Another Reason to Hate Ticketmaster
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Second night of a double-header for concerts. Tonight's venue: the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, IL. The Aragon is an old ballroom built in the 1920's for a large sum of money. The place is still in really good condtion. The interior is expansive and nicely decorated. The dome of the ceiling depicts a night sky complete with twinkling stars. The entire floor is surrounded by a balcony that houses several bars/seating areas (didn't go up there so I cannot be 100% sure which) overlooking the floor and stage. Unfortunately, part of the floor was sectioned off; so, you couldn't get right up to the stage. My only complaint about the venue would be the sound. The large interior and domed ceiling amplify the bass. Not that a lot of bass is bad, but it creates more of a boom than a sonic thump and drowns out a lot of the rest of the sound at times. Still, it's a good place to see a band.I'm going to break character here for a second and swear and cuss a bit; so, please skip to the next paragraph if you are easily offended. I'd like to give a big "Fuck You" to Ticketmaster and scalpers/touts. Because the scalpers helped sell out the show so quickly, I couldn't get a ticket through Ticketmaster. So, when the nimrods at Ticketmaster printed the wrong showtime on the ticket, I didn't get the email notification stating something like, "We're idiots and cannot manage to print the right time on a ticket, please show up a half hour earlier." Okay, I feel a bit better.I roll into the Aragon Ballroom thinking I'm 15 minutes early; only to realize that I'm 15 minutes late and the Silversun Pickups are most of the way through their set. :( I was not very happy, but what can I do? (See semi-strongly worded message above.) The three songs I got to see were great. Yeah, that was 3 songs. Lazy Eye sounded awesome live. The band even had some eye candy for us guys.... I'd like to write more, but there's not much to say. I'd like to see them do a whole set. This is the band I really wanted to check out. :(OK Go were up next. I'd heard positive things about the band, but they didn't impress live. They are in their fifth week of this tour, and the band seems to be running out of steam already. The played a pretty animated set, but the singing and the playing came across a bit flat. The antics on stage seemed a bit forced, and I think the crowd could tell. It's somewhat of a shame when you get the most crowd reaction during a cover of ELO's "Don't Bring Me Down" than you do for any of your songs. On the other hand, maybe most of the crowd were just waiting for treadmills to be brought on stage. I'm guessing the guy who yelled "Dance!" between songs was disappointed there weren't any. At least the interaction with the crowd between songs was entertaining. Maybe a smaller venue would be a better place to see them play.After what seemed ages, Snow Patrol finally took the stage. Gary seemed a bit off at first; a little slow on delivery or mumbling over a lyric at times. Honestly, I was a bit worried that I had drove 3 hours for a so-so show. However, after a couple songs, he was really into it and was singing great. They played a great mix of songs from Finale Straw and Eyes Open. I wish I had a better memory for song order, but I can tell you that they seemed to have played nearly every song from both albums. I know I heard everyone I wanted to hear. I don't think I've ever realized how many songs of theirs mention "eyes" in the lyrics. Gary seemed to be in great spirits and even broke into a small, playful rant against Budweiser at one point; ending the rant with the word "cunts", which he later apologized for and had the crowd scream loudly to exorcise the demons of it. Other than seeing Snow Patrol, the highlight had to be Kelly (sp?). No, I have no idea who she is either, but they pull a member of the audience to help them do "Set the Fire to the Third Bar". When he asked for a volunteer, her friends all pointed to hear and Gary noticed. She agreed to do it and found herself, looking very shocked and somewhat scared, on stage. She did a fabulous job. No, she's not exactly Martha Wainwright, but she sounded good and knew all the words (evidently Chicago was lucky in this respect, because Gary noted some of the horror stories of past performances). It was cool to see someone go from a slightly frightened demeanor to acutally singing, dancing and enjoying themself on stage. She really got into it and you could tell that Gary was impressed too. She got a thunderous applause as she left stage; naturally stopping to hug everyone first. :) The crowd was really into the songs they played and heartily sang along; even topping Gary at times. In the end, I think I heard someone say that they played 17 songs, which must have lasted nearly 2 hours. It was midnight (IN time) when I got to my car, and I still had a 3 hour drive home; once I finally got on the road that is. For the first time ever, I got turned around and a bit lost in Chicago. I think I need to get more sleep. :)
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