New Eats - Five Guys

I'm not a review writer, so please don't expect this to read like something out of a magazine or foodie blog.

For weeks my boyfriend and I were waiting for the new Five Guys burger place to open a few blocks from our apartment. Tim had read something about their burgers somewhere a while back and had wanted to try them. Two or so weeks ago we saw a sign on the window saying that they would open today, and decided that we were going to have dinner there tonight.

We weren't the only people waiting for it to open. It was packed when we got there.

The menu is small. If burgers and dogs are what you are looking for, this is your place. If you want something else, it's not. Burgers and dogs were fine by us.

The list of burger toppings is much longer than at most places. I ordered a bacon cheeseburger with A1, lettuce, tomato, and pickles. Tim ordered a cheeseburger with A1, mustard, lettuce, and jalapeños. We got an order of fries and a beverage. Total cost was about $18.

Tim went to the beverage station to fill our cup while I grabbed a table and waited for our order. When he came back, he told me something that immediately made Five Guys my favorite burger place.

"They have bottles of vinegar for your fries."

So I sent him back to get the vinegar, because he didn't realize I had ordered fries and didn't bring it back with him the first time.

Our burgers were very tasty. They are all made well done, which usually isn't my favorite, but it was very good.

The fries were great. They actually taste like potatoes. How good are the fries? Tim normally doesn't eat fries. Sometimes he'll have one of mine if we go somewhere new to try them, but that's it. He ate fries.

Overall we both loved the place. We only had a few minor issues, which in the grand scheme of things aren't very important and would never prevent us from eating there. First, as I said, the menu is small. We will go there when we want burgers or hot dogs, but it's not an all purpose place. Perhaps this is a positive, because what they do they do well. Second, the fries come in a cup, which became a bit of a pain when I wanted to put the vinegar on them. The foil the burgers some in isn't big (less waste - a plus), so it wasn't big enough for my burger and my fries. I had to eat my burger first, then spread out the fries. If I was using a cup of ketchup or no condiments, this wouldn't be a problem. And really, it's minor. I can deal with it. Third, it was loud. Maybe it won't always be this loud as it was crowded, but it was loud.

Still, those things are minor in comparison to how much we loved the burgers, topping options, and fries. We will be going back. We both gave it a 9.