Chicago Review

[JacketGal]

Taste of Randolph~June 18, 2005
Chicago, IL

Laylow
Mahgeetah
Lowdown
How Do You Know
Golden
I Will Sing You Songs
Tonight I'll be Staying Here with You (Just says "Dylan" on the set list ;D)
Off the Record
The Way that He Sings
Don Dante
Run Thru
_________________
*Into the Woods* new song (babies in blenders line?, set list said At Dawn)
What a Wonderful Man
One Big Holiday

Oh man!! Third time seeing the Jacket and the best show yet!  What a great day & a great show. The weather was perfect, sunshine, 80 degrees and lots of smiling faces. Jim James described it as a 'cute day' where he saw cute puppies and a cute baby kitten..."you just want to crush them!" He also said that yesterday will go down in infamy as "the best sound check by any band ever!!" All in all the band, especially James, seemed to be having a really great time and it showed by the way they played!

The new songs sound great!!!! I especially loved Don Dante & Wonderful Man! The Dylan cover is absolutely sweet, I really like the way the band is rockin it out and James nailed it vocally (better than the recordings I've heard from recent shows, of course that could be due to being there?). "I Will Sing".. was EPIC!! I even saw the security dude getting into some of the songs, when he wasn't sleeping! And Run Thru just about blew everyone's mind! The crowd was really responsive and riveted. Sometimes at street fests people see a band by accident, well by the looks of this crowd...they were there to see the Jacket and were not talking or otherwise occupied -as is the case with so many gigs in Chicago. The band was the main event and everyone knew it! They closed with "One Big Holiday" which to me sounded like the best version ever, we'll see, if it was taped :) Jim ended the song by growling like a bear and holding his arms extended out to the sides.

Some other funny comments were that the air felt good - in the evening it got a bit chilly so Jim commented that it was almost fall....and everyone laughed! I think it seemed odd to him that is was so chilly in June. Also, I had an opportunity to ask Jim about 'Z' and he did confirm that it was the official name, not a working title! So I asked where did it come from and he said, you know I don't know? I said I liked it..of course he said well so do I, with a big smile! :) :)  Cheers and sorry for the long post, I'm still so high!!!!

[painted8]

GREAT first show for me. I've got the studio CDs and some live shows, and the performance yesterday was everything I could have hoped for! This band is so amazing. Nice review, Angela!  ;)

Good times...good times.

the 8

[SMc55]

Hey, glad you two had such a great time. Thanks for taking the time to write the review, Jacketgirl. Looks more and more like the album's going to be a goodie  ;D

[ChiefOKONO]

thanks for the review jacketgirl :):), sounded absolutely KILLER!!!!
i am so Jonesin right now!!!!!!!!!!!

[PRose]

This was also my first time seeing them, and I was blown away.  Figured they would be good, but it was even better than I imagined.  I really got the feeling they were in a "take no prisoners" state of mind, as their performance was riveting.  A friend of mine happened to catch their sound check(the one JJ referred to as the best of any band  ever) and he said they played a version of Seals and Croft's Summer Breeze, but that their version replaced the title with Smokin Weed.  This might explain some of the peacenik stage banter?   8)

[darkglow]

you know.. it's weird. i listened to "summer breeze" about 5 times the other day, and now i hear they played it for a sound check.. just more reason to believe this band is perfect for my musical taste buds.

[EC]

Jim ended the song by growling like a bear and holding his arms extended out to the sides.

YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!  Oh wow.  It sounds like it was a really good show for everyone.  Oh that's so awesome.  I'm so glad to hear that.

Huzzah!

[vielfras]

Great Review JacketGirl!  I agree with everything you said. This was my second time seeing the Band live, I saw them in Louisville last year.  This was the most amazing concert I have ever seen.  The band kept me smiling with their antics and variations in the songs.  One Big Holiday and I will sing you songs were amazing.  I loved the bear growl too.  It was funny how Jim was stopping and just staring into the audience.  I also liked his comment about strats. I couldn't believe how many people were there after MMJ started playing, the crowd must have tripled after they started rocking out.  I saw Vince Vaughn there, he looked like he was having a good time, despite everyone running up to talk to him.

I loved Don Dante also, however I have a suggestion: I would love to hear about 30 seconds of the sax, it was really short and drowned out by everything.  It sounded great in the Bonaroo recording.

I got some pictures and a few video clips from Off the Record and Don Dante if anyone is interested.  Unfortunately I didn't have the mic sensitivity set to low and I was standing in the front row, so there is a lot of audio distortion.

Wow, I could go on forever, this was definitely worth the 3 hour drive and expensive hotel room.

Hopefully someone got a good recording of this, some of the songs were near perfection.

[Tracey]

Well my night did not go as well as everyone else's... I got there a little bit late because I was waiting for a friend (don't you just hate that?) whom I eventually ended up leaving.  The festival was WAY more crowded than last year and it took me probably 20 minutes just to get to the end with the stage - that was especially painful because I could hear that they were already on.  Then I made the mistake of getting in the beer line... by the time I got my 2 $5 Miller Lites, they were playing One Big Holiday.  I wanted to cry.

