Soft Shock

On Friday a misguided group of individuals holding signs that read "Oprah Should Get To Light The Torch" seemingly had their hopes and dreams crushed when Chicago was surprisingly eliminated in the first round of 2016 Olympic Host City voting. As friend of the blog Holland put it, "I don't think those people even knew what we were bidding on."

Sure, it would've been pretty cool to host the 'lympics here in 7 years. Our civic leadership deserved to lose out on the bid because it seems to be the only thing they've worked on in recent history. You know that years ago that Daley and the other people in charge of things in Chicago decided they didn’t need to make the *really* hard decisions and govern the city properly if they could land the 2016 olympics and get plenty of money thrown at Chicago and the metro area. It would be their get out of jail free card. When Obama was elected they figured it was a done deal. I’m sure some of them worked hard on the proposal, and I’m sorry they lost. I hoped, for the sake of the city, we would win. I hoped, for those who genuinely wanted the Olympics, that we would land it and more people from the global community would come to love the same city I do. For those in positions of power who now realize they’re screwed, I hope they get back to the city and start working on things they’ve neglected to fix. I hope the ones who don’t come back here and bust their asses get thrown out of office. I hope those who were counting on collusion and behind closed door handshake development deals go elsewhere for their profits.

Here's a few links to great commentary following the announcement:
The Reader's Mick Dumke reminds everyone there's still a city to run.

Roger Ebert requests that even though we lost the Olympic Bid, let's put that effort into winning the Derrion Albert Bid.

The Reader's Ben Joravsky visits Washington Park attempting to find at least ONE area resident upset that we lost the bid.

Pay attention to whatever Mayor Daley decides to focus his remaining energy on in the next few weeks. Let's hope it's crime & education, not more money making schemes and selling off the city's assets.

No EBONY bar visits since our trip to Wrigley. I've got the Chicago Marathon this coming weekend so I'm attempting to lay low. Rick was out of town in Minneapolis hanging out with Olympians, Al Franken, and the last* game at the Metrodome.

Here's the (probably incomplete) list of remaining bars to cross off (join us as the weather gets colder and you need dark beers to warm your insides):
Berlin
Bernie's
Blues
Bobby Love's
Bordos
Bourbon on Lincoln
Bridget McNellis
Charlies's
Duke of Perth
Elbo Room
Fly Me to the Moon
Frank's
Full Shilling
Galway Arms
Galway Bay Pub
Gaslight
Jacqueline's
Joe's on Broadway
Kingston Mines
Kit Kat Lounge
Las Fuentas
Maeve
Matisse
Nisei Lounge
North End
Ole Lounge
Rocks Lakeview
Schubas
Side Street Saloon
Soiree Bar & Lounge
Southport City Saloon
The Closet
The Other Side
The Rockhouse
The Spread
Toasted Ox
Tryst
Underground Lounge
Witt's
Wrightwood Tap

Obligatory audio commentary: I'm loving the sounds of Music Go Music. Disco Revival is fine.


*Game 163 still to be played on Tuesday. Sorry Rick!

The Age of Miracles, The Age of Sound

Lollapalooza was rainy.
and Hot.
and Dusty.
and Crowded.
and it frequently reeked of marijuana.

It was also quite a lot of fun. The list of bands I saw perform at least 1 song is as follows, in order:
Frances England, The Gaslight Anthem, Heartless Bastards, Hollywood Holt, Fleet Foxes, The Decemberists, Andrew Bird, Kings of Leon, Depeche Mode, Ezra Furman & The Harpoons, Delta Spirit, Moneypenny, Miike Snow, Ida Maria, Los Campesinos!, Joe Pug, Perry Farrell, Arctic Monkeys, Santigold, TV on the Radio, Ben Harper and Relentless7, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Neko Case, Cold War Kids, Deerhunter, MSTRKRFT, The Killers.

None of them were bad. A few of them were great, and a handful were welcome surprises. Thanks to all of the friends I ran into who also tolerated my frequently late text messages. A new iLike playlist based on Lolla has been posted on the right, brief recaps on some of my favorites are below, and a few more pictures from the weekend are further down.

The Gaslight Anthem, a band I'd heard of but never listened to, was my first real set to catch for the weekend. It was raining and the crowd didn't seem to mind, knowing the two days to follow would be excruciatingly hot. The band is from New Jersey, they sing working class rock n' roll in the style of Springsteen, and the lead singer was wearing a Social Distortion t-shirt. If you don't think this is right up my alley you don't know me very well.



Hollywood Holt perfromed just about the same set I saw for $5 at Wicker Park Fest. He still had the EXPLOSION sound effects, he uses mostly the same lines in between tracks, and his track about not giving a crap what your friends say about your outfit is still hilarious. This dude pictured was having a one-man dance party.



I probably have 2 or 3 Delta Spirit tracks from either My Old Kentucky Blog or Gorilla vs Bear or some place my brother linked me to. People would say they're somewhat Dylanesque, venturing into alt-country. The lead singer called his brother from the stage, who was getting married that day, and had the crowd wish him well. The band's performance in the heat on Saturday was so geniunely earnest and full of energy that I bought their album on Monday. The back cover photo on the album is dated from the early 70's and shows a middle-aged couple playing chinese checkers in the bathtub.

