O'Hare Mural

When I was heading from the plane to the parking garage, I passed this cool mural hanging on a wall in the O'Hare airport.

BBQ Spices

While I was in the Toronto area this week, I picked up a few bottles of spice mixes to try out.

Cutlery and More Shipment #4

I managed to find a few more interesting things that I thought I needed.

This baby will sharpen Asian (Santoku) and standard European knives with a different sharpener and honer for each style of knife - 4 stage sharpener.

I wanted to buy another gravity pepper mill like a did few months ago, but they are no longer carrying them on clearance.  I ended up buying this electronic stainless steel salt mill.  I intend to use it to grind the flavored, Hawaiian sea salts I got in Hawaii seven years ago.

The Damned, The Metro, Chicago - 2011-10-25

Last night, I went to The Metro in Chicago to see The Damned for the first time since I saw them there 10 years ago.  This time was their 35th anniversary tour where they played Damned Damned Damned and The Black Album in there entirety.  By the time the band hit the stage at 9:10pm, the place had a full house.

They tore into the first album after the Captain welcomed everyone to 1977.  The Captain managed to break a string on two different guitars early on.  Monty was a dancing fool most of the set as there was not much of a reason for keyboards.  I was a little disappointed in the vocals as they seemed too low in the mix and Dave Vanian seemed to use his more goth vocal style.  I have the same complaint about seeing the Sex Pistols reunion shows as Johnny Rotten uses his PIL Johnny Lydon vocal style.  Guys, this is punk rock.  I don't care if you can't actually sing.  Belt out the vocals like you did when you were 20!!

The band took a 10 minute break between albums, and changed up their costumes.  The Captain was proud to announce he was sporting his 1980 New Romatic look.  It was great to finally hear some tracks from this album as I am not sure I have every heard anything live other than "Wait for the Blackout" before.  Of course, I had only seen The Damned 2x before.  A lot more keyboards during this set.  Monty managed to play the intro to "History of the World" one song too early.  The rest of the band busted his balls for that.  Captain and Vanian traded laughs during songs.  The band truely looked like they were having fun and appreciated the crowd being into watching them.  I could have done without "Curtain Call" and the Captain and Monty trading keyboard sounds, but hell, this was a show for completist so I can say I saw them play the song live.

After a few minutes, the band came back on stage to play a 3 song encore.  "Love Song" and "Antipope" drew the most excitement from the crowd the whole evening which was saying something considering people were enjoying themselves all night.  I must say that I was probably the average age person in the audience.

All in all, the band played about 2 hours.  It was well worth getting home after midnight.  I am glad I witnessed this tour, and got to see them play songs they normally do not play.  It was worth the price of admission alone to see them play "Drinking About My Baby".  Many in the crowd appeared to enjoy it as much as me much to my surprise.  I ran into MXV before the Damned came on stage.  He then went behind the barrier to take pics.  You can check his story out at http://www.punkvinyl.com/.  I also ran into Daghouse/Riot Bill who low and behold was standing not too far from me the entire first album.  It took me until about the last song to realize it.  Good to see the young man again.  Below are a few pics and a video.  There are more pics on Flickr and more videos on youtube.

Damned Damned Damned Set
01 Neat Neat Neat
02 Fan Club
03 I Fall
04 Born to Kill
05 Stab Your Back
06 Feel the Pain
07 New Rose
08 Fish
09 See Her Tonite
10 1 of 2
11 So Messed Up
12 I Feel Alright

The Black Album Set
13 Wait for the Blackout
14 Lively Arts
15 Silly Kids Games
16 Drinking About My Baby
17 Twisted Nerve
18 Hit or Miss
19 Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
20 Sick of This and That
21 History of the World, Pt 1
22 13th Floor Vendetta
23 Therapy
24 Curtain Call

