A bit late for this post, but… on 4/6 thru 4/8 I took a trip with my buddy Dave to see Dada in Chicago and then the following night in Minneapolis. Not the sort of thing I would normally do, but on a whim back in January I decided to make it happen.
We were originally going to go with another friend Brian, but he couldn’t make the trip – too bad, because it was one heck of a show (both)!
They had something called “dadafest” in Chicago at Will’s Northwoods Inn – this is a gathering of all the folks from Dada’s board. They had a couple of great bands (so we hear) and a bunch of pizza, beer and alot of laughs. Dave and I were a bit delayed coming to Chicago, something about wind sheer and debris on the runway? Whatever it was we were about an hour later than expected and then we got a little turned around when we decided to walk to Will’s… so, we missed the opening bands! We did get to hear an acoustic act play a few tunes including DizKneeLand – which was cool.
Just about then, the band showed up! That was awesome, as some folks came from as far away as Florida! They had a brief meet-and-greet and a few pictures then had to go, their road manager was cracking the whip.
So, who did I meet? Well, after about 10 Guinness’ it gets a bit sketchy but I remember: samiam, gator mike, twangster, big shack, mike perez, marty, jen, arlo (and her daughter mel), oh and how can I forget – god! There were others, but I don’t remember their names, remember their faces, but not names. And, NO it didn’t have to do with the amount of alcohol :).
Met a bunch of cool people at the show – and saw a couple of great opening acts… First act was Big 10-4 out of Orlando. They had a great sound, liked them alot. Next up was Jonathan Cour Band out of St. Louis – these guys were GREAT. I really liked their sound, enough to buy their CD. They did a really good job at reproducing their sound on stage, which alot of bands have trouble doing. That was cool. Got to talk to the guitar players a bit, great group of guys. Hope to see them up here in the NorthEast some time soon.
It was pretty cool to be sober at the end of the night to watch all the “happy” people bouncing around the place. The drunk chick in front of me all night – who every time she raised her hands to give a holla she rocked back on her high heels and I had to catch her (about 10 times, no exaggeration) wound up hanging with the bass player for Big 10-4… Along with her girlfriend who never saw Dada before that night. It was pretty interesting how it all started playing out at 2:30 in the morning ;).
Took a bunch of pictures, and put them in a slideshow – but you can view them individually here.