Carbon Copy

M. Ward in Chicago

Ok, let's set a little mood music.

M. Ward: Undertaker

The evening began, really, with a lie. Kind of. Because the doors opened at 6:00 and it's kind of a first-come, first-served seating venue, Tom and I wanted to get to Chicago at a goodly hour. This meant ditching out on my Monday afternoon class a little early. It's a three hour class, and I left at the break. I told my professor before class that I had to leave at the break and she asked me why. "An appointment," I said, with a note of insecurity. I think she could tell it was a lie (kind of). I felt guilty.

But soon after that I felt the excitement of being on the road. The trip to Chicago is long. It must be at least 5 miles longer than the 127 miles it says on the sign leaving Lafayette. And those last five miles make all the difference. Luckily, good conversation, nice scenery, and excellent music make the miles (up until the last 5) inconsequential.

I love heading into the city. It's my favorite part of the trip. Since we got there in the dark, the lights greeted us first. Chicago's all excited about the Super Bowl, as is Indiana.... oooh, I smell rivalry! Some subtle, like the guard at ParkWest who almost didn't give Tom his 21+ bracelet because he's a hoosier, to the not so subtle.

City lights. I love them. Even if they spell out sports references that I don't understand. And even when they're blurry because I'm trying to take pictures of them as I drive. Tom tried to get a good one of Navy Pier all lit up, but traffic (both moving and in a standstill) got in the way.

We found the venue easily, thanks to Tom's good sense of direction. Amazingly, I found a parking spot really close to the venue, and then we went in search of some food. The venue, ParkWest, was in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. I want to live there. Somehow, when I'm all graduated, I need to get some kind of great job where I can afford to live in an awesome townhome with an iron fire escape. And maybe a brick fence with a pair of bronze reliefs in them. Like these:

Then on Monday nights, I can stick a book in my back pocket and head over to the local new Mexican restaurant, like the one Tom and I ate at called Zia's. It was full of successful young people wearing dark clothing and dark-rimmed glasses. The food was good, although I'm not really sure what was "new" about it.

I like this little patio underneath the restaurant.

After dinner, we walked over to ParkWest for the show. The venue was chill. It had black leather booths, silver balconies, and a disco ball. It also had about five bars, so no matter where you sat, a drink was close at hand. Tom and I pulled up some barstools on the balcony where we had a great view. You can't tell, really, from the pictures. My view was much better than the pictures let on. Here are a couple pictures of ParkWest.

We were getting excited for M. Ward. Unfortunately, we had to sit through Freakwater first. I had never heard of Freakwater, and I didn't know what to expect. I mean, if they were opening for M. Ward, they had to be pretty good. But then the name Freakwater... I don't know what I expected really, but it wasn't what I found. Tom described it as a Patsy Cline duet. It wasn't horrible, but man, was it annoying to me. I just wanted some M. Ward. The best part, though, was one of the player's suit. This picture doesn't do it justice. It was either sparkly or velvet, and it shimmered.

Ok, here's what we've all been waiting for. M. Ward!

We weren't really supposed to take pictures or video, but I did anyway. I wanted to get some video, but it was harder to do. First of all, you couldn't see anything because of the lighting. Second of all, because we weren't supposed to take videos, I didn't want to keep my camera out in the open for long periods of time. I know, I know.. probably nothing would've happened, but still... (I keep trying to upload the video, but I think the file is too big. Like I said, it's not very good anyway.)

After the concert, we exited into the cold Chicago night only to find it had snowed. At first it was no big deal. In fact, it was rather lovely. But then (after finding a $50 ticket on my windshield), the drive home turned treacherous. The roads were covered in snow and slush. My winter driving skills clicked in, and we drove slowly and cautiously while semis and SUVs rushed past. Later, we saw a couple of these off the side of the road (prob ably not the same ones) and I felt vindicated.