Yet another frustrating evening traffic wise. Kelley and I made good time on the way to Chicago, but the minute we crossed the Indiana/Illinois border, things went downhill. The traffic was so bad, plus it was raining, which never helps. It took us forever to get to my friend Ian's house, which is just west of Chicago. We were supposed to pick him up at 5, but we got there after 6. Yikes! It sucked, but I wasn't too worried. The doors weren't 'til 7, and the show wasn't 'til 8, so I figured we wouldn't miss anything. Boy was I wrong!We got to the club around 7:30. I was a bit disappointed that we didn't get there before the doors opened, but oh well. Then we came to a shocking discovery. When we went inside the club, we heard sounds of MTX! What?! How could they be playing? The Parasites weren't even supposed to go on until 8. AHH! We ran inside, and I went to watch MTX. Unfortunately, I lost Ian and his friend Gabe in the process.
Fortunately, we didn't miss too much of the set. Only the first couple songs. It still sucked though! Plus I missed the Parasites! I later found out that the show really started at 6, and the Parasites went on at 6:30. Wish I'd known that a little earlier!
The club they played, the Metro, is really nice. The only bad thing is that the stage is really high and far away. The crowd was kind of strange. The kids didn't seem very into MTX. I figured that in a big city like Chicago (which is usually great for MTX) the kids would be a lot more excited. Despite the crowd, MTX were really awesome. Frank told the "Dope, Guns, and Beanie Babies" joke, which was still mildly funny since it was only my third time hearing it. The crowd always seems to get a kick out of it too.
After their set, I went to go find everyone. The first person I ran into was Joel. When I told him I missed the first couple songs he told me, "Oh, well, you didn't miss much. We just played a medley of 'Somebody Who Cares,' 'Parasite,' and 'Up and Down.' And we're never playing any of those ever again." Uh-huh...
I went over to the merch table, where I found Jym and Scott. I found out that the Parasites didn't realize the show was at six either. They had to play as soon as they got to the club. They had so little time after loading in that Dennis' guitar was actually sweating! Yikes. They said that I didn't miss much by missing their set, I was still pretty disappointed though.
I ran into Dave in the lobby, and I talked to him for a really long time. I actually missed the Queers set entirely. Sounded good though! Everyone said the crowd was lame for the Queers too, which always surprises me. After the Queers were done Kel, Dave, and I were backstage when Jym came and told me that some guy was looking for me. I had no idea who he was talking about, and then it clicked. I had forgotten Ian! Ah! I felt so bad. He and his friend had disappeared so early in the night, that I had just totally forgotten about him. Poor guy. The security wouldn't let me bring him backstage, so I grabbed Frank and he got Ian and Gabe backstage. We stayed and talked to everyone for a while, and the Parasites left, so we decided to take off. I said goodbye to Frank, Jym, Joe, and the Parasites, and we left for Ian's house. It was a fun show, it felt like it only lasted for about 30 seconds though.