800 miles... no biggie

Friday morning, we departed Peru for a trip to Columbus, Ohio.

[Midwest highways. Bugs on windshield. "Very white cloud."]

The original plan was to get home sometime on Saturday.
Instead, I got back (from Chicago) on Sunday afternoon.
And the trip meter read 804.7 miles.

I love it when plans change.

Things started out normally enough. Amanda and I had been planning for some time to go see We The Living and Cavashawn play this show together at OSU, and since my mother now enjoys both bands, she wanted to go as well. Since Ama is down in Evansville, she drove up and met Mom and I at the hotel in Columbus. The show was originally supposed to be outside, but thanks to a recent shooting in the area (great...) the show got moved inside to a place called Skye Bar. We hit up Panera for dinner before going into Skye, and even though we'd originally been told we could leave after we entered, it turns out this wasn't the case. It was still kind of early but we decided to go on up anyway. 3/4 of WTL and 1/4 of Cavashawn were there at the time, but almost no one else. The beefy security dudes were taking up all the couches, but we found another one to chill on for awhile.

After deciding we'd be able to sneak back in, we went to Wendy's for a little bit with some of the guys so they could grab food. Ama and I bought Frosties for those present, either because we're nice, or because we're huge suckers. I'm not sure which. Entertaining conversations ensued. Those guys are witty. ["Yeah, I pretty much had to sell my soul to the devil to get days off work for Summerfest." "You work for the devil?!" "Not what I meant..." "You never get Christmas off, do you?"] We trekked back to Skye after awhile, got some Aleve from the car for Mom, watched some mediocre breakdancers outside, listened to a little Bon Iver, and slipped back in the back way. Once we gave mom the painkillers and realized how ridiculous the music was, Mom gave her blessing for us to disappear again, so out we went. Meanwhile, Benjamin had gotten into a verbal altercation with a venue staffer, who informed him that white t-shirts were not allowed in the venue. Something about gangs. I guess the Plain White T's can't even play there. Hello? Hello? Is this thing on? Anyway... Ben was pissed and the aftermath of that was both fascinating and frightening.

After spending some time away, we realized we should head back up. We may also have been driven away by the stench of the giant garbage compacter. We had a slightly more difficult time getting back in, and Matt helped, but the security at the front even gave Matt hell. He looks different from his ID photo, and the guy wouldn't stop going on about it. I don't even know how we managed to get back in without much crap. Later, we found out that when Scott went outside to meet friends, the security at the door wouldn't let him back in and made him get in the line! Are you joking? Basically, the staff at Skye was rude and insanely disrespectful to the bands, who did absolutely nothing wrong. Actually, Skye in general was ridiculous. It's usually more of a dance club bar, so the music they played when bands weren't on was pretty wretched and far too loud. We could barely handle it, and may or may not have consumed a slightly more than reasonable amount of Labalt Blue Light throughout the night in order to survive without killing anyone.

The first two bands played way too long, far longer than any opener should have. The first was a solo country guy, and the second was a band that only played covers. I can't remember their names, and I don't really care. The crowd was trashy and annoying, the music was painfully loud, our feet were sticking to the disgusting floor, and I was getting really tired of seeing girls who seemed to have mistaken a shirt for a dress. I was in such a bad mood after the first two bands that I didn't even know what to do. Thankfully we decided to work our way through the dancing bodies to the front, which turned out to be a good plan, since surprisingly, no one was running into us there. Matt, Ben, and Jeremy came over by us to watch Cavashawn's set as well, so at least we had familiar faces by us. (Also there was a die-hard Cavashawn fan and her friends to our left, so that helped greatly as well.) The guys put on a good show and we had fun dancing around. I can't remember the setlist and I'm too lazy to figure out, but they played all the usuals plus a brand new song called "All the Lonely Girls." We loved it. It's got this fun poppy sound in the beginning and verses that go into a driving beat in the chorus, and what lonely girl doesn't love a song about her plight? Haha... but yes, it's a great song. The crowd enjoyed them a lot.

[Just trying to survive this place...]

By this time the buzz was taking over and I was in a much better mood thanks to Cavashawn's set, so Amanda and I danced a little and I even let Mom dance without me begging her to stop. We The Living came on after a little bit. The crowd did at least know their songs pretty well, and by that point I didn't even care that people were running into me. Their set is actually a little hazy in my memory because I was just dancing and enjoying myself and not really caring anymore at that point. At least we were having a good time with some good music. I think Jer even laughed at us from the stage. Thanks, pal. Also, they played Joy, which is always amazing. I hadn't heard it properly in awhile, so it was great to see them play it again. They didn't play History, but that was understandable with the setting. It was nice to see the crowd really into them, but I wish I could see a show where the crowd is both into them, and not plastered. Oh well. Good performance.

