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Tuesday, March 28, 2006 Sweet Home Chicago In some ways, it's funny to think that I live here now--I was in Chicago so much (usually also staying with Bryan, whose house I'm currently invading for the month until my lease starts) before I officially moved that it doesn't feel any different to have 80% of my stuff in the appropriate city. It's been a busy few days. On Saturday my brother, my mom, and I piled boxes all over Bryan's house; a half hour after we were done, I was leaving to meet up with friends and catch Nickel Creek's performance at Wheaton College. The band that opened, the Ditty Bops, have a rather terrible name, in my opinion, but they were amusing to catch live--they used more props than any other musical group I've seen. For example, before playing a song about pirates, the band donned black masks and the mandolin player "walked the plank" the entirety of the song, pulling out a toy gun at the end to shoot the guitarist. A song about people with inflated heads used four balloons and the singer breathed in the helium from Balloon #3 and sang like a Chipmunk for a verse (Balloon #1 was released into the air, Balloon #2 was popped with a giant knife, and Balloon #4 was released, sputtering, the two feet before it ran out of helium). They were musically tight and surprisingly perfect for dancing Charleston and lindy hop. Nickel Creek's performance suffered from sound/mixing problems that didn't resolve themselves until midway through the concert, but the band itself was solid. Chris, the mandolin player, flails (literally) too much, but he's an incredible musician. Overall, it was a great show, although I was tired from not getting any sleep the night before and all the moving and driving that day. Sunday night I caught a student performance of long-form improv at Improv Olympic. It's an intimate, warm venue, and some of the performers were excellent. Of the four groups, two were mediocre and two were quite good, though none were without flaws (stuttering, thinking too long about what to do next, ignoring the suggestions they solicited from the audience, failing to project in the small space, etc.). And tonight I went dancing. So it's been busy, but a wonderful way to inaugurate my tenure in the Windy City. ^ Top | 2:26 AM | | | 
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