So… as much as I love Chicago, it clearly took me off my game. For the first time in the history of this blog… and for the first time in 500 posts/days, I missed not only one day, but TWO.
Quite honestly, I am wiped. Trying to do two weeks worth of things in two days… Impossible. I will be back soon, my Second City. Wait for me, will you? Heck, I am so wiped now… but I vowed to fight through.
So what happened Friday and Saturday? Well… I distinctly remember getting into the bed at the hotel with every intention of listening to some music and writing, but then the body starts drifting off… the brain starts fading… and the mouth starts snoring. Sorry, Rob. Glad you brought those ear plugs.
On Saturday night Rob and I had the good fortune to go to Northerly Island and the Charter One Pavillion to see The Doobie Brothers and Chicago. The venue is fantastic, buried deep on the lake past the Shedd Aquarium and Field Museum. One major gripe, though… They clearly IGNORE Rock n’ Roll time and started precisely at 7:30. WTF??? Who does that? And if so, why did the ticket not say 7:30 SHARP???
The frustration started with the uncoordinated traffic lights… cluster fuck of traffic and our cabbie, who had clearly pissed himself before we got in the cab, telling us it would be better if we get out and just walk the “three blocks”, as driving would take another half hour. So we threw him $15 and started walking… and walking… and walking… Three blocks, my —!
We heard the opener “Jesus Is Just Allright”, with a ten minute walk still ahead of us and came in for the third song, which I believe was a new one. A great one, mind you, and I was impressed with the new stuff, but I hate arriving late and missing songs. I hate missing anything live, but especially when a band is as good as The Doobies… and let me tell you… they sounded AMAZING.
I am working on getting the setlist, but my go-to site is coming up way short.
Chicago came out and sounded a bit off for the first two songs… The vocals were not great and the horns were mixed way down when they needed to be much louder. Things got much better from there and they also put on a great show… but when the two bands came out and played together… MAGIC.
The closer was classic rock at its very best… so please, enjoy Chicago, Chicago… We did… double.
And remember, my first concert EVER was Chicago and Orleans. Long Live Rock.
“25 or 6 to 4” is a song written by American musician Robert Lamm, one of the founding members of the rock/jazz fusion band Chicago. It was recorded for their second album, Chicago (1970), with Peter Cetera on lead vocals. The song was edited and released as a single in June of that year, climbing to number 4 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and number seven on the UK Singles Chart. This recording features an electric guitar solo using a wah-wah pedal by Chicago guitarist Terry Kath, and has been included in numerous Chicago compilation albums.
An updated version of “25 or 6 to 4″ was recorded for the 1986 album Chicago 18 with James Pankow listed as co-writer. Featuring new band member Jason Scheff on lead vocals, the single reached number 48 on the U.S. chart.”
“While it has been speculated that the song’s lyrics are drug related, that rumor has been largely dismissed. Lamm himself says that the title is “just a reference to the time of day,” and that “the song is about writing a song. It’s not mystical.” The time of day in reference is 3:35 AM (or 3:34 AM), which would then be 25 (or 26) minutes to 4 AM.”
