These are the days I live for …
On assignment yesterday and under a warm fall sun, my favorite photog, Kevin, and I boarded a train for Chicago and headed to North Clark Street to review the new and improved
Chicago History Museum …
I’m a modern history buff to begin, but if it wasn’t for having a train to catch and my evening plans, I could’ve spent the whole day there …
Just inside the lobby visitors are greeted with a colorful collection of signs and billboards from throughout Chicago’s history. Then, past the front desk is a handful of
Lincoln artifacts, including the bed in which he died (… I know he's from Springfield, but the bed is an item you would think Washington, D.C., had, not the Chicago Historical Society!?). There’s also a small, heavily interactive children’s area (which can get horribly chaotic and loud if you’re there at the wrong time like we were) and the there’s the history center’s legendary dioramas …
Also, adjacent from the lobby is a small gallery featuring rotating exhibits to showcase the historical society’s world-renowned
clothing collection. It’ll be a sure draw for fashion students; on display now is an exhibit of
Christian Dior's work …
But the real treat is on the second floor. There, visitors will find the restored el car which was among the first in Chicago to take people to the
World’s Fair. Surrounding the el car are five, wonderfully laid out, thematic galleries, each one filled with fascinating relics and stories detailing the relatively young city’s history. … It starts with the era of the Native Americans, the railroad boom in the 1840s and the rise of Chicago’s meat-packing, steel and furniture industries. Another gallery shows the city’s crises and challenges -- from the
Chicago Fire, to the
Eastland disaster, to the gang violence to the
1968 Democratic Convention. There’s a gallery dedicated to the diverse Chicago neighborhoods, and then a gallery depicting the city’s innovations from the department stores of
Marshall Field’s and
Crate And Barrel to the architecture of
Frank Lloyd Wright and the modern skyscraper. The final gallery delves into Chicago’s culture -- the jazz and blues, the World’s Fairs, the majestic theaters and the sports (… among the artifacts are
Michael Jordan’s shoes, a piece of the floor from old
Chicago Stadium and an unopened bottle of champagne from the
Cubs’ 1984 postseason) …
… Great stuff. A definite must-see when you’re in Chicago …
* * *
… Kevin and I caught our train out of town. And by the time I got home I had just enough time to check up on my e-mail,
MySpace and download some directions before I was off again -- to
the place I should have been on Sunday night …
The Rave in Milwaukee … I had snagged some tickets to see
James Blunt.
I arrived just as the opening band,
Starsailor, was launching their set. And when I surveyed the room, I was pleasantly surprised to see the room wasn’t crammed with wide-eyed teenage girls. Rather, this was a couples night (unfortunately my significant other was toiling away at her masters class …). In some parts of the crowd, there were perfect rows of guys standing behind women, arms around their waists. And still, there was refreshing mix of plain and single people just wanting to see and hear plain and simple good music …
Another pleasant surprise was Starsailor, the Brit quartet that opened for Blunt with a 45-minute set. It included “Four to the Floor,” a No. 1 hit for them two years ago in France. The band’s sound, with its mostly upbeat, keyboard-heavy rock tunes, differed little from other English chart-toppers
Coldplay and
Keane (… keyboard bands are coming out of England the last couple years the way Beatles copycats and moptops were coming out of there in the 60s …), but lead singer James Walsh’s strong vocals are all his own (He reminded me of
Glen Phillips…). And the crowd, whose heads bobbed throughout the set, clearly approved.
… During the 30-minute intermission, the crowd was treated to a trailer of Al Gore’s “
An Inconvenient Truth” on the big screen behind the stage. I discovered afterward that Blunt has been promoting the film throughout his tour … Five minutes after the trailer, Blunt’s band appeared and Blunt himself stepped onto the stage a few seconds later to the delight of the crowd. He promptly revved up his guitar for the opening track, "Breathe," and rushed to both corners of the stage, greeting the crowd …
The first song complete, Blunt paused briefly to shout “Hello, Milwaukee!” Then he delved into “Billy” and “High” without stopping. Both songs drew loud singing from the crowd. Renditions of “Cry” and “Goodbye My Lover,” which featured Blunt behind a piano and alone on the stage, also were well-received. On “Lover” the cell phones came out (for the uninitiated, brightly lit cell phone screens have replaced lighters at concerts), and Blunt let the crowd sing the last verse on their own.
While Blunt performed the entire track-listing from his platinum-selling, debut “
Back to Bedlam,” his four-piece backing band moved through the set with ease, their strong accompaniments and tight harmonies making several of the songs seem fresh.
