Part 9 - St Louis to Chicago - "I am not interested in clinging to what happened, I am so newly alive"

Ok So I ditch out of amazing Memphis, crazy amazing musical experiences. I head on down the road to St Louis, a nondescript city, with little to no hints from people along the way… are you a black hole St Louis? where no light escapes… I can assure you St Louis is a musical, creative city that seems to have gone under a lot of American’s radars.

I drive across 2 state borders and end up in Missouri, an honestly didn’t know what to expect, but the musical and swing dance trail always offers a doorway into the world that is the unknown. On the road I stop at a roadstop on the way and find a great AirBnB to stay at with Laura in Tower Grove South, on the southside, little local area with small 3 story apartment blocks. She’s a great host and is a Blogger and entertainment person, hence why I picked her place, and also the price. The area is not the best area, but that is part of it. Not to be in the glossiest, closed off version of the city. It’s to find the people, the stories, and the music and in only a short space of time to be emersed in the reason why, not just the showy end result.

While I’m booking the accom, I look up a blues place to go to and a when the best swing dance happens. 

I’ve gotten into the habit of driving straight into a city, and doing a lap or two around the CBD, right out one of the main roads, and around a few blocks just to see the major site-y things and get a feel for the lay of the land, directions and what tall landmarks for bearings, it seems to work out well for future wanderings and finding other spots, and feeling & moving around other suburbs. I stop & do a walk around the new arty walk & parkway right though the centre of St Louis.

I rock into life here straight away, do the last vertical tram lift ride to the top of the Stainless Steel Arch of St Louis, the totally tourist, but it is worth it, and get a great overview of the city as a whole (see photo above). There is a swing dance class and session that night Wed… check into my accom, and quickly duck off to make it to lesson. Dance with a new crew, and get the low down on a few new places, more swing dancing, some music venues, and a few sights to see. Best thing about music & dancing is everyone is so social and always have great insights into their city. It’s at swing I meet the wonderful Eliza, she is an enthusiastic swing dancer, academic & also a musician!  She has a photoshoot the next day, and will have her instruments, so we set up a possible jam!

Get in simple class stuff (but it’s always good to revise the two step West Coast Swing that I’m not use to), and then a few people tell me of a swingy band that is playing tonight at the Schafly Bottleworks (Brewery) in Ellendale in the southwest also. The band is great! heaps of swingy goodness, there is only a few dancers but a lot of the music is quite fast, so i am happy to sit out a lot and watch, but I get a few dances in.

Band is musically great! 1920s style, and I find at the end of the night they carry the upright piano in and out to the stage each time they play… Crazy!  I buy their CD.

Next day decide to do the selective tourist thing as after starting my list for St Louis, the one thing that keeps getting mentioned is City Museum. But a few strange things come up, one was “Make sure you take knee pads and get a tetanus shot”?  now this doesn’t sound like a museum… and it’s not just any museum.  It’s rated one of the best family attractions in the entire state of Missouri, recently rate number 1# family atttraction in the WORLD by Trip.com awards and is an artistic masterpiece that has to be experienced to be believed.  It’s a bit weird for me when I walk up to the counter and order ticket for one, no kids,  but hey if you can’t experience life, and miss out on things because of social pressures, then I think you're the one with a problem.

Basically it’s a 10 stories of constructed madness, weird areas, tunnels, castles, underwater themed areas, a treehouse area, caves, slippery dips, ladders, spiral stair cases, and secret tunnel openings in every floor connect areas.  They are themed areas with rides, and the roof has bus overhanging the edge, enclosed welded, wire tunnels you can climb through to get to other areas. Forget commercial disneyland, get to City Museum!

This would be a 5 - 16 years heaven I think, and those young at heart (also there are areas for younger children too if you have many ages… rightfully so, when the wristbands get attached on entry, there is a space on your child’s for your phone number, as you will lose them in here. There is just too much to describe, if you ever get to St Louis this is a must DO!

Enough of the light stuff, I head over to the Cherokee St area, which is a bit more down home, but trendy cafes, food places a few music venues, a little mexico, and dive bars. It’s like King St in Newtown maybe in the early 90s.. when it was still a bit sketchy, was heaps of fun, but you might still get accosted by a drunk or a bum with angry intent.  I need to hang out here in the night, but for now I drop into Yaquis for a arvo pizza, and chat to the bar staff there. They give me the lay of the land and the sort of music they play there. I wander the strip and see a few more places before heading about 4mins away to Eden Cafe, which a few people have mentioned.  It’s a dive/art bar that the owner/artist has been working on for like 20years.  I’m sure he must be inspired by Gaudi in Barcelona, as the place is head to foot mosaic’d and intricate found object art in every square inch of the place.

