If you ever have the chance to go to Chicago or Boston, I highly recommend it. I do not, however, recommend the valet parking.We returned last night from our work-and-play adventures in Chicago and Boston, with lots of pictures and an equally great number of stories. In an effort to keep things short, I'll tell you a bit about our trip, and mention a few of the highs and lows.
On Saturday Felicia and I trekked a few hours south (about 5 to be exact) down to Chicago to catch Arcade Fire at the Chicago Theater, with special guests Electrelane. We stayed downtown in the financial district at the Club Quarters-Central Loop location, and bit on the $36 per night valet parking in favor of having to park it ourselves somewhere else for $20/night. Hey, when in Rome, right? Unfortunately, that ended up being one of our biggest mistakes.
When we got the car back in the morning, they had changed one of the rear tires because it flat - meaning we would have to drive home on a spare. A five hour drive going only 55 mph wasn't exaclty what I wanted to do, especially since I needed to be on a flight out to Boston that afternoon, but everything worked out well.
We killed some time walking around the financial district admiring the architecture before we ended up at The Italian Village for dinner. Felicia had the Eggplant Parmigiana, and I had the Lasagne. They were excellent. The only thing I didn't enjoy was being crammed into some back room the size of our bedroom with nine other couples and very little room. It was slightly uncomfortable and was the only drawback to the dining experience.
When we arrived at The Chicago Theater for the show, we noticed a very eclectic crowd, similar to the one we saw in Milwaukee for the Sigur Ros concert. One guy brashly asked an older couple waiting in line if they were going to see the show and the older couple replied, "Yeah why, are we too old for Arcade Fire?" Good stuff.
Once inside, we picked up our usual concert T, found our seats, and settled in with a $6 glass of Goose Island Ale. Our seats landed us dead center in the middle of the stage, up on the balcony, two rows back from the railing. They were really great seats, albeit fairly expensive through Stubhub.com.
At one point a cute girl in a dress came out and started playing with one of the guitars and Felicia remarked how it was cool that they had a female roadie, especially one wearing a dress. I told her I thought it was actually a member of Electrelane, and I ended up being right, as it guitarist Mia Clarke.
Electrelane guitarist Mia ClarkeExpecting more Anima than anything based on their Myspace profile, I was completely blown away by Electrelane's energetic performance. More like the Minutemen and the Cranberries, Electrelane's slow melodies punctuated by ear-splitting, auction-fast guitar playing and tons of noise and feedback, to the point of Minutemen-esque ad nausea, but enjoyably so. Felicia writes on her Myspace page that "The lead singer had a Betty Paige haircut and a voice like Dolores O'rioridan," and I couldn't agree more. Guitarist Mia Clarke is cute to the point of painful, and an absolute noise-rock goddess with the way she handles an axe.
According to their website, Electrelane was formed in 1998 by Emma Gaze and Verity Susman. Bass player Rachel Dalley joined the band in 1999, followed by guitarist Mia Clarke in 2000. Rachel left the band in 2004 and was replaced by bassist Ros Murray. Electrelane released their first 7" in 2000 on Indenial - an offshoot of Skint Records. It was followed by another one-off 7" release, "Le Song," on Fierce Panda. The band then started their own label, "Lets Rock," with financial backing from the distribution company, 3MV. Under this guise, Electrelane released two singles, "Gabriel" and "Blue Straggler," their debut album, Rock It to the Moon (2001) and I Want to be the President EP (2002).
ElectrelaneYou can stream a few songs at their website, Electrelane.com.
Electrelane - "Between the Wolf and The Dog"
Stop by tomorrow for the second half of our review on Arcade Fire's set and my trip to Boston.