Encore Set
25 Eloise
26 Love Song
27 Antipope

Talk - Action = 0

A few weeks ago, I picked up this book at Reckless Records at the strong urging of Earthdog.  We almost fought over who could buy the copy we spotted behind glass on the wall.  Fortunately, they had a few others behind the counter so we could both get one.  I read the 300 page book today.  It is filled with a lot of pictures of gig flyers from the history of D.O.A.  In between, Joey Shithead writes some interesting stories about some of the gigs.  It was a quick, entertaining read that is a good complement to his previous book, "I, Shithead".  Near the end of the book, he mentioned the Skatopia Festival in Ohio.  Sorry Earthdog, he didn't mention anything about the conversations you had.  Near the same part in the book is a gig flyer with Chicago's Shot Baker on it.  I believe they did a small tour with D.O.A. a few years ago.  There is a pretty cool D.O.A. family tree and a complete discography listing at the end of the book for those completist like me that must have everything certain bands have released.  I had a blast seeing D.O.A. a few times at Riot Fest.  Keep rockin', Joe!  I look forward to your next music release.

BBQ for Breakfast?

Since I had warmed up the pork shoulder yesterday, I had to work on eating all of it.  For breakfast, I took a jalapeno, cheese quesadilla filled it with shredded Mexican cheese, pulled pork shoulder, horseradish sauce, and chipotle pepper flakes.

Sports Bar

Who needs to go to a sports bar on weekends?

I love this time of year when you can watch NCAA football, soccer, World Series, NHL/CHL hockey, NFL, NASCAR, etc. almost all at the same time.  God bless the invention of ESPN3 so you can watch games on computers/tablets too.

Last night, I had a couple of Dogtoberfest's with the pork shoulder sammich's I made from some frozen shoulders I pulled from the freezer to warm up.  I watched the Flyers embarrass themselves, the Chicago Fire blow a lead only to end up winning, the Blackhawks, the World Series, MSU v Wisconsin, ND v USC, Washington v Stanford, Chicago Wolves v Rockford, and probably a few others I am forgetting.

Oktoberfest

Considering my birthday takes place in October, it should come as no surprise that I like Oktoberfest style beers.  Here is a sample of some recent tastings.

Rocktoberfest - Rock Bottom Brewery, Chicago, IL

 The line up from this evening.

 Oktoberfest - Summit Brewing Co., St Paul, MN

 Oktoberfest - Dundee Brewing Co., Rochester, NY

 Dogtoberfest - Flying Dog Brewery, Frederick, MD

 Festbier - Victory Brewing Co., Downingtown, PA

 Oktoberfest - Leinenkugel's, Chippewa Falls, WI

Chicago During October

I had the privilege of spending a few nights in Chicago lately for work events.  Here are a few photos of some scenic sites and of my steak from David Burke's Prime, the Southside Filet.

Photos from my room at the Hyatt on Wacker.

Marilyn Monroe statue on Michigan Ave.

Photos from my room at the Sax Hotel (formerly the House of Blues Hotel)

The Southside Filet at David Burke's Prime.  This pic does not do it justice.



2011 Riot Fest Recap

$99 all event pass
5 nights of shows
7 different events
23 different bands (excluding Leftover Crap)
Tons of photos and videos
Daghouse members - Earthdog, MXV, Tom M, Bill, Foxton, akissfan, Mickey, Senor Citizen, Sam, etc. (we missed Shary, JohnW)

Hats off to Riot Mike for another great annual event. Thanks again to my Daghouse friends for coming out.  Special thanks to Dave Smalley for spending time with his friends.  Extra special thanks for Earthdog for coming to town again, and putting up with sharing a hotel room with me for 5 nights.

Chicago - my kinda town!!



Be sure to checkout my Flickr page for more photos of the 2011 Riot Fest  http://www.flickr.com/photos/lewdd/sets/72157627898957210/ and other pics http://www.flickr.com/photos/lewdd/.

Also, check out my newly introduced youtube page with videos from the 2011 Riot Fest and many more to come from other shows including previous years of Riot Fest - http://www.youtube.com/user/lewdd33?feature=mhsn

2011 Riot Fest - Day 5 - October 9, 2011

So, the end is near and now we face the final curtain....

Tonight would be the final night of the 2011 Riot Fest.  We started the day watching the Chicago Marathon on TV, and watching some cool TV shows on the what I think may have been the discovery channel - "Cuff Me If You Can" and "I Almost Got Away with It".  Earthdog went to have lunch with some local Chicago cousins of his while I watched the Steelers kick the shit out of the Tennessee Titans while resting in bed.