They do live music a few nights a week, and I have a beer with the band loading in, I receive a flower in my hat for my conversation. I have a great chat with some other locals/tourists and end up with a few more things for my Chicago list.

I cruise around town a bit and check out some of the venues, but don’t have anything specific in mind.  It’s just great to just have a city envelop me, and for me to see some of its bones. I also catch another nighttime, flouro-lit peloton which I guess is a thing in the USA… pretty hilarious and now I want to go on one.

I get home rather early for me 11pm, and look up what to see… but it all catches up with me and I end up crashing out and not having an extremely late night, for a Thursday… every once and a while the mind has to catch down with the body… :)

Next day I make plans to catch up with Eliza, and see some music, and I coax her into coming to a swing dance at one of the big dance venues on my St Louis list. But first things first, Blade Runner 2049 just came out yesterday… and the first movie is one of my all time favourites… it STILL tells of a future that is quite possible, it was also one of the first movies that I saw and liked, and had asian faces feature on it. And showed a future that wasn’t white dominated, and the people weren’t all beautiful.  It was Cyberpunk reality… a little harsh and a little gritty with a main character who you didn’t know if he was good or bad, just held true to what was real.  I guess when I was young this message spoke to me a lot… 

Anyway I watch 2049… In one of the most historic, glorious theatres in St Louis ( I looked it up especially, and if any of you know by now I don’t really do mass culture and cookie-cutter megaplexes) This theatre is so great! they have a classic snacks bar, and the alcohol bar and a separate free mini-cinema lounge was playing classic cheesy movies! (for bladerunner 2049 Total Recall was playing)

I watch Bladerunner 2049, and luckily I have seen mixed reviews and it all lowered my expectations.  It was like a lot of friends appraisals… visually spectacular, but generally underwhelming from the first movie.  But they are big boots to fill, the first movie was so groundbreaking, and explored unknown territory… this time around its a follow-up, re-creating a known world, hashing known issues, exploring setup up topics… I always feel sorry for sequels.  It is always a difficult task.  I did like this movie, but I think that in its 2 headed approach to remain truthful to the first, and the pacing and tone (which I think was perfect to the first),

it forgot that movie audiences have changed in the last 20 years… and the goal posts moved. So it comes up beautifully as a sequel, but irrelevant to today’s audiences and emotion. So ultimately it was a slight let down… but I think stands up well as a movie.

I saunter around the city again, get some food at a local cafe, and check out a few venues on my list… I head to the blues bar area just south of St Louis CBD, and get a bloody mary at Beale on Broadway, which has a great bar outdoor beergarden area with a enclosed stage (but the backdrop behind is a city view)

I totally don’t realise this is the wrong bar that I organised to meet Eliza in, and by the time I get to BBs Blues Bar across the road, she has already had a beer and eaten… ha ha whoops.  Thankfully it turns into a better night out as Eliza has also just handed her Masters Thesis in that day! so we check the music but then head across town to the Casa Loma Ballroom to the swing dance on offer..  

Get a few dances in, but its a bit of a slow night considering the size of the room, then after a few well appreciated dances (we get a few comments from people about our style, it’s not hard as a lot of the other dancers are older and more rock n rolly, so full swing dancing style stands out)

But we realise why a lot of the other swing crew have not shown up as the band, although they are a good big band, mostly end up playing bluesy rock n roll-y stuff which never makes snobby swing dancers happy… ha ha After a while we decide to head back over to the blues band area on Broadway.

Cedric Burnside just happens to be playing at the Blue Oyster Bar (famed son of R.L. Burnside!) so it’s a great turn of events! the music is just too good and I get Eliza to swing dance with me at the front ha ha… it’s not really a dance scene but its hellishly fun! Other people eventually join in. It’s swampy and bluesy and raucous, just the type of blues I like.

​Later we head out and decide to get some late night food.  As we leave around to the back car park, we hear 4 loud, distinct gun shots across open street intersection to where the highway underpass is, a block away.  

