Chicago Is Cool

Last weekend we played Chicago. It was our first time there as a band. Our first engagement was an in-studio performance at WBEZ for which we had to load-in at 7:45 AM on Friday morning. That meant we had to arrive in town Thursday night.

I had just picked up the bus from getting a brand new set of tires so it was parked it my place. On Wednesday night I took a vacuum, garden hose, and mop and cleaned out the inside of that bus like never before. The next day I headed up to the rehearsal space to pick up the guys, but not before rubbing the bus up against something and shattering out a window. That is window number two to go down on the KnightTrane. I continued on to Sam’s house where we vacuumed out all the busted glass and taped up the window. From there we swung up to Casey’s place to pick him and a special guest up.

We were joined on this run by local radio legend, Tom Mischke. As it happens, Tom is married to Casey’s mother. One night the two of them got to talking and the idea came up for Mischke to ride along with the Lakers on a trip and produce a piece for his new podcast, The Mischke Roadshow. Below is a pic of Mischke.

With Casey and Mischke aboard we continued on to the rehearsal space where we met the guys and loaded up the bus. One more stop on the way out of town, to pick up Lumpy, and we were FINALLY on our way. Because it took so long to get on the road, we didn’t arrive in Chicago until 2:30 am Friday morning. By the time we checked into the Urban Holiday Loft hostel in Wicker Park (highly recommended if you need a cheap place to crash), unloaded our stuff, and settled in for bed, it was 3:30 am.

Man, that 6:30 AM alarm came quickly! We rolled out of bed and straight onto the bus and headed for WBEZ. The folks at WBEZ were among the nicest we’ve met in the world of radio. Top to bottom this was a class A operation. We loaded in at 7:45 am and were sound checking by about 8:15 or 8:30. We spent the rest of the time making little tweaks to the songs we were going to perform. We hadn’t run that version of the intro in months, we made some changes to the bridge of Juicy Lucy, we even got Mischke to do some soul clapping. We were in there running the same 8 bars over and over when the producer walked in with the host, Tony Sarabia, and said we’re on in one minute. We ran it one more time and it seemed the instant we were done, BOOM, away Tony went.

We did 3 tunes and an interview. Despite the lack of sleep, we pretty much all agreed it was the best radio performance we’ve delivered. Maybe sleep deprivation is our new bag. I dunno?!

After WBEZ we went back and tried to sleep. We didn’t play at House of Blues until midnight, so we had all the time in the world to do as we pleased. It was nice. I tried to nap but couldn’t. As soon as I gave up on that, Mischke asked if he could interview me. We walked over to Silver Clouds, a bar practically next door to the hostel and had a couple pints while we discussed Sonny Knight And The Lakers. I’ve long been a fan of Mischke’s work, so I won’t lie, this was pretty damn cool for me. After college, one of my roommates and I used to hang out in his tiny little bedroom killing brain cells and listening to Mischke whenever we could.

Anyhow, it worked out really well. Other Lakers would walk by and join us and then Mischke was able to sit and chat with them as well. With tons of free time, many of us just sort of wondered our own way. I went to grab a bite to eat and some new drum sticks. As usual, I was on the prowl for a local eats…Food that I can’t find easily or done well at home. I found a little shop with the Vienna Beef logo on the door and figured, this will do. Instead of getting a Chicago Dog (I hate mustard and relish) I got their second recommendation, a Pizza Puff. For the uninitiated, a pizza puff is basically a giant pizza roll with a flaky crust that has more layers to it. The one I had was not good at all (sorry Chi-town). Maybe someone can tell me where to get a good one (email us: sales at secretstashrecords.com).

After that it was off to the gig. Once again we entered a new room with a certain skepticism. The joint wasn’t exactly packed and people weren’t exactly swinging from the rafters (despite very solid sets from both openers). After fueling up on a few glasses of the brown stuff and some sandwiches we went down to the bus to change. By the time we came back up the room had really filled in. I think much like Milwaukee, Chicago is a late night town (unlike our beloved hometown). By about 5 tunes in people had abandoned their tables and the area closest to the stage became a dance floor. Employees were even moving tables out of the way to accommodate. Later the woman running the room told me that folks were coming in and complaining because they couldn’t find a place to sit and eat. She sort of laughed and told them the room had turned from dining room to dance party. Eventually the dancing spread to the area directly in front of the bar. With a few tunes left to go people started dancing with Sonny right up on the edge of the stage. It was one of the more high energy shows we’ve played in a while. I think we’ve gotten very used to playing outdoor festivals this summer. Those shows really require you to turn the energy up to 11 because it is hard to connect with such a massive group of people. I think we took that energy and put in a small room and the results were bonkers. Frankly, I miss playing small rooms like this. I’m sort of looking forward to more of this in the coming cold months.

After the show we went back to hostel where half of us went right to bed and the other half stayed up and did work on a bottle of the brown stuff. All parties shall remain nameless for the time being. The next morning we grabbed a bite at our new favorite hang, Silver Clouds.

It just so happened to be my wife, Heather’s, birthday. She flew into town to hang out and celebrate. She met us for Bloody Marys at the bar and then we went on to sound check at a private event hosted at Lincoln Hall. Well, we thought we were going to sound check. The headliner took a 3 hour sound check. No lie… 3 hours. When they were finished we were given a 9 minute sound check. No lie… 9 minutes. It was made even more difficult because we were playing someone else’s backline, consisting of modern equipment not akin to our sound. After some grumbling we did the best line check we could and went to our new hotel accommodations to shower and change (thank God, ’cause we were RANK).

We got back to the event in time for a bit of food, a couple slugs of the brown stuff, and a quick run down the set list. I’ll be honest, it took us a minute to settle in. 1) We haven’t opened a show in a while. Sometimes you take for granted the hard work openers put in (see above comment regarding openers the night before). 2) we had basically no sound check and were rocking someone else’s gear.

Anyhow, a few tunes in we got over all that crap and just threw down our thing. People danced their asses off. Also, I would just like to say, the sound techs at Lincoln Hall were amazing. Not only were they the friendliest we’ve possibly ever met, but they did their job’s very well.

After the show we headed back to the hotel. The dudes cut me loose from unloading detail and suggested Heather and I hit the town to celebrate her birthday (THANKS GUYS!!! This meant a lot to both of us). We went around the corner to a bar called The Back Room. You had to go down an alley to set a set of stairs to find this joint… LOVED IT! On stage was Ricky Rainbow, an INCREDIBLE 90s style RNB band. If you dig neo-soul and RNB, go see these guys. They play down there all the time. Stylistically this stuff isn’t completely my bag, but it didn’t matter. They had pretty much had us hook line and sinker. We had a ton of fun. They even played a Bill Withers tune (with their won twist of course) for the Misses!

The next morning, we loaded up and hit the long and dusty. We stopped at the greatest gas station on earth somewhere in Wisconsin (Sonny will remember where it was). They had all this awesome locally made stuff in there. Heather and I got some local cranberry wine, cheese curds, and caramel. After that, we all just read, napped, and enjoyed the view on the ride home (I LOVE the scenery between the Dells and MPLS). Thanks to Lumpy for driving!

Overall, AWESOME!!! We’re already working out the details of our next Chicago appearance. So, ’til next time, Chicago…

-Eric (Drums)
-All photos by Lumpy (tmpt)
-Stupid photo manipulation by Eric