chicago

On Sunday I met Vega in Chicago to see Pearl Jam. It was a short trip - left Sunday morning and back Monday afternoon - but we managed to do quite a bit in a brief time span.

I arrived a little later than I had hoped due to an hour long delay finding a gate when we landed and then track work on the subway that meant taking a bus part of the way from O'Hare to downtown. I had a couple hours to kill before Vega was scheduled to arrive, so I walked around in the chilly 50-something degree temps.

Once he arrived, our first order of business was pizza at Gino's East. Chicago-style pizza is my favorite. I don't understand why it isn't possible for the concept to work elsewhere. Have you ever met someone who doesn't like it? And bonus points to Gino's for having toasted ravioli, which I haven't had for a while, and was a good appetizer while we waited for the pizza. Several slices later, we still had a few hours to kill so we took the advice of a few people from beeradvocate and went to the Hopleaf for a couple of beers. We were able to try a couple from Three Floyds, which isn't distributed to DC. Alpha King Ale was particularly good.

As expected, the concert was amazing. We were in the lower level on Stone's side. They played 26 songs including many I had yet to hear in my previous eleven shows: Long Road, Love Reign O'er Me, Rats, plus three songs off the new album. A guy next to us, also a Ten Clubber, brought his dad. It was his 54th show (his dad's first) and he is going to more than ten on the current tour, including a second Chicago show tonight and several in Australia and New Zealand. That makes my two this tour seem a little light (hopefully Philadelphia in October).

After the show we were finally hungry for another meal. We wanted to find a pizza place that was open, but it was late and we couldn't find one. We ended up getting a couple burgers at the Billy Goat and then headed back to our hotel for the night.

This morning we went to Ann Sather's for cinnamon rolls and then had to head to the airport. I wanted to work in another pizza meal, but I guess it will give me an excuse to go back sometime. The trip was great. It was nice to see Vega and the band.