We look at each other, get in the car and head round the front real quick (these are the closest angry gunshots I have ever heard, and did feel a little unsafe in that moment)  Other gunshots I have heard in New Orleans, Memphis weren’t as near or behind buildings, or I was in a building etc, so I wasn’t worried at all ha ha.  I think, would that Beretta have helped right now? probably not… dead is dead right...

We take to the streets and go to a late night homey ma n pa style restaurant, and I get mixed hash with eggs and pancakes.. but as per usual the servings are huge and I can’t finish it.

Eliza and I chat about music, and culture, and race relations, and American things in general and how it all relates to the world.  She is particularly issues conscious, which I like, and we connect on so many levels.

I have stayed in St Louis extra time, as it was just meant to be a stop over on my way to Chicago.  St Louis has proved it can hold it’s own on all fronts, and Eliza invites me to visit a little town Elsa on my way out of St Louis to Chicago the next day.  It proves to be a great little trek on my way to a quaint little outer village of St Louis on the Illinois-side of the Mississippi River… I love that river, and it has been guiding my journey so far. I have a music jam with Eliza, and check the amazing greenery in the neighbourhood. We swap some recorded music, and then eventually I am on my way to Chicago.

 It’s just a short 4.5hour drive to Chicago. Like Sydney to Port Macquarie, but the destination has heaps of music… ha ha

Chicago is a big city, I see things as I drive in, famous things, that I have seen in movies, the metal bridges that have been in some of my favourite movies. It’s large and feels like a city. Huge highways, so many multi-story highway interchanges, over-head metal trainways, a large inner city that has rows upon rows of skyscrapers.  But I’m not here for that, I do my usual cruise around the CBD and a few areas to get the lay of the land, landmarks etc,  

and I don’t mind traffic, it’s slow and congested, but I am still smiling in my California number plated hire car, listening to some swing jazz, and just checking and soaking up the sites… visually cities offer so much eye candy when you first arrive.

I stay in an AirBNB south of the city, with Katibu, he is Chicago through and though, he bought his house 30 years ago, and has gradually been doing it up.  It is a great older style house full of character.  Katibu is semi-retired, but still occasionally does specialised work on medical machinery, with radioactive materials! ha ha we have some great talks about programming, and computers, but he also is an avid dancer, and does country-line dancing on Wednesdays.

I check online, so much going on in Chicago! of course. First night I go out with Katibu, he is keen to be a good host, and is more like my long lost cousin, than AirBnB host, we have some great chats, and his wry humour comes out, after I get settled in we go down to a local hotspot and he shouts me dinner! ha… he prides himself on being a hospitable host, and goes above and beyond, we have more great chats about Chicago and the local scene.
​[Katibu line dancing highlighted in white light —>] It’s pretty crazy to see a long dreadlocked African American doing country line dancing, but he loves it, and does other types of dance too.

Second day I've done my research and end up with jammy things everyday! Chicago you BE crazy! Monday I do more of a cruise around the inner city, but also check a few outer-lying areas where music venues are.  It’s great being independent and being able to drive. It always has its disadvantages of what to do with the thing in cities. But on a universe driven adventure its advantages outweigh any minor costs.

Monday night I head to Buddy Guy’s Legends Blues Bar. I’m thinking its bound to be pretty high quality players, and it’s right in downtown Chicago, so I pick up my bass and head inside, I get a bit nervous.  It’s warranted, it’s the full deal, even on a monday for the JAM, people have to BUY seated tickets to the event, its a pretty big venue, and the majority of the players/muso types I can see are mostly experienced looking older black guys. Intimidating much… never have I felt more Australian. ha ha I don’t expect to get a run too soon, and a few more established singers and musicians get up after the house band, who are all pretty amazing. The jams are also amazing!, but not so much that I feel out of my depth, I have a beer or 2 & relax into what turns into a great set!

I jam with Sonia Astacio and Mike Maneechote and some other great players, and we really get our groove and blues on.  Sonia belts out a some powerful vocals, and Mike is no slouch on the guitar either.  I stay tasteful here and there, but then also dynamically throw-down a bit in places too, so much so Sonia offers me a bass solo (which she tells me she never usually does) It’s a fantastic show! and a few others come up and say hello after the set. Later in the week I find that this performance puts me in good stead at a lot of other jams.  Sonia makes a connection, and is so disappointed when she finds out I’m from Australia, she thought she had found her new bassplayer.

