Trip/Forty/This Heat

It's been a pretty amazing span of time since I last posted! Mary Beth and I went to Chicago to go to Pitchfork Fest to see This Is Not This Heat (on my fortieth birthday) and had a pretty incredible time. Lots to report so let's get crackin'.

We left Wednesday morning, hit the road, made good time to Chicago. We stopped at a Culver's along the way for a delicious lunch. We got to Chicago and the first thing we did was try to eat at this Philippine restaurant called Isla Pilipina. We got at lot of food but we were straight off the road and really still full from Culver's and otherwise discombobulated. The food was good but we weren't able to eat a lot (we got a lot of leftovers which I accidentally threw away later that night when we might have been able to eat more! doh!). After that was a trip to Reckless. My stomach was starting to act up and didn't have a lot of time on the meter ('cuz I was out of it and confused as to how much time I put in and how the damn thing worked, my fault not its) but we'd gotten crazy lucky by literally getting the spot right in front of the door (on Milwaukee in Wicker Park? crazy shit! even for a Wednesday evening). But I rushed through half out of it and still got some stuff: Nurse with Wound: Rat Tapes 1, Muslimgauze: Citadel, Test Dept.: The Unacceptable Face of Freedom, King Crimson: Beat, Eliane Radigue: Jetsun Mila, The Ex: Disturbing Domestic Peace, The Ex: Singles. Period., Fugazi: In on the Kill Taker (which I already have, but it was super cheap and my current copy is all water damaged with the insert all fused together so it was a nice cheap replacement), Fugazi: Steady Diet of Nothing, and The Body: I Have Fought against It, but I Can't Any Longer. Then we rushed to find our hotel and finally relax and just feel better. Which we did.

Thursday was our hang-out day in Chicago. I woke up a bit tired. I'd mostly slept okay but woke up in the middle of the night as a continuation of the previous issues I'd been having (it was getting a milkshake at Culver's, delicious but a bad idea...). But we got up and hit the town to do stuff. We had breakfast at 90 Miles, a little Cuban shack that was goddamn delicious. I had skirt steak with egg on it and a sauce that was fantastic. There was also fruit flavored tea, also goddamn delicious. Really good stuff. Then the main plan for the day was to go to The Art Institute of Chicago. I also wanted to do some nerdy stuff so I dropped Mary Beth off ahead of me to head back uptown to check out Nerd Audio, a modular shop that's a semi-separate entity inside a regular audio gear store. They had a pretty good sized selection of eurorack stuff taking up a pretty big rack area. I played around for a good while, trying out a few things I've been interested in as well as some other stuff. Finally walked away with a Make Noise modDemix. So I look forward to getting that in my case. I went back to Reckless. Mary Beth had mentioned seeing a This Heat flyer on the door and I wanted to make sure it wasn't for something I didn't know about like an after-show or something. Also, I figured I could use a closer look at their stuff. Found out that the flyer was for a record signing "meet and greet" earlier in the day they played the festival. Okay so my poking around got me: Matmos: The Marriage of True Minds, Matmos: The West, Matmos: High, Live and Dirty, John Carpenter: Lost Themes II, Dälek: Abandoned Language, and Pierre Henry: Mix 01.0 (most items being picked up for pretty cheap). Okay, then I made my way back downtown to meet Mary Beth at the Art Institute. Didn't actually quite meet her yet. She was heading over to the American Writers Museum about when I arrived. But I had some crazy luck. This woman who kinda talked to me for a second as we crossed the street saw me getting in line to buy a ticket and told me not to buy a ticket and let me in with her using her membership. So I got in for free which was pretty awesome and lucky! So I went around and checked out the "contemporary" floor (mostly postmodern...really anything after 1960 (maybe even earlier), for example you're greeting with a bunch of de Kooning, which I wouldn't personally call "contemporary" but it was all pretty awesome). Then up to the "modern" floor (the quotes are less meaningful here as this was pretty straight-up modernist art, mostly used 'em for "consistency"). Saw a few Mondrians which I always love. Really lots of good stuff. They had a ton of Picasso. They had quite a bit of Magritte, pretty big surrealist section in general. Good Cindy Sherman stuff on the second floor (contemporary). Anyway, saw nice stuff. Found out later there was good stuff I missed though as the place is a damn maze and there's stuff on those floors you can't get to from the main staircase, but there are these hidden other staircases that take you to these isolated little sections. Kinda annoying, but I didn't do bad for a free couple of hours. One of the temporary exhibits on the first floor was an exhibit on Volta Jazz and it was pretty cool (this will come in to play again on Friday...foreshadowing!). Then decided to meet Mary Beth over at the Writers Museum before it closed. So made the few blocks over and checked that out too (didn't get in for free though). It's small but what's there is pretty busy with interactive stuff. Kinda cool but kinda felt a little at odds with the subject matter (let's make writers/writing more exciting than it actually is!). After that we took a little jaunt back to Millennium Park and were touristy and took selfies with The Bean (ahem, Cloud Gate) and all that. So that was fun. We also checked out those giant video face fountains. That was also fun. Then we went to eat some goat at this Mexican place. We booked it to get there an hour before what we thought was closing time (per the internet) but they just closed when we got there. Mary Beth was upset at first but we decided we could hit up Irazu, the Costa Rican place we ate at once a few years back. So we did and it was really fucking good so no missed opportunity was felt. Okay, so that brings a close to Thursday.

