G. Love in the Snowy Windy City

So Saturday night I had my first G. Love & Special Sauce experience in Chicago bringing Megan & Krista into my madness.

First details on the show. G. Love wasn't feeling well. Earlier in the week he had canceled a show in Iowa - and when he got on stage you could still see/hear that he wasn't feeling well, but in true G. Love style - he performed well. I was lurking on the G. Love forum and there was some discussion as to whether or not he should have canceled, but let me tell you even G. Love sick is still a good show. Plus traveling all the way to Chicago, it would have been very disappointing to have him cancel.

Some highlights of the show: he started with my favorite song - I-76 which was closely followed by Holla. He played Back of the Bus. In his shorter than usual acoustic set - he played Gimme Some Lovin' and Beautiful. He also did a pretty cool beat-box with Rodeo Clowns. I had never seen that before and both Olive and I thought it was great.

This show I felt more like an anonymous fan again, which I appreciate. I was certain that G. Love would have long forgotten what his biggest fan contest winner looked like. So I got to be in the front row again and love ever minute. However, I was unable to take pictures because security cracked down - they wouldn't even let you bring your camera into the show, which is very disappointing. (More on that later.) To me it should be the artist's call - and it seems like G.L.A.S.S. has always been very receptive to that. Like when security was yelling at someone behind me: G. Love had this "what the hell" look on his face.

Overall the sound quality wasn't the best because G. Love was sick, but despite everything I had a great time. Sick or not the show still ended with great energy. The house was packed, he sold out the theater. And Chicago is also now non-smoking so when we left didn't smell like ashtrays.

So that was the concert recap - here is the weekend recap.

Olive and I drove out Saturday morning. We stopped at my sisters house to hang out with the kids and to pick up Krista for the nonsense. (And because I wanted to see my favorite niece and nephew.) Krista was shocked to hear that we were planning on arriving at the concert venue before doors even opened. So she opted out and decided to meet us there instead. I think here quote was "if tickets to a general admission show say 8:30 pm, I will show up at 8:25 pm at the earliest."

So we left her with her children and husband and headed downtown to check into the Hyatt Regency on Wacker (thank you priceline.com.) I changed into my new H&M G.L.A.S.S concert attire. It was fun and not a normal Jennie outfit. Then we headed to the Rivera Theatre. We arrived at 6 pm and doors opened at 7 pm and we were lucky because we were the first ones in line! That meant we would have front row spots guaranteed! Which is what we were looking for. Despite the large amount of snow on the ground - it wasn't too chilly standing in line.

As we stood in line we chatted up this nice off-duty police officer named Brian who was working security. Brian has a house in Hastings, Michigan and likes Michiganders (which was helpful later on.) Soon there were other G. Love fans arriving. I again got to feel like a mini celebrity - when people recognized me from Biggest Fan Video. Here's a picture with me and Shark from the G. Love forums. She was super nice and let me snap a photo. She came to the show from Minneapolis, MN. Angie from the forum was also there, but I didn't get to meet her - because we didn't linger after the show we were anxious to get back to see Brian (see below for reasoning.)

The thing I like most about the G. Love fans is they are (for the most part) really nice mellow people. I enjoy meeting new people at shows and believe it or not there are people who may just be bigger fans than me, yes they fly all over the country to meet up and see him. I on the other hand stick strictly to the midwest - unless I already happen to be going there like Berlin this summer.

Well the show started after the opening band Rue Mello (she tried hard, but I am not running to by their c.d. - her outfit was enough to scare me away. I am sure you are thinking - why don't you show us what she looked like, well that's because I didn't have my camera, it's not that I didn't bring my camera, it's that they didn't allow them in and I wasn't feeling gutsy enough (I know shocking) to try to sneak it in.

Which begs the question what happened to the camera - well our new friend Brian, was holding cameras for both Olive & I. Yes, we trusted a total stranger to hold onto our digital cameras during the concert. And thankfully he agreed to and returned them to us at the end of the night as promised. Apparently you cannot bring cameras in the Rivera Theater, however that would be helpful to know in advance. Because they were like go put your camera in your car - Olive and I looked at each other and we were like - ummmm what car? We took public transportation. So Brian who felt bad for us, because we didn't have a car to stash them in and we were from Michigan, put them in his car and returned them to us as promised at the end of the show! Points for the big mitten state! So thanks Brian (pictured with me above) the friendly Chicago cop with a house in Hastings!

Right now I am still in the G. Love after glow, which Olive determines lasts about a week, for me it may be a month. So this will probably be my last show until Berlin this summer!