At this gig I also meet a few other players, and singers like Julia Sky from Chicago, and Christian Talamentes from Texas.  This place attracts blues players from all over. Julia is such a ball of energy, and we end up having a dance to some of the other blues jammers, as they play bluesy rock n roll-y danceable songs.  I get some nods from some of the other players around, and its pretty cool to stand up in a place this prestigious.

Julia invites me to another open mic jam on tues night at Lilly’s. It’s a great night and I feel that Chicago is going to be a great-and-interesting time.

All those years of watching crazy car chases through the pylons of the Chicago railways on movies and tv, the noise of the trains passing overhead, and here I am driving around in it.  Ok Chicago I am fan-boy-ing a bit, as this is also the first city that has THAT gravity that hits me from pop culture, world-wide zeitgeist, that seemingly is owned by us all.  It is a bizzare and warm experience. It’s like it’s part of my upbringing, but this is the first time I have been here.

It’s late, so I head home to Katibu’s house, and I research more and find blues jams and swing dance things to go too every night. Chicago is another city I could definitely live in, and perhaps I will.

Next day I get one more thing out of the way, that my twin brother Stacy would kill me if I didn’t complete it.  When we were kids we had a bit of a misspent youth, as sometimes being different in a small, white, country town, you have to retreat into other worlds, and one of those worlds for us was video games. But in those days, they were in arcades, I lived the early era of video games where there were machines, and you paid 20cents, then 40cents, then 1$ to play, from Space Invaders/Pacman thru to the Street Fighter era. SO in Chicago there is a hark back to this time, in an era of playstations, online games, VR and infinitely more complex games, a place called the Galloping Ghost Video Arcade. It must be where all coin-up video games go to die. The owners have made it a homage to that era, and have over 620+ old arcade games set to free, you pay $20 to play all day!  I find so many games from my era of video games, it’s definitely a trip down memory lane.  I get the Highest (daily) score on about 7-8 machines ha!

I find some goodies and oldies, some of my favourites, some of Stacy’s favourites, and play them all! But I can’t waste a lifetime here like I did in my youth, as this trip is about music. So after a great afternoon and evening, of square eyes, record setting, and ruminating memories of a past era (it’s funny what things trigger in your memory),

I head back into Chicago city, to Lilly’s open mic. It’s a tiny cool bar, who’s catch cry (for tues at least) is GET WEIRD!) ha ha Julia waves me over and introduces me to a few other musos. It’s a really vibey place, full of old memory and is full of young hopefuls, musos, weirdos and all sorts of people just living, it is a Tuesday after all, and only a certain type of people come out on a Tueday! and I’m one of them.

The Open Mic list gets started, for the un-initiated, each person usually get 3 songs… and most open mics are exactly that, totally open, any level of skill, music, comedy, spoken word, bizarre acts… you usually get a few of each. 

As a bass player I usually just jam with people, on the spot, after many years of playing, you can (if they play regular-ish music) just watch the guitarists hands/chords and follow along, then once you get the chord pattern then start adding frilly bits :) I put down with Julia, and she let’s her mates know that I am willing to jam with anyone who wants a bass player.  We have a great couple of songs, the final one is really ripping, and we get joined by a Cahon player (box drum), and some back up vocals/handpercussion. I end up jamming with 2 other artists, and unbeknownst to me Julia has put my name on the list! They call for Tim, and I’m like “nup, I didn’t put my name on the list, must be another Tim"

Julia goes, it’s you! ha ha nothing planned so I just play a funky groove, and some hip hop dudes jump up with me and throw down some rhymes, and another cahon player does a beat for us. It’s heaps of fun, we go all over the place! several  rappers kick it. I play with another guy. There are also some other great singers/songwriters, and a few average ones, and a few weird ones… great night for a tuesday.  By the closer to the end, Julia and me decide to head over to The Green Mill which is a jazz joint that is on my list and is open late.

We get there, and there is a great swingy jazz band playing, a bit of a dancefloor at the front, but everyone are just sitting and drinking and listening. I like that I can dance, as just sitting through life is one of those things that shits me now.  We stand and watch for a while, but eventually have to dance as it’s just too infectious! we christen the dance floor, I think people are surprised to see people dancing? Julia is not really a swing dancer, but she definitely has rhythm, enthusiasm and is just full of life (I think that is about 80% of dancing anyway).  We dance a few, and eventually the people leave from the booth in front of us, and we nab it.  

