Everytime I See You Falling, I Get Down On My Knees And Pray

This post covers the events (well, MOST of the events) of 12/5/09.

We begin the night at Rockwood Place, #173, the second time we've been to this address. Previously this year it was known as The Central, sister bar to The Grand Central. For reason unknown to me it has changed names (possibly owners? I don't know. I also don't care.), so we're required to visit it again. We're joined by Tim/Peter/Leroy/Chuck (again, that's just one person). Rockwood Place is very loud. Very Loud. There are a couple of guys watching some UFC or MMA fight at the end of the bar. It's somewhat crowded for being early in the evening, we're here this early so we can catch the Blackhawks game. Also, if I haven't mentioned it already or your intuition hasn't picked up on it, my feelings about this bar are that it's terrible. In the "pros" column, though, the waitresses are, um...busty, and they have Brooklyn Lager on tap.

We debate heading to another bar a few times, but the game is on and it's interesting, enough so to overpower the awful music they're blasting (which is just a playlist on repeat. Stick around here for longer than 40 minutes and you'll hear the same songs again). While hearing David Guetta's "Sexy Bitch" turned up to 11, Tim/Peter/Leroy/Chuck has the line of the night, possibly the line of the year. "I'm tryin to find the words to describe this bar without being disrespectfulllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!!" It applies to so many places we've been this year.

Our first 2 orders of the Brooklyn Lager arrive in pint glasses, my third one comes in one of those cheap plastic party cups. Thinking I've been ripped off, I pour the glass into the pint glass I still have because our waitress hasn't taken it away. To all of our amazement we discover it's exactly 1 pint big (i'm sure there's a specific measurement for this, I'm not bothering to look it up. It's 10:15 on xmas eve and I'm trying to spit this entry out so I can go to bed and then fly to Colorado). Again, we're all floored by this discovery. Revelations aren't just in the Bible, folks.

The Blackhawks game is tied through 3 periods, so we decide the lull in the action is our chance to head north on Clark to our next stop, Bernie's, #174. We close out our tab, power walk to Bernie's and discover the game is over. WTF?! The doorman informs us the b'hawks scored like 40 seconds into OT. Nice job Hawks! Bernie's is a good place, at least tonight. It's proximity to Wrigley leaves me unable to fully evaluate it without experiencing the bar during a Cubs game. We have 3 Harpoon IPAs, then continue the crawl.

Continuing our trend, we head north. Eickhoff has now joined us and we're at Rockit, #175 (not the Rockit you're thinking of, they've opened another outpost in the Wrigley neighborhood). I have nothing to write about Rockit, we were in and out as quickly as we could down a beer and hit the bathroom.

North again, this time to the Full Shillling, #176. Morris has now joined us. We order a few drinks and our waitress can't figure out if our total is $14 or $16. She charges us $14, then brings $4 in change back to our table, having determined it was $16 instead. Morris, while she is standing there, loudly wonders "what kind of tip do you give to a liar?"

Last stop of the night, somewhere we've been before, SmartBar. Our travelling tour manager of a friend Craig is in town for the Holidays and we're meeting him there to catch Peter Hook (formerly of New Order. see post title) dj. Last time I saw Peter Hook dj was for the Metro 25th Anniversary Party, where I'm pretty sure I yelled at him about one of his song selections and Joe Shanahan wondered how Rick and I got on the guestlist. Later that night I left at the same time as former Chicago Poet Laureate Thax Douglas and lied to him about what neighborhood I lived in so I wouldn't have to walk the same direction as him. Sorry Thax. Hope you're living it up in your new hometown of Austin, TX.

Anyway, we've all been drinking for a while so our presence on the dance floor is likely a mix of amusing and annoying to other people in attendance. Good night, good job to everyone involved.