Next was Friday. This was also Mary Beth's birthday! I shared the song I had recorded for her. I'll probably share that here later. Then we got out, not quite as early as before so I was more rested. I'd run out of deodorant so we did a little shopping run. Then on to where we had a parking reservation, only a couple miles from the festival. We did breakfast at the French Market. So we wandered around and hit up a few different things at a few different vendors. Got a croque madame from one. Got a Montreal-stle pastrami from another (they do big hunks instead of thin slices). Got some pierogis from another. It was a nice breakfast we shared. Then walked to the festival. Got there just after the park opened. Hit up the record fair. I got a couple things. At Numero Group's table I saw: Bobo Yéyé: Belle Époque in Upper Volta so I got it! (This is a comp of the stuff that was in that Art Institute exhibit I saw the day before!) I also picked up from another table: Zola Jesus: Stridulum. I brought my little drawstring ServiceMaster bag since they said backpacks aren't allowed (though I saw plenty of people with 'em) and it's cheap and ended up breaking not too long into the festival. Hit the merch booth to buy one of theirs as well as a festival t-shirt. So that was my merch haul. What of the music. The first band was a bad Talking Heads knockoff. Next was Melkbelly who was okay. We caught Natural Information Society's set. They were really really good. Unusual instrumentation: harmonium, bass clarinet, drums, guimbri, guitar, and auto-harp. Long instrumental jamming. Mount Kimbe was really good. There were a few others throughout that were okay or pretty decent. We left when the headliner started. Oh, this one vendor there had arnold palmers that were choice! Walking back we found a Shake Shack along the way to our car so we checked it out. Here was another piece of luck. Their system was down for this few minute window as wee arrived and they were giving everyone who ordered in that brief window their food on the house. So we got to eat for free! Also, it was fucking delicious. Another notch in the good fast-food chain belt or something. Realized that Sear Shack in town is bootlegging their aesthetic and probably their approach from this place. Didn't have my own shake though (I learned), but their watermelon basil lemonade was delicious! And their burger with a cheese-stuffed portobello on top is amazing! Okay, we're tired with sore legs and we go back to the car. We stood around and walked around a lot.

