surprise
This site might move soon…or maybe not..we’ll see..
KMFDM
Last night Harper and I went to see KMFDM..my favorite band.. We got in the very center front, and survived the entire night squished against the guardrail. The opening bands were nothing special, but the KMFDM show was the best I’ve seen since coming to Chicago. Being in the front rocks! Lucia made eye contact and pointed at me during the second song….sigh..Harper and I knew all the words but whenever she made eye contact we forgot everything.. Sascha, was, as usual, his badass self. We got to touch Pig, another main band member! Pig also started out wearing a long white coat thing, which he whipped at our hands after taking it off.. Tim Skold wasn’t there for some reason, but they covered his absence nicely. An older, chill dude played bass the entire time, and he looked familiar. At the end of the show, they introduced him as William Rieflin, a guy who’s worked with just about every good industrial band around. Chris Connely (another industrial guy who’s been around) came out as a special guest to sing on one song, a nifty unexpected bonus. I was absolutely drenched in sweat by the end of the night..and my clothes were still wet this morning.
Snoop and success
Last weekend Harper and I went to see Snoop Dogg. It was a great concert..Snoop rocks!
Yesterday I got up around six, dressed, and headed straight downtown. The trains took longer than I had hoped, and I got there at a quarter past seven. The good spot was open! I set up my stuff, put out my tip buckets, and proceeded to try and conserve energy until the crowds thickened while still looking like I was “performing.” Strangely, people started tipping me before too long…that spot must be magical.. This guy took a number of pictures of me over the course of half an hour or so, and then told me he works at a photo developing place nearby, and he’d develop these for me for free. I started gathering crowds by 10:00, a good hour or two earlier than happens anywhere else.. Partway through the afternoon the guy came back with the developed pictures, all but one from my balancing routine. The dude’s a good photographer. At 3:30, absolutely exhausted, I decided to call it a day.
This was a big weekend for interaction with other street folk downtown.. I sometimes feel like I’m starting to become part of a community there. One guy who wanders around with a big sign and megaphone talking about crazy political conspiracies or whatever has started helping my show..twice now he’s walked by while I’m building up my rubber-chicken-balance and said through his megaphone “That’s impossible!!” with big grinning theatrics. In a less friendly interaction, on Friday the same blind guy who interfered in my show a few weeks ago reappeared.. This time he literally walked through our show twice before setting up right next to us, just like before. Harper and I moved. More homeless people begin to chat with me now, or the crazier ones talk at me…one even gave me 25 cents in spite of my protests..another insisted on helping when the diabolo string broke, then asked for a few dollars afterwards.. Twice on Saturday groups of kids with drumsticks and buckets set up in the same square with me. They are quite good, their drumming completely commands everyone’s attention, and I cannot form an audience. None of the kids have street performing licenses, so they always get busted by the cops after a little while. Fortunately, the police are pretty lenient with them…the cop just shows up says Hey! and motions for the kids to follow him. The kids walk off in the opposite direction. I chatted with one of the kids for a while..he wanted to learn diabolo.. I kind of wish I knew some way for them to perform without breaking the law..
Fresh Competition
Saturday morning I woke up early, got ready, and made it downtown by 7:30. A musician was setting up in the good spot. In a somewhat pleasant surprise, it was not one of the rude musicians but someone new.. Later I found out he was one of the musicians employed by the city to street perform. Harper and Brian both joined me performing. Partway through the afternoon a woman started watching our shows, and started hanging out with us. She was from South Africa, stopping in Chicago for one day on her way to Cleveland. After we finished performing, we all went to the Prodigal Son (coolest bar in Chicago..Harper and I are “regulars” in that we’ve befriended the owners..). We’re tentatively scheduled to juggle there on July 3rd as part of some big shows going on that night. In addition, while street performing I got the business card of someone who books corporate shows..he liked my diabolo routine, had never seen one before.
Sunday I didn’t even try to get out early, but again there was no sign of the jackass musicians normally out there. The good spot was occupied by a man painted entirely silver…I had heard about him, seen him around, but never seen his act. It was very good..you could almost believe that he’s animatronic.
Blues and Metal
The second round between the downtown musicians and me will have to wait another week. This past weekend was the Chicago Blues Festival, and I performed out there over the weekend. There were hordes of people, but generally not quite as rich as those hanging around Michigan Ave. Still, juggling was fun, and we met more possible contacts..including one guy whose father has a band and is interested in having us open for them. heh.
Saturday night I tagged along with Harper to a party. We ended up spending the first half hour or so hanging out with a small group of hardcore metal fans.. We mentioned the band Dimmu Borgir, and a nearby guy overheard us and came over to join the conversation. After talking with him for a bit, it came up that he was in the fight over the drumstick at Cannibal Corpse! (Check out the “lots of happenings” entry..) Apparently, he won, or somehow ended up with the prize after security pulled them all apart. Aside from that, hanging out with the metal guys got very old, very quickly.