Los Campesinos! are a bunch of exuberant kids from across the pond who bang on their instruments and everything else within reach, belting out songs of musical chaos and disorganization that somehow end up sounding terrific. This band reminds me of a litter of rambunctious puppies playing around together until they exhaust themselves. I picture the band going back to their tour bus after each show and curling up into a pile for naptime. That analogy is terrible and does them no justice.

I love the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and everything they've recorded. Thanks to a little help from Jack Daniels, there was probably no one in the audience who enjoyed their Saturday evening headlining set more than my friends Ben, Verdo and I.

While Neko Case sounded great, and the Killers were better than I thought they'd be, my Sunday faves were both Deerhunter and MSTRKRFT (only because I was at the Sox game and missed Ra Ra Riot and their beautiful cellist). I'd never gotten into Deerhunter, having seen them once before but from a distance. This time I was much closer to the stage and finally understood just what it is that makes them so beloved by the "mybandsarebetterthanyourbands" crowd. I'll be paying more attention to their recorded output.



MSTRKRFT is just damn fun. See Rick's earlier post for their recent video for "Heartbreaker", featuring John Legend.


That's me, centered on the bottom of this photo, taking a picture of myself & the band on screen.




Graham Elliot's Lobster Corndog


Moneypenny


Dirty Hipsters cooling off in the fountain.

Where would I be? I'd be a Warrior, a Warrior

First, lets do the numbers ( it's reverse of how NPR does it, but this isn't NPR).

Some stats, we're 8.3% of the way through the year and we've hit roughly 14% of the bars on our list already. This is good news, as free weekends will be few and far between as the days begin to warm up this spring and summer. I doubt we'll have back-to-back Saturdays with 8 bars each again this year. Concerts, weddings, races, vacations and common sense will start getting in the way. We'd like to thank those of you who have helped us so far along the way: both of my brothers - for their encouragement and suggestions; Derek - who acts as our unpaid consultant; Hall - for always managing to stay classy; Annie - for not telling us that this is a ridiculous idea.

As promised -- the January Leaderboard!

We have a four way tie for 3rd place -- visiting all of 6 bars with us...Selfy, Isler, Costello & Chenoweth! Congrats fellas. You will get complementary EBONY matchbooks. They're in the mail, probably lost. Call your post office to check up on 'em.

Coming in second place, with an impressive showing of 10 bars and already the clubhouse leader with multiple entries into the EmptyBlogOfNothing Quote Hall of Fame...Hall! Way to go Halljams. Best of luck in the Boston Marathon if you manage to keep this pace up.

No big surprise on the winner here if you've been following our trials and tribulations...but it's a huge shock to us considering we didn't even know this guy until after we had visited our first bar of the year. Coming in with a grand total of 13 bars (would've been 14 if he had spent more time at Rose's)...Internet Celebrity Baumer! I'm not making this up when I say the monthly superfan will probably end up with an EmptyBlogOfNothing t-shirt once I get them made. The rest of you will have to pay.

So there you go...the gauntlet has been thrown. If you want the spoils of February start showing up.

And finally, a plea.

We'd like to think that during these times of economic hardship our mission at EBONY is acting as a local micro-economic stimulus package, however minute it might be. We're doing what we can with our expendable income to pump it back into our local surroundings, recirculating the monetary funds to support those who provide us with entertainment and liver damage. It's important that we, as Americans, support our local watering holes -- even if you do have 170 of them. If your streetcorner tavern shuts it's doors the battle will surely be lost, surrendered to the evil forces of corruption and all that is wrong with the world. Now, not every bar I enter is going to agree completely with me, but that's what the free market is for. Through diversity we achieve great things, our differences will unite us. There are enough of us here to drink the available spirits, and there are enough different bars to house all of us. So to you -- the preps & punks, young & old, gay & straight, country & western, alkies & winos, cubs & sox, the carnivores & herbivores, the bluetools, the young professionals, the unemployed, the underemployed, hooligans & beatniks, club kids, pool sharks, and karaoke stars -- venture out of your homes, don't drink in solitude by the fireplace! The cold bleakness of winter cannot be battled alone -- it must be fought with your comrades. Do not go softly into the gray recession, we must fight it together side by side, barstool by barstool, pint to pint! Raise your glasses and sing together -- we shall overcome! We, the denizens of the night, the drinkers of the day, the champions of the club! The Masters of Consumption and Double-Shots for Everyone! Forty-thousand, counting affiliates, and twenty-thousand more, not organized, but ready to drink: 60,000 soldiers! CAN YOU DIG IT???!!!

We are still here! Today, let us send a message to that army. Tonight, let us shake this cave. Tonight, let us tremble these halls of earth, steel, and stone, let us be heard from red core to black sky. Tonight, let us make them remember, THIS IS ZION AND WE ARE NOT AFRAID!

Sorry...got a little carried away there. Drink responsibly and make sure you can walk home. Shake that cave.