Off we went back on the train to the Bottom Lounge again.  We got there and had a small dinner - soft pretzels with hot mustard, chicken wings, and a caeser salad.

Up first was Dan Vapid and the Cheats.  I have seen Dan front the Methadones several times and have seen him front the reunited Sludgeworth a few times too.  He has always put on a good show.  I don't know many of the songs titles off the top of my head, but he was once again very entertaining.  I would check them out again.  Dan told a story about his first punk rock show and his first stage dive.  Ironically, it was at a 7 Seconds show, the band who he opened for this evening.

I first saw 7 Seconds at the Antenna Club in Memphis back in the day on the Out the Shizzy Tour.  I spent the show in front of the stage singing and yelling for songs while my friend stood at the back in awe of his first punk rock show.  I have seen them a few times at Riot Fest shows.  The last time was at the Beat Kitchen which was a great show.  Even WWE's CM Punk and his then girlfriend Lita were in attendence at that show.   The set list was very similar - "Here's Your Warning", "Not Just Boys Fun", "You Lose", "Definite Choice", "Young Til I Die", "Trust", "New Wind", "If the Kids Are United", "Regress No Way", "99 Red Balloons", "Walk Together, Rock Together", and a few newer tunes.  Kevin still rocks at the age of 50.  I would see these guys everytime they come to town.  Jeff Pezzati and Eric Spicer of Naked Raygun were in attendance with their significant others.  I am not sure they saw each other though.

Here I am showing off my photography skills.  Chicago is such a beautiful city.

After the show ended, we headed to the AAA for our first SECRET SHOW.  After spending about 10-20 minutes in line, we made it into the venue.  Marky Ramone's Blitzkrieg played most if not all of their standard 32 song Ramones set.  At first, I was sour on the vocals, but it grew on me as the set went on.  The rest of the band played the songs to a T.  We bumped into Bill in the audience as he was able to make it over after the Weezer show at the Congress.  Apparently, MXV made it there too although we did not see him.  You can check out his reviews and pics of Riot Fest at http://www.punkvinyl.com/.  After some Ramones songs, Michael Graves, former Misfits vocalist, played some solo acoustic songs.  That was then followed up by a few encores by the band of "Dig Up Her Bones", "When We Were Angels", " Have You Ever Seen the Rain", "Wonderful World", and "Blitzkrieg Bop".  At that time, we were uncertain if they would play more.  I told Earthdog that I wanted to leave on the high of "Blitzkrieg Bop" before it could be potentially ruined by anything else for the evening.  I had my reservations about coming to this show, but I am very glad I was talked into it as this is the closest I have ever come or will come to a Ramones show.

Good night, Riot Fest!

2011 Riot Fest - Day 4 - October 8, 2011

It seemed like we just went to bed, but it was time to head to the Congress Theater for some more Riot Fest.  We arrived just in time to make sure we could buy some Descendents t-shirts.  I bought two just like I did at the ALL show on Thursday.  Unfortunately, they did not have any Congress pizza when we arrived.  We did partake eating a few slices throughout the day though.  Nothing beats that $5 slice.  I settled for a cheeseburger to get started for the day.  I must note that I did not partake in any adult beverages during this event.  Of course, we had to be there right when the doors opened as Earthdog can't miss a note during Riot Fest :).