Julia informs me that this is Al Capone’s booth, as he wanted to see the back, and who was coming in from the front. So cool! swing dancing in a late night jazz club in Chicago, and sitting in Al Capones booth, it doesn’t get hep-per than this!

As the night winds down at The Green Mill we ask the doorman where to next? he sort of umms a bit, and mentions a few places, but then one of the waitresses who’s walking by who saw us dancing tells us to go to this other bar where Bailey Dee is DJing Rockabilly til 2am, it’s not far so we skip over there, and find it’s a totally small diner-style long bar and only with a few people in it.  But the waitress was right, Bailey is a total rockabilly babe, who is playing awesome music from 45” record singles. So we have a bloody mary, and dance in the front of this totally small bar, which in turn, get another couple up to have a few dances too, we all swap dances! 

The bouncer gets concerned, but then realises we aren’t drunk, and we are just having fun (I don’t think he’s seen anyone dance in there before). Bailey is stoked that finally some people are appreciating all the effort she goes too, and we end up chatting at the end of the night. I realise that someone from Memphis also put Bailey Dee’s band on my list for Chicago, so it’s great to catch up with her. We chat about music and exchange contacts! random fun night. I give Julia a lift home and we get some late night Mexican food on the way. By the time I get back home to Katibu’s it’s about 3.30am… ha ha

This pattern of really late nights, and slow mornings is reminding me of New Awlins, but this is the musical hours, the movement life is the nightlife times. I do a bit more research to make sure I’ve got the rest of the week lined up.  I head out next evening to where Katibu does line dancing at Burbon St Bar in South Chicago. It’s actually great to see this in full flight, and there are a lot of dancers who take it relatively seriously and the synchronicity and flair of individual dancers is great to watch. After a few beers & chats it’s eventually time for me to head off, as I have another jam to go to in northern Chicago, near the North Halsted St area (where a lot of music/cafe/bar happens)

I head to B.L.U.E.S Bar which is another blues bar obviously that has a jam on Wed nights. I get in and it’s poppin’! Groovy blues and a really great house band. They are all phenomenal. I think probably better than the house band at Buddy Guys.  So good it’s a bit scary, you can see the depth in the players, playing known stuff but definitely being able to just move around in the music, listening to each other, playing blues off the moment, just using the form and chord structures to just be a guide, and then being in the moment. It’s great to watch players of such caliber in a small bar.

This place seems to be steeped in credibility, as it’s low key and the vibe is about the music, it’s not as touristy as Buddy Guys. But I’m here to play, so put my bass up near the stage and make it known I’m here to play! ha ha after a great house set, and another guest or 2, I get put on stage with a blind drummer, and the 2 other white jammers in the place.  Gulp. we get this singer, but he seems to want something specific. (and as the jam goes on, I think he is disappointed that he got put on stage with us), we play the intro, he trys to indicate a few things, we play the feel he wants,  just as we get into a good riff, and he is looking shaky, the drummer drops a stick (as he is not use to this kit, and it’s set up a bit differently to a standard kit), but the singer doesn’t see that.  

I think he just thinks its a train wreck of a jam… He’s sung half a verse, but then goes, "nup, I can’t..” and walks off the stage, haha, in all my years I have NEVER seen anyone walk off the stage in a jam. The band isn’t sure what to do, but host from side of stage just goes “KEEP Playing!”, we do, and get into a good groove, he gets another singer up.  He’s rocks into a great song! we pump and lift it higher.  We do some more songs, the country blues guitarist does a Texan inspired twang, and the other jazzy guitarist does a swingy jazzy one,  We get a Brazilian drummer swap out. We really kick it and have a great jam! 

I think the host knew we would. Crowd is cheering! (I think the dramatic start makes it even more victorious!)  I think the hosts like me (or maybe they are just short on bass players ha ha)  as the others get replaced and I stay up for a few more Jams with other players :) (but I get a nod from the house bassplayer, feels good). Play with a really great black rhythmic funky drummer, we have heaps of fun jamming the feel around in the back.

These nights in Chicago I think make me realise in a direct, practical way, that to make great music, you have to seek great players to play with, it’s just a joy to even jam with people dedicated to the craft that is music.  It is fun to play music with all types of people, but jamming with other people who are dedicated really is SO easy and creative.

