after taking a day off of work, which is really hard to talk my boss into letting me do, we headed down to the Charter One Pavillion on Chicago's beautiful lakefront to see the show last night. its tucked in behind the Museum Campus which connects most of the city's major museums and Soldier Field with parking lots and access to the lakefront.
the place is really nice but small. its a lot like second stage at Ozzfest but it has rows of plastic folding chairs cable-tied together and upper stadium seating like you would find in a high school football field. I would say it only holds about 10,000 people. it used to be Meigs Field, for those of you who still play Flight Simulator. I'm still kicking myself for not going to see Heaven & Hell there last year, missing one of Dio's last performances.
we didn't go to the first show on monday because it sold out really quickly, but the people who did had to deal with the road buckling on Lake Shore Drive right near the entrance to the campus. some people never made it into the show. the review in the paper said they played three solid hours and performed the Moving Pictures album in the middle of the set.
well, the road started to buckle again last night so we took the scenic route through the near west side and got a little lost but we eventually made it around 7pm, about a half hour before it was SUPPOSED to start.
but on the way, the rain started. when they say isolated thundershowers, they mean it can be raining buckets in one place and dry as a bone five miles away. and it was raining buckets on us. for hours.
we sat in the car waiting for it to blow over and it kind of did but not really. we decided to make a run for it and ended up getting soaked to the skin within minutes. the people sitting in front of us had umbrellas (how the hell did you get those in and please fold them up when the band starts I don't care if it IS still raining). one group of jackasses held up a big blue tarp and walked around like that knocking into people while they were snaking through the seats. about 8 pm, they guy behind us got an email alert from LiveNation about the road problems and to allow extra time to travel to the show. thanks a lot.
wandering beer vendors (very cool) sold giant cans of Bud Light (ew) for $11
while we waited for over an hour for the announcement that, for our safety as well a the band's, tonight's concert was going to have to be rescheduled. shit.
we were slowly driven like sheep out of the venue (with the obligatory baa's) while we laughed our asses off at two young kids (13, 14?) walking out in front of us, bitching and moaning about what just happened. one of them actally said, "I'm serious man! I'm calling LiveNation tomorrow and give them a piece of my mind! it says RAIN or SHINE! God!"
we went home and changed, went to the bar and loaded the jukebox with Rush songs.