 :'(

[corey]

I got fucked out of seeing Radiohead on The Bends tour with R.E.M. because I had to wait on some friends who were drinking (this was before my drinking days which REALLY pissed me off). By the time that we got in our cars to go to the show, the traffic was so fucked that we completely missed Radiohead and caught R.E.M. about 6-7 songs into the show.
Never wait on friends when it comes to the rock.

[EC]

Never wait on friends when it comes to the rock.

You can't.  You just can't.  Friends go out the window.

Oh man, what did ShortSauce say?  "Are y'all going to get your faces rocked off tonight Miss Megan?"  The. Best. Kid. Ever.

[corey]

He is, isn't he?

[EC]

He is, isn't he?

;D

My chest hurts when I think about him I love him so much.  

[corey]

I think the best Father's Day present that I got was him singing "for he's a jolly good fellow" to me.

[Danko71]

I was there and it was in fact a great show. Second time seeing the newish lineup, probably better than the first. It truly was an awesome evening: perfect weather, the best sound I've ever heard at an outdoor show and I was within walking distance from my home.
The good stuff: the band was tight as usual. New tunes were pretty cool. Bo adds a lot on keys, and his and Carl's backup vocals were a nice touch. Jim really took the bull by the horns on lead guitar pretty much the whole set, more than I've seen him do before; he always busts out a few solos but he was burning out the gate. The Dylan cover was kick-ass; anybody should pick up the Rolling Thunder '75 bootleg series if you haven't already. Also, security was non-existent so a couple one-hit pokes were easily achieved.
The bad stuff: nothing really, except for a couple picky things. One, I didn't like the drum machine stuff. I don't mind it in general, but the beats were very elementary and didn't really add anything; Patrick could just as easily play them for real and it would've sounded better. The tunes themselves, especially the opening song, were very good, but I could've done without the piped-in drum machine. The other downside was that they could've played another couple of songs. Usually they play as long (or longer) than they're allowed, but they were advertised to go from 8-9:30, and they stopped a good 10-15 minutes short of 9:30. One or two more tunes would've been great. Which leads me to the final comment...
THE REALLY BAD STUFF: The beer line/ticket system was the worst I've EVER encountered. I won't go into much detail but it was completely unacceptable that they couldn't make it more manageable to get beer. I didn't even see the end of one of the lines. I missed a good 3-4 songs waiting in line; luckily the sound was great and I could still see okay. Somehow I carried three beers back to my sweet spot right in front of the stage, but by that point they were all but done. That's where those extra couple songs would've been nice. All in all a great night.

[Tracey]

The ticket / beer system was genuinely awful.  You couldn't figure out where the line was on one side so it was a free-for-all, and on the other side the line was half a mile long.  I went to Taste of Randolph last year to see Galactic and it wasn't nearly that bad - it was as if this was the only thing going on in Chicago on Saturday.

[EC]

I think the best Father's Day present that I got was him singing "for he's a jolly good fellow" to me.

I don't even know how to think about that.  I will carry that image around all day and pull it out as needed.  Did you cry?  I would have cried.  I'm kind of teary now.  

I can't wait until we figure out how to get Jen's pictures from her camera to the computer so you guys can see the tremendous ones we have of him.  In one picture he's holding my hand.  He's like this awesome little guy that can make you completely forget anything that's going on, and all you want to do is make up Beetlejuice video game levels with him.  What a special being.  :)

This Chicago night sounds like it was really awesome.  That's highly terrific.  :)

p.s.  the drum machines are awesome, although I recognize everyone's right to their own opinion.  :)

[JacketGal]

Awe, sounds like this little guy is special! :):)

As for the beer lines, I didn't experience it although my friends were getting back and forth with them. I decided not to drink because I didn't want to have to hit the port-o-pots during the set, which was brilliant but yes, too short. I said the same thing to my friends about how they could have played another half an hour...I don't think it was their decsion though, the fests schedule these things so that they don't have people in the streets too late.

I agree that you can't wait on friends when you have a rock show to see, sorry that didn't work out for you Tracey! You posted it too!! I thought maybe this girl I was next to was you, but I never knew her name...

Also, I submitted some photos to Riny & he said he'd post them when he got back from the road!  Vielfras- I liked those comments (& riffs he played) about he strat sounds too & I'm dying to see other pics and that video too!

[painted8]

Screw the beer lines. There's no way in hell I'd leave the Jacket performance for a beer.

Tracey, you need new friends! Have you met Jacketgirl? She gets ya to the show on time!

[Tracey]

No kidding - I probably would have had a better time and been a LOT earlier if I'd just gone by myself.  And about the beer - I realize now that this was a horrible error on my part, but it only took a minute or two to buy the drink tickets.  I was deceived.  I had no idea it was going to take 45 minutes to USE my drink tickets.  At least I could still hear the music...