I think on this night my subconcious decided that it would be returning to the USA, sooner rather than later.

Ok so there is another thing from Chicago that is SO significant for me. And I totally do the one absolute FanBoy thing on this entire trip.  I love the movie High Fidelity, a very musical and life journey, and a romantic comedy of sorts, but told from a male point of view (which is rare for romantic comedies). Based on the book ”High Fidelity” by Nick Hornby, with the main character played by John Cusak, and directed by Stephen Frears, a British director. A totally British story, but the movie was shot in Chicago! and totally translates.. which is rare.

Great and funny supporting cast, with some great emotional twinges and innovative 4th wall stuff that holds over from the book.  If you haven’t seen this movie, SEE IT… it’s an insightful relationship entanglement, told as a comedy, to an amazing soundtrack. So here I am, down on the corner of Milwaukee and Honore St in Wicker Park in Chicago, standing outside “Championship Vinyl”, “Rob Gordon’s” record shop…"I own this store called Championship Vinyl. It's located in a neighbourhood that attracts the bare minimum of window shoppers. I get by because the people make a special effort to shop here. Mostly young men...who spend all their time looking for deleted Smiths singles and original, not rereleased - underlined - Frank Zappa albums. Fetish properties are not unlike porn. I'd feel guilty taking their money, if I wasn't... well... kinda one of them.”  17 years on, Rob’s neighbourhood has upgraded and been gentrified, as what in the movie was a rundown suburb of north Chicago, is now a popular and trendy cafe and clothing area, and Championship Vinyl is a upmarket bike and clothing shop with a cafe built into it… ha ha I have a little nostalgic episode on the sidewalk looking up at the street signs.

After that galavant it’s back to reality, and I have been invited to another jam with Sonia and her bandmates at Rosa’s, another famous blues house. It’s a great mid sized joint, plenty of players abound, and it’s a bit more rough and tumble than the other jams I have been to in Chicago, but turns out fun, and interesting.  Chicago is blues. I start to see players that I have seen at other jams, and new ones too. It seems that in Chicago you could just not watch any TV and go out and play music every night if you wanted to.  Sounds like my sort of city.  There are various styles of music played, and like a lot of music venues it have a piano permanently on stage.  Rosa’s is a mini-grand piano.

That night I take the long way home, and drive the city edge, check more places, drive the under-railway roads and soak up what it is to be a late night Chicago-ian. How do you soak up more, every moment… I want to feel the city.

Next day I decide I better do some more day things, and head out into a dreary Chicago day, it’s absolutely bucketing down. Great idea! But it seems fitting as Chicago is all about the bad northern weather, it’s heading into the Fall now, so bit of rain is a welcome relief from what was the New Orleans Summer heat and the Texas dry. Hit the city and do a bit of a walk around when it’s lighter, drop into Lou Malnati’s for some deep dish Chicago-ian pizza for lunch. Cold, wet weather comfort food, Lou’s has a line up and it proves to be right as the pizza is delicious, and I accompany it with some salt n pepper squid and a bloody mary (which is slowly becoming my spicy drink of choice for meals and one-off drinks)

I check out the streets, do a little touristing, and just like the eye-candy of walking around a bit in the day. It’s interesting the city vibes you get from just taking time to experience what is in front of you, and not having to rush (like everyone around you in a city). Chicago seems to be a city built on layers, everywhere layers, the most overhead, under-tunnels roadways, trainlines, walkways,  compacted into a historic place. Bridges over water, parking spaces, streets, broad conveniences to add city where there was none. It’s an engineering marvel, and shows direct, exposed lines to its historical lineage.

​I think about what it would be, to live in this layered place.

It’s friday night, and as it rolls on the rain continues in, and as I am heading to one of the cities big swing dance nights, the rain is of New Orleans-ian proportions. Some of the under railway roadways start to fill up with foot deep pools of water. Earlier in the week I had gone to a couple of swing lessons with one of the local troupes and that is how I found out about this big dance event.  I rock up, and it’s in a funny location, a warehousey area. In the rain I duck in quickly and head up the stairs. At the top I find a room full of people sort of dressed up, some guys with braces on etc so I presume its the swing night, but it just looks like a waiting/bar area. Some of them look at me funny, I take my jacket off, and swap my boots over for the shoes I can dance in, and stow my bag. I look around and out in the hallway, there doesn’t seem to be a dance floor?