But for all the talent and chemistry the band exuded, the guys rarely jammed or strayed from Blunt’s album versions. Though Blunt mixed some new songs into the set, only the ultra-catchy “1973” (with a repetitive guitar section that could be easily confused for the marimba-backed riffs on the
Stones’ “
Under My Thumb”) seemed to strike a cord with the crowd.
Blunt’s other new tunes differed little from the acoustic guitars and falsetto-heavy, love ballads that have propelled the British crooner to the tops of charts and into the hearts of millions of soccer moms and their daughters. After “Lover,” however, the band returned and suddenly seemed to find a new energy. Blunt, still at the piano and starting to sweat, removed the gray jacket he wore over a red T-shirt and said to the enthusiastic crowd, “I’ll take mine off if you take off yours.”
Without introduction, the band stormed into the instantly recognizable “
Breakfast in America,” a feisty cover of
Supertramp’s 1980 hit, and it just might have been the highlight of the night. Though the band finally showed some range by rocking out a bit, only a handful of people in the crowd seemed to know the song. It wasn’t until Blunt left his piano and went front and center with a group of fans in the front row -- while encouraging the crowd to clap to the beat -- that the crowd showed some life. He kissed a young woman on the cheek , and jumped back on stage.
Blunt followed that with “Tears and Rain,” another new song, and then “Out Of My Mind,” getting the crowd to sing the da da das at the end.
Introducing one more new song, Blunt told the crowd he would play a new guitar and pledged he would not brake it. Apparently, Blunt’s not good at keeping promises -- he tore the strings from the guitar almost immediately, making it look as if he was trying to break the guitar. When the song ended, and with the state of the guitar, it would have been appropriate for Blunt to smash it on the stage. Instead, he simply handed it off to a crew member, and exchanged it for another.
Next, Blunt was going solo on the piano again, playing “No Bravery” in front of a giant screen showing time-stamped 1999 footage of a war-torn landscape. The band returned and introduced “Where Are You Now?” with a nice jam.
“So Long Jimmy,” capped off the first set, and the band showed another glimmer of life when Blunt’s drummer nearly broke every drum pad on his trap set to finish the song. Then the band waved good-bye, said thank you and left stage. Without playing “You’re Beautiful?” Yeah right.
In no time, Blunt and his bandmates were returning to the stage to deafening cheers. A couple more new songs and finally a video appeared on the screen -- this one, shot from under water, showed Blunt crashing into the ocean, an obvious sequel to where Blunt’s now-famous “Beautiful” video left off. The crowd seemed to recognize the intro immediately, and Blunt strummed the opening chords of “Beautiful.” The cell phones promptly came out again, and the crowd sang the “f#@*ing high” line with emphasis …
As the guys left the stage, they appeared more grateful than plenty of other bands I’ve seen. Blunt jumped off the stage to put his pic in the hand of a 5-year-old girl who, with her mother, had been in the front row all night, holding a sign that read “James Blunt’s littlest fan.” Other band members followed by handing the girl their set list and a pair of drum sticks.
“Thank you for coming. Thank you for having us,” Blunt told the crowd as he left.
Some James Blunt reads ...a James Blunt adapts to wowing bigger crowdsa Singles place James Blunt in the company of Sir Eltona Singer James Blunt enjoys a 'Beautiful' career* * *
After the show, I spent a couple minutes walking around the club to scout out the tour buses. I’ve had good success catching musicians after their shows there and figured I had a good chance on Tuesday night too …
So I grabbed my copy of “Back to Bedlam,” a Sharpie from my car and joined the three or four people who also were waiting on the sidewalk outside the buses. A few more gathered and we waited …
We had been waiting for barely an hour and were hardly watching for Blunt, or any of the other band members for that matter, when all of a sudden appeared this young, shaggy-haired man from behind one of the busses. He was bundled up in a down jacket and stocking cap (it was pretty cold …), but there he was, James Blunt.
“Hey guys,” he said, stepping up to our group as if we were old friends.
Blunt declined to pose with any of us for pictures, but graciously and quickly (I'm pretty sure he just wanted to get back inside where it was warm … ) signed everything we threw at him.
Another autographed CD added to my collection …
yes!
* * *
I cruised home, with only one thing on my mind -- watching
Game 3.
Again, I set the DVR to record the game … because, hey, there’s nothing like coming home late with no knowledge of how the game ended, watching it commercial-free, as if it was live, at 2 in the morning …
Turns out I didn’t miss much. The
Cardinals were in control all the way. I was out by the seventh inning …
