I can't remember the last time I'd been up for nearly 24 hours, but I did it yesterday/today. The purpose of the trip was to see The Swell Season at the Chicago Theatre (more on that in a bit), but there was also a last-minute decision to take the train from Chesterton, IN to Chicago, a stroll through Millenium Park, the Art Institute, the Sears Tower, miles and miles of walking, a return train trip, and an exhausting drive home.
But, man, was it worth it.
However, our seats for the duo from Once - pre-sale tickets, mind you - were at the very back of the Chicago Theatre. After our sherpa brought us up to the base camp, we were ushered to bar stools for our concert pleasure. Bar stools. This didn't look good. To make matters worse, I forgot the binoculars. But we did enjoy commiserating with our fellow cheap seat mates - very nice people.
Three songs into The Swell Season's show, a guy came up behind us and asked if we'd like to sit in the FRONT ROW! I kid you not. We chugged down a gazillion stairs to move from worst to first. These were front row center seats. For the rest of the show, we stared in disbelief at our good fortune.
The show itself was simply amazing. You can't help but love these people - they're clearly enjoying this suprising success, and they played their hearts out. "Falling Slowly" became a sing-along, Glen honored my request for Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic", and the young lad below, Ethan, was ushered up to the stage to sing "Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy" from the film. Apparently someone sent the YouTube link to Glen and Mar, they started a correspondence with the kid, and he made it to last night's gig.
Glen sang "Say It to Me Now" in full busker mode, sitting on the stage, belting it out, and spitting on my fiancee. As they played a pair of Frames songs in the encore, my cell phone alarm vibrated, reminding me that we had ten minutes to get to our train home. If we didn't make it, we'd have to wait until 1:45 AM our time for the next departure.
We made it. As the train pulled away. Brilliant.
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