Cold Gin Time Again

Aside from football, it was a pretty damn good weekend.

Friday night, I met Chandler and Hanig at WestEnd for a couple drinks, some dinner, and some Arkansas high school football. After getting our fill, we walked a couple blocks west on Madison to the United Center. We wanted the best, and we got the best: the hottest band in the land, KISS!

I've never seen KISS before, and I was terrified of them when I was a child, but I'm glad I overcame my fear. They put on a predictably awesome show, complete with pyrotechnics, loud noises, revolving drum kits, flying band members, and face paint. In all seriousness, the show was everything I expected and more.

After the show, as far as Jessie knows, I went to Rocks for one (and only one) drink, and then came home, fell asleep on the couch for 2 hours and 48 minutes, and then woke up bawling, covered in spaghetti while watching Captain Ron on Telemundo.

On Saturday, Jessie mentioned nothing of the incident, but tacitly threatened me by balancing two small cans of Diet Dr. Pepper on her uterus. The look on my face is one of restrained terror. I read you loud and clear, Jester.
Apparently, over the course of my life, I never learned that putting saran wrap over a bowl of soup being heated to a rolling boil in a microwave can create steam capable of doing harm to human skin. Because I never learned this, I burned the shit out of my thumb Saturday evening. Not literally, of course, as there has never been fecal matter in my thumb.

To reward myself for learning a valuable lesson, I, along with Bohmann, Goni, Chambre, and Mancallum, went to Reggie's Music Joint to see Township. As I may have mentioned, I have been waiting for several years for Township to come to Chicago, and I'm glad they finally did. Just like KISS the night before, Township put on a hell of a show. Not wanting to recreate the Station club tragedy, Township steered clear of the pyrotechnics, instead choosing a safer and equally as effective route of kicking ass without risking the lives of everyone in the club.

They play good, old-fashioned rock and roll, inspired by the bands of yore, including, but not limited to, Thin Lizzy, Led Zeppelin, early Aerosmith, early Springsteen, Santana, James Gang, and Grand Funk Railroad. Check out their music on iTunes, Amazon, or any of the following webpages:

http://www.myspace.com/thefamilytownship
http://www.facebook.com/thefamilytownship
http://www.twitter.com/familytownship
http://www.sonicbids.com/township
http://www.thefamilytownship.com/
http://www.reverbnation/township

They are from Boston and play a lot in and around New England and the East Coast. For those of you in that part of the country, you have no excuse. See them.

I had a chance to talk with the guys in the band after their set, and they were normal, down-to-earth guys. Unfortunately for them, they had to drive back to Boston that night because one of them had to work the next afternoon. For those of you keeping track, that's almost 1,000 miles, which is a solid 13-15 hours. That's brutal. Hopefully the next time they come to town (which they estimated would be in January or February), they won't have to drive a third of the way across the country right afterwards, thus allowing them to experience the age-old Midwestern practice of "binge drinking."

On a side note, I had never been to Reggie's Music Joint before. It was a pretty cool place to see music. Plus, on Sunday, they were having a pre-Bears-game pig roast that started at 7 a.m. At that point, I estimate Township would have been somewhere near Brocton, New York.

And on another side note, thank God Barney and Robin broke up.