After they were done we escaped the crowd and hung out near the couches by the merch. There were a lot less people over there and we had some room to breathe. We just hung out for awhile, had several conversations at very high volume thanks to the pounding music, then helped carry equipment and merch tubs to the elevator, and eventually outside. While we were lugging stuff to the trailer, some random drunk dude asked if I was a groupie. I love getting that question. Love it like a knife to the skull. Anyway, while we were doing this, we also met Trevor from the band Mayday. They're friends with Cavashawn and live in Columbus, and I really like their music. He was rather profane and hilarious. Cool dude. At some point in here, someone from Cavashawn asked if we were going to Chicago the next night. We said we weren't, but they're persuasive, so somehow we ended up agreeing to go. We are ridiculous. Mom opted out but told us to do whatever our little hearts desired, so it was set. I don't even know what else was going on in this time, it was so late and I was exhausted... I know Cavashawn got excited over the bags of fresh fruit that Mom brought for them, JP was doing a balancing act on empty beer kegs, and Matt was refusing to give the name of some pizza place in Chicago. Meanwhile, Van-Go wouldn't start so they had to pull up Clifford to give him a jump. We decided to leave then, said our goodbyes, and went back to the hotel. We discussed the logistics of our unplanned Chicago trip and fell into bed around 4 am.

After a whopping 4 hours of sleep, we hauled ourselves out of bed and got ready for the day. We'd decided that we would all drive to my aunt's house in Lafayette, my dad could pick up my mom, Amanda would leave her car there, and we'd take mine up to Chicago. On the way to Lafayette, I rode with Ama. As usual, I have no idea how we passed the time in the car. We're really good at doing nothing and not being bored by it. At some point after we'd crossed back into Indiana, we found ourselves gaining on a van with a trailer in the left lane. After about 30 seconds of "Is that...? No. Yeah it is. No it isn't. Wait... yep. That's totally Clifford." we passed it on the right and discovered that we were indeed cruising by Cavashawn. We smiled, waved, laughed, mocked them slightly, and carried on. Fun times. Once we got to Lafayette, we said goodbye to Mom and transferred over to my car to set out for Chicago. They were playing that night at Reggie's Rock Club, which is on the south side. The place is actually part of a 3-room establishment I think, with a small room, a record store, and the larger room where the guys played. We found the place without trouble but were a little wary of all the sketchy people wandering the neighborhood. We went inside the smaller room and hung out for a bit while the guys finished dinner and debated coffee, but a search on Jesse's phone turned up no nearby establishments, so we sat around. Eventually they needed to change and make a setlist and do whatever else it is that bands do before they play, so Ama and I went over to the room they were playing in. The first band, Luster, was just finishing up. I think they sounded good, but I don't completely recall, so they must not have been that memorable. I probably just wasn't paying much attention.

This show had the best sound we'd ever heard for Cavashawn. We shoved aside our standard "Is it creepy to be in front?" issues and did stand up front, and thankfully we could hear so well. It was nice to actually hear all parts of the music evenly, normally the bass is a little harder to hear, and clear vocals were wonderful. Something went awry with Jesse's drums at one point, so we got to hear Background again, which was even better with the good sound. Fantastic song. We also loved All the Lonely Girls even more the second time around. Apparently someone at the venue later told them that the song was single material, and I think I agree. It's catchy and fun and so applicable. They put on a really good show and definitely seemed to make some new fans, so that was great.

Once they were done, Ama and I decided to watch the rest of the show from these bench things at the side of the room. The Obstacles were pretty good, but they didn't stand out to me. They just seemed like another dime-a-dozen young pop/punk band, but it may have been because I don't really follow that type of music as much. The headlining band was The Butterfly Assassins. As they were setting up, we decided they had some potential to sound good, as there were keyboards and a female cello player, among other things. They also had a bass player who looked eerily like John Paul Roney at times. I did end up enjoying their set, they were definitely doing their own thing, and were pretty fun to watch. I think I would have liked them better with slightly different vocals, but for the most part it was really good. Apparently there was a later show in the venue that night, so we got promptly kicked out of Reggie's after the Butterfly Assassins played. That seems to be a recurring theme when we see shows in Chicago. I like the earlier shows better though, they're less exhausting for everyone involved. We decided that Reggie's is our favorite of the series of smaller venues we've been to lately- the sound was good and not overpoweringly loud, it was clean, our feet didn't stick to the floor, the set-up was cool, and the staff was nice. (Hear that, Skye? Mop your floor and send your security to anger management. Thanks.)

The remainder of me and Ama's time in the Windy City can be loosely summed up by the following list: driving in the rain, parking hell, turkey/gouda/apple sandwiches, music video narration, solid sleep, creaky floor, fiesta music, pigeons on crack, toast with jelly, dirty feet, and vinyl. I think that more or less covers it.

We left Chicago at about 1pm (Central) on Sunday, and got back to Lafayette around 4:30 (Eastern). From there we took off for our respective homes. I took the long way around out of Lafayette so I could drive through Starbucks and get "bucked up" as Scott so eloquently put it at Reggie's the day before. Cut me some slack, I hadn't had a caramel macchiato in 2 weeks. It was a nice day so the drive home was good, and I rocked some Red Hot Chili Peppers from the iPod. When I got home and saw how many miles got put on the car over the weekend, I just laughed.

Life is good.

_________

p.s. - Everytime I say I'm just going to type up a short recap blog, it turns into something like this. I am way too verbose. I'd be amazed if anyone actually reads these things. Is the detail just too excruciating? Let me know.

p.p.s. - Tomorrow night we leave for Los Angeles. WHAT? I'm packing right now. How did this come up so darn fast?