Up first, we had the Cheap Girls.  They may have been more entertaining in a small venue.  The echo of the big theater with a very, very small crowd killed their sound.  Up next were Carbondale, IL's The Copyrights.  I have seen them several times at Riot Fest and once or twice at Insubordination Fest in Baltimore.  I really like the show these guys put on.  I think they get ripped off by playing early.  The played some of my favorites - "Let's Get the Fuck Out of Here", "Shit's Fucked", "57 North", "Thinking with the Lights On".  They were followed by Larry and His Flask.  Now this is quite an interesting band.  They would make a great concert tour with Reverend Peyton.  The band had an acoustic guitar, a banjo, a fucking crazy stand up bass player who was all over the stage and damn near in the crowd, an electric guitar, a fiddle, stand up drums, and then some band members switched to horns and harmonicas throughout the set and sometimes in the same song.  They sure had the crowd going crazy while my lazy, tired, hungover ass sat on a seat at the back of the venue.  Chicago's own Shot Baker hit the stage next.  They were a little pissed that they had to follow Larry again like they did at Riot Fest East in Philly a few weekends earlier.  These guys just get better every time I see them.  I can't wait for the new recordings that they are putting down in the next few months.  They played my favorites (some of which they have not played the last few times I have seen them) - "World She Hides", "Bred to Be Perfectionists", "So Alone", and my ultimate favorite "Sorry, Illinois".  Thanks for another great show guys!!  I headed back to a seat to rest for the next two bands - The Flatliners from Toronto and The Menzingers from Philly.  Let's be clear it was not the bands fault.  I had a few too much hops and barleys the first 3 nights of Riot Fest.  These bands had the crowd going.  I may have enjoyed them more at a smaller venue.  Chicago's Flatfoot 56 followed them.  I was still sitting down, but the boys once again delivered the goods.  Some don't like their Christian rock influence which they did not push this evening.  It may have been one of their better shows which included - "Smoke Blower", "Stampede", "Chi-town Jailbreak", "Warriors", and a few new never before played tunes that I will be looking forward to picking up when they come out.  Strike Anywhere from Richmond were next.  These guys are hit or miss for me, but the crowd loved them.  I must admit that I left to get some Congress pizza during their set.  Next were Leftover Crap (Crack).  I don't know how anyone can like these guys, but the kids dug them.  We left before the first song finished.  Total shite!!  Detroit's Suicide Machines were next. I have not seen them since I last saw the Descendents at the New Daisy Theater in Memphis back in the day (Shades Apart rocked during that show too!).  These guys have been hit or miss for me throughout the years.  Tonite, they fucking tore the house down!!!  I have not seen that much excitement in quite a long time.  The lead singer, who puked in the car the night before while out with Jeff Pezzati and Jeff Dean of The Bomb, was all over the place - on the barricade, on top of the crowd, and in the crowd.  I have never seen so many people cross my path out of the pit bleeding in all my years.  I told Earthdog that I would hate to be Milo following the set of that guy.  Much to the dismay of my pal, mxv, they played two Black Flag songs that got the crowd going.  They also played - "Sometimes I Don't Mind", "The End of the World (As We Know It)", "New Girl", and "War Profiteering" which tour the fucking roof down at the Congress.

Well ladies and gents, the time came for arguably the best punk rock band ever from the USA to hit the stage - The Descendents.  I, to this day, remember the day my friend Larry played the Milo Goes to College LP for me in his bedroom.  I have not been the same since.  Milo Came From Dupont hit the stage and the crowd went nuts - a bunch of 40+ year olds like me in attendance.  You have to remember, I have only seen this band once.  That was in Memphis on April 4, 1997 (near a first date anniversary with my current wife).  I remember being out in front of the venue before it opened talking with Stephen who just got off the pay phone (sure you all remember what that was) with his girlfriend.  We discussed how disappointed ALL was with the Breaking Things CD.  Milo had just came back for the Everything Sucks CD which rocked.  This night again was magical.  Milo even had stage props for the song "All-O-Gistics"!!  I borrowed this photo from a Daghouse member, johnw.

Since The Business could not make it to the USA to play the scheduled show at the Cobra Lounge for health reasons, I convinced Earthdog we needed some rest and we should decline to see the Cro-Mags take their place.  He bargained and required we see the secret show on Sunday night to replace a show we were missing.

We managed to see Daghouse buddies Bill (working merch), MXV (taking photos), and Jaygun aka Jeff Dean (with wife and daughter), and Tom M throughout the day.  We also spent some time talking with Tony, lead singer for Shot Baker, and had a brief chat with Darryl, lead singer for the Bollweevils, who was standing next to us waiting for the Descendents.  We found out his favorite band was the Descendents and that the Bollweevils were looking for a bass player.  I tried to get Earthdog the gig, but he declined to move to Chicago from Boston much to my shigrin (at least until after I visit him to see the Dropkick Murphys play their St Pat's hometown shows).