Next was Saturday and my birthday (40!) and the big day for the whole reason I wanted to come! So I thankfully continued getting a bunch of rest. We park and walk towards the festival and stopped to eat at Little Goat Diner for the first of many times. I had some delicious blueberry pancakes. Then on to the festival. Not too much early on. We made sure to fill up so we wouldn't have to eat for a while as we'd planned to camp out at the stage (wanted a good spot for This Is Not This Heat, also most of the stuff we were interested in seeing happened to be on that stage anyway). Checked out the first little bit of Zola Jesus's set. It was okay but nothing too spectacular. I seem to like her earlier stuff and she's gotten a lot done that's a bit boring, overly bluesy vocals. But it was fine, a little bit into her set Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith started and she was really good, probably better than when we saw her at Big Ears and that was a good set too. Okay, I'm going to break it up for now and continue in another post!

This Is Not My Birthday

Left off with Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith. Picking back up. Yeah good set. This time she had eurorack instead of her Buchla Easel and she was doing some live patchwork which was pretty cool. Luckily, right after her set we were able to quickly make our way to the stage: front/center. We would not have had another chance. This when all of the This Heat fans solidified their stations (with several acts and hours left to go). Next was Circuit des Yeux. They had a very different lineup from Memphis Concrète. It was larger. The same drummer was there, but instead of double bass, they had an electric bass player (different guy) and a cellist and violinist. They were good again, but I think they may have been better at Memphis Concrète (the double bass really added a great sound and the atmosphere was both more intimate and ominous). Next was Girlpool. It was weird 'cuz they had a full band with a drummer and second guitarist. They were alright, but with the expanded lineup they sound a lot more standard rock'n'rolly. The drummer sounded like he should be in a hair metal or 80s hard rock band. They played a couple songs as just a two-piece in the middle of the set and those were better and reminded me what I liked about them. They weren't terrible as a full band, but they did lose a lot of what made their sound unique. Okay, and what we've been waiting for This Is Not This Heat! It was a really great set. I mean, sure they are a nostalgia act of sorts but they put energy and surprises into these familiar songs. It didn't feel at all like rote rehash. In addition to the two Charleses, they had a second drummer, another guitarist, a guy who played bass and keyboards, and a guy who played guitar and clarinet. While sound checking his vocals, Charles Hayward counted to sixteen, but sung in his voice, you know, HIS VOICE! And it was so surreally amazing. Anyway, their set went like: Horizontal Hold, S.P.Q.R., Twilight Furniture, Music like Escaping Gas, A New Kind of Water, Makeshift Swahili, The Fall of Saigon, Health and Efficiency. The bass player had checked to a line in Cenotaph but they didn't play it. Wish I could have seen them in a non-festival setting where I'm sure their set would have been a little longer and would have gotten a few more songs in, but I realize I'm lucky as hell to have gotten to see this at all! I mean, how the fuck did that even happen!? lucky. So no complaining here. And they ended with my three most favorite songs in a row (I mean, not that they could have had a bad song). Mostly it was stuff I'd expect to hear, but Music like Escaping Gas was a surprise, in a pleasant way. It's awesome they got in their more abstract stuff and it was exceptionally done live. Health and Efficiency also just fucking killed. It was a great way to close the set. At one point a balloon made its way to the section between the stage and the crowd. The security guard came and tossed it up back to the crowd and the person it went to immediately knocked it right on the fucking stage and the security guard immediately had this "dude! what the FUCK did you just do?!" bulging eyes and dropped jaw look (not angry, but dumbfounded and more of a "REALLY!?"). The balloon went up into the drums and the second drummer noticed and looked slightly annoyed but in a quickly shrugged-off way. Throughout the set Charles Hayward smiled a whole lot and just looked like he was enjoying himself and enjoying playing drums and playing that music. Charles Bullen looks a bit frail and his demeanor's less joyful, but maybe that's just his demeanor. It did remind me all anew just how incredible those guitar parts all are. So I turned 40 and saw my favorite band who it shouldn't have ever even been possible to even see (and sure, "This Is Not" This Heat, but it's closer than I could have dreamed I'd ever get). And as Mary Beth said, "So that just happened." We left the front of the stage and checked out the beginning of Kelela's set. It was pretty good. The guy who's the producer or whatever had some really interesting sounds he was making. I checked by the merch booth to see if there was anything new (we'd gone by first thing when we got in that day but there may have been more added later...there was...). There was This Is Not This Heat merch, shirts. They said they only had xl left so I tried to get an xl and then they said, oh actually we just sold the last one. Goddamnit! I know, was worth it being at the stage the whole time so we could be right up front, but still. Damn. We left after a little bit to go back to Little Goat for dinner. I had a chap chae burger (no bun) and it was really good but Mary Beth's "sloppy goat" (sloppy joe with goat meat) was phenomenal. There were also delicious goat chili cheese fries. We ended with their cake of the day called "funfetti" and it was pretty much birthday cake (à propos), you know, if birthday cake were really fucking good. It was stacked huge with many layers and an equally huge mound of whipped goat cream (yeah, goat, if you haven't figured it out from the name and the several mentions, that's a big thing of theirs). A great wrap up to the birthday, I must say.

