via//chicago

np: "he-war" - cat power

no witty insights on this one tonight, just happens to be what's crankin' out of the ol' 100-disc changer at the moment. nothing much exciting going on this friday, so i'm just relaxing and recovering from the week. just got back from Tower where, thanks to the new batch of Matador Mid-Price Classics, i picked up Yo La Tengo's I Can Heat the Heart Beating as One and Mogwai's Come On Die Young for 20 bucks. yeah, i know i should already have both of those - but actually the YLT was a replacement for one that got jacked from me back in college. it's currently in the hands of an evil ex or one of my old roommate's not sure which. although if it was the ex who had it, it's most likely been recycled back into another collection via some used shop somewhere.

so Kid Rock, huh? it was a fucking excellent show. he pulled out every single rock and roll cliche in the book, but managed to pull most of them off. it was quite the interesting crowd, i'd estimate the average age to have been about 30-35. i've never seen so many West Coast Choppers t-shirts in one building at one time. apparently there's few concert options for the Harley riding crowd these days, so Rock's recent turn towards Southern Rock has gathered them up by their collective mullets. i knew we were in for an exciting night when that song about "play me... mountain music" came on and 85% of the crowd started drunkenly singing along. Kid Rock was in excellent form though, working the crowd for all they were worth - yelling "Chicago!" at every chance he had to grab the cheap pops (copyright Mick Foley). no surprises, he played all the hits and a couple new tunes - one was a downhome blues jam finding Rock listing what he would do if he were president (turn the churches into strip clubs and play Skynyrd on every station, for those that wondered). minus points from me for the "fuck Clay Aiken and a Radiohead" line though. don't compare the two, please, but it did get huge cheers from the crowd. including the drunken "woo-hoo" guy behind me that added his commentary, "yeah... fuck Radiohead! Woooooooo!". two things really grabbed my attention during the course of the show - Rock's instrumental prowess and Steffanie Eulenberg's vocal skills. Steff is the moster drummer behind the kit, who was bashing away like a motherfuck the entire night. but the big shock was when it came time for Rock to slow things down for the baby mammas and sing his mega-hit, "Picture". since Sheryl Crow was nowhere near the Allstate Arena, the female vocals were turned over to Eulenberg - and she sang the fuck out of that song. much, much better than the Crow version methinks. during an extended jam, Mr. Ritchie did the rock star trick of taking a turn at every instrument on the stage for a solo. but this wasn't your typical "watch me fumble a few chords out of this thing" solo, he actually played each one very well - particularly the slide guitar and the keys. he followed this up by kicking it old school and hopping behind Uncle Kracker's turntables to rock the steel wheels. overall, it was a fun experience. pure unadulterated, visceral, aimed at the groin, redneck, loud as fuck, rock and roll fun. note to hipsters: the irony level was off the fucking heazie at this show.