grey ghost & birth at rodan 9-20-2004

so, back in chicago after the long drive, i spent the day with birth, we got some good chips & salsa, tacos & margaritas at el cid; then eventually got some coffee from filter and hung out in wicker park for a bit. it was a nice day - a bit warm in the sun, but perfect in the shade. later in the evening we went down to millenium park to see tortoise play a free show at the new pritzker pavillion. that place is pretty awesome - it's a very large auditorium designed by frank gehry. unfortunately though we thought tortoise would play at 6:30, giving us plenty of time to watch them and then go set up for our show later in the night, there were the most broing dj's i've ever seen perform live. some guys from switzerland. really lame house/jazz music. it was dissappointing.
but hanging out at the pavillion was allright, good for people watching. the best sight was the chicago police officer cruising around on one of those new segway personal human transporter. he looked totally like a robocop, gliding around, looking down at people imperiously. it was both slightly scary and completely hilarious...he had a bike helmet on (one of the fast looking ones) with rearview mirror attached. if only i had a picture... we got to see the first few songs of tortoise's set - it sounded really good as they came out with alot of energy - it must be nice to play big concert venues and have ltos of nice gear to pull off some of the stuff they pull off. hard work too.
the show at rodan was kind of strange. it was really crowded, but more with people that were just at the bar than people there for the show. birth played first and the crowd was really talking, and at one point when birth got quiet some people had to sing happy birthday. birth did sound really good by the end of there set - they played some high energy sonic stuff that worked well with blocking out the room sound. the crowd kind of thinned out for the grey ghost, which was for the best i think, but i didn't feel like we were clicking as well as the previous two nights. i appreciate rodan because the owners (adam & dave) are nice guys and supportive of the music, but the crowd can be truly annoying.
we all stayed till the bar closed and later, hanging outside in the perfect temperature night air which we've been enjoying every night of these last three shows.