What's next? Next is Sunday, yesterday, the last day. We swung by Little Goat for the third time in two days (yeah, but it was super convenient on the walk from car to festival and really good). This time I got their special which was a rhubarb biscuit that was like probably the best thing I ate all trip (a huge biscuit with pimento cheese and rhubarb and ham and probably egg, if I remember right...the pimento and rhubarb blended together surprisingly well). Mary Beth wanted more cake so she got the penultimate slice that was left (our server said he was going to get the last one for himself). Mostly the festival seemed to run hiccup-free, but getting in on Sunday was a pretty big hiccup where they couldn't let anyone in during the allotted time for some reason and we had to wait until after the day was supposed to start with more and more people queuing up. Finally got in and the day just had a late start. Poked around a bit. Finally camped out to be up front for Kelly Lee Owens. I could hear Irreversible Entanglements from across the park while waiting though and they were really good. Didn't know anything about them but pretty free jazzy. Good stuff and I'll have to check 'em out more later. Kelly played. That day it was very very bassy up front. I know they get it loud so it can be heard from farther back, but we were up close to those subwoofers and most of that day for the two acts we were right there that was almost all I heard (the bass). It wasn't bad on Saturday. I could hear everything clearly and well. I guess they were bass-happy that day (though Girlpool asked them to turn the bass down when the kickdrum started booming and someone in the audience asked for less bass). Kelly Lee Owens was pretty good. Japanese Breakfast was next. The bass-dominance was a little more distracting there. They were okay. Maybe better if I could have heard more instruments. I'd liked what little I'd heard before of their stuff, but it was kinda straightforward pop rock. Mostly wandered around for a bit after that. Mary Beth and I sat on a blanket in the big field between the two big stages. I went to the bathroom and by the time I got back she'd gotten a chance to get right up close to the main stage (third "row") and by the time I got back, she'd been closed in on and I couldn't reach her anymore. But that's okay. It gave me a chance to just wander around and eat and go to the bathroom some more times. Not a lot musically going on for a while though. Checked out a couple acts that were bullshit. Came back having had arnold palmer and pizza (the drink was first, should have had more forethought, they're huge ass cups so I didn't just wanna keep having to go to the portapotties the rest of the night so I didn't get a second after pizza). Okay, finally went back to the big field kinda in the middle where it wasn't too crowded and watched Chaka Khan's set. I mean, not super my thing but it was kinda enjoyable. Then I turned around and was just a little closer for Lauryn Hill. She did that album and I'm not super familiar with it but it was all pretty good. Met up with Mary Beth afterwards and we booked it outta there to catch Shake Shack just before it closed.

Now we're at today! We woke up and hit the road. Culver's on the way back (drank root beer, remember that in the future, Robert). Otherwise the drive wasn't too eventful. We're back home and back with Trudy and I guess it's soon time to get ready to get back to the usual routine. But I guess seeing my favorite band was a great distraction from the round number age-change!