2011 Riot Fest - Day 3 - October 7, 2011

When we finally woke up after a late nite, we did the annual trek to find Earthdog some Chicago style deep dish pizza.  This year's winner was Gino's East.

We had a bit of time to kill the rest of the day.  For the life of me, I don't remember what the hell we did.  The opening band at the Bottom Lounge came on at 10:15pm.  Prior to that, we met up with some fellow Daghousers - Foxton, Tom M, and we met akissfan for the first time.  It was nice to finally meet akissfan who only lives about 20-30 minutes from me.  I have e-world known him for 6+ years ;).  The crazy thing is the guy was off to Italy the next morning to get married.  He was almost speechless when he sat down at the table and recognized we were chatting with Dave Smalley.



Up first was Holy Mess from Philly.  They were fairly entertaining, but probably spent more time shooting the shit on stage than they did playing.

They were followed by Milwaukee's Chinese Telephones who reunited after breaking up and supposedly are breaking up again before they release any new songs.  They too were fairly entertaining except for their Neil Young lookalike guitar player who kept breaking strings.  They also had an Angus Young lookalike playing bass.

In all fairness to the two opening bands, we were there to see Dave Smalley rock the house.  Finally, Down by Law hit the stage.  It has not been since August 2003 that I have seen them play.  That was the last time they were remotely close to the area.  They played at a VFW hall in Joliet with the first incarnation of Jeff Pezzati's The Bomb pre-Jeff Dean era.

We got to hear "Best Friends", "Gruesome Gary", "Independence Day", and "500 Miles" amongst quite a few others.  The band played pretty well together considering they probably played out less than 10 times in the last 8 years together.  Sam Williams III still rocks on guitar almost like no other in punk rock.  To close the set, they played one of my favorite Dag Nasty tunes "Under Your Influence".  And, by the time they played it, I was under the influence of some Anheuser Busch hops & barleys.

Finally, what we were all there to see, ALL hit the stage.  Dave Smalley was on vocals for the first four songs.  This was the first time I had the pleasure to see Dave on vocals with ALL.  He did not let us down.  As the Cure would say, it was "Just Like Heaven"!!!  Many thanks to Dave and the guys from ALL for allowing this to happen.

After that, Scott Danzig hit the stage.  It was the funniest thing I have ever seen at a punk show.  Scott Reynolds was not to be outdone by Dave so he hit the stage in a Danzig costume.  You will have to catch the tale end of the video below to see the Danzig costume.  I almost believe he took the rest of the band by surprise too.  Scott was great on vocals that night as he has been every time I have seen ALL.  Bug (ALL and Descendents roadie extraordinaire) took care of the band and made sure everything was OK for a great performance too.  Bug has been a roadie with ALL since I snuck into the LnG club in New London, CT to see them play at the ripe age of 20 in 1989 with my college roommate who lived there.  They ended the set with probably my favorite ALL tune "She's My Ex".  An incredible set to cap an incredible night.

Somehow, Earthdog snagged the setlist again.  He was still trying to get back at me for winning the Naked Raygun "Huge Bigness" CD that we fought over at Reckless Records.  That will teach him to pick the Bruins over the Flyers.

Well, that was not the end of the evening either.  We went outside to shoot the shit with Dave some more.  We found him chatting with Stephen who remember Earthdog and I from the night before.  Then out of nowhere, Earthdog spotted fellow Daghouser Mickey who drove from Philly that day with the bass player, Ben, from The Gerunds.  This story is almost as good as my first meeting with Mickey the prior year at Riot Fest, but nothing could top that.  You can read it here - http://daghouse.com/jacopo/viewtopic.php?t=19610.

We got to witness members of Teenage Bottlerocket in the crowd early on as well as Chicago guitar player extraordinaire, Jeff Dean.  He told us about him having to be at the Chicago Marathon to play at 8am with his new band All Eyes West.  Better him than me having to get up that early during Riot Fest.  I ran into James Baker, punk rock legend from Green Bay, and a friend of Waikiki Ted's, Frank, who I have not seen since the Joliet DBL show.  Another night in the books, albiet, we got to bed about 4:30am!!  Checkout my Flickr page for more pics and my youtube page for some more videos.