I chat to one of the guys, and say where’s the dance floor? is this the swing dance? he goes, no this is a reception, the swing is downstairs, apparently a few people have done the same. I gather up my things and head downstairs… Inside a rustic warehouse door I find a fencing dojo, there are swords on the walls, & a gym area at the back, but the area is huge and because it’s for sword fencing, the floor is board floor throughout. So a massive dance floor, I can see why Big City Swing Chicago uses the place.  DJs are great & I get heaps of dances in. In the middle of the evening they have a birthday dance, which is where anyone having a birthday goes in the middle of the big circle, & everyone jumps in & dances with the Bday people as the song plays.

They add out-of-towners to that mix, and as an Australian I am from the furthest away! It’s a great dance, but just as I get to one of the gals I wanted to dance with (she is a great active follow, and dances the way I like), I guess I am trying too hard, and I blow my knee out in the dance with her… ha ha (I have an old knee injury from years ago from fire-twirling, and every once and a while I twinge it) I fall on my ass… and she laments that she has broken the guest! ha ha. but it’s fine. The troupe takes care of me, and an ice pack, and I am up and dancing (a little more carefully) for the rest of the night. I have a couple of great dances with some late-comers. 

As the night winds down, I am not ready to go home yet, and others indicate that there isn’t much on after, so I head to the Green Mill again, as I know there will be late night jazz there.  It’s jAzz jazz… great players, really great players but a bit widdly widdly for me.  “Real” jazz players ultimately end up playing for other players and themselves… and not the audience or dancers etc the precision, the extreme knowledge of musical theory.  You have to appreciate the wonderful ability to ad-lib, and solo over a complicated progression.  But ultimately for me, it lacks heart and earth throb.  That primordial drumbeat and pulse that eminated from the earliest of musics, and made people jump around together as a tribe.

And as a bass player waveforms that are long and move your body not just your ears. Things that reach down into the soul that makes you up, ticks boxes in your sub-conscious, and makes your ass move and makes it impossible for your feet to stay still.  I have alway enjoyed active music, no matter what style, that has a tempo that is above your heart rate whilst sitting.  Once the tempo does not allow you to comfortably sit still or relax, it forces the animal instincts that you have supressed to bubble to the surface. For live music that story dynamic has always interested me (and how I try to connect with tribe).

Anyway I listen to the jazz, it is amazing, but no-one dances, and I can’t find anyone who looks as remotely fun as Julia who would just throw caution to the wind and dance, the jazz-heads make sure of that.  There seems to be a lot of people in the crowd who are there more to be seen, than are actually listening to the band :(

​After I while, the pressure builds, and I have to leave. This version of a night eventually errks me, as good as the music is.  I head around the corner for some late night food and find a great Mexican place. It’s just a small  corner restaurant/cafe run by Mexicans. 

I get shrimp mixed, and this is actually the best tasting Mexican food I have tasted in the whole of the USA. It turns out the be the best Mexican I eat, bar none…! for a small place they balance the spiciness, tastiness, amount of food, delicious sides, crispy corn chips, a selection of side salsas. I can’t fault it.  I would _nearly_ say the best meal I had in the USA. I have stayed out really late, I think it’s another 4am night by the time I get home.  Chicago you are upp-ing  to the ante of New Awlins… Sat I am a bit wrecked, and opt to have a rest day, hang and chat with Katibu in the afternoon, and do some more online research about the city.  Decide to have a night off, & stay in the suburbs, & arrange a things for the next days.

I was originally going to be moving on from Chicago on Sat, but stay as now I have jammed in 4 out of the top 5 Blues houses in Chicago (according to a list I found online…) and the only one I am missing is Kingston Mines.  It’s a blues institution in Chicago, and Sonia invites me to stay and play again at the Sunday  jam there.  I have also been in contact with Mike Maneechote and some studios around Chicago, and we can get into one on late Sunday night.

So I book some more accomodation for a couple of nights closer into the north of the city where I will be, and pack my stuff out of Katibu’s place.

Had an early night so do the day thing, and try to actually get to a few things tourists would do. Go to Chicago’s “Peanut”, check out the stadium, walk the inner city streets a bit, check out a drummer busking on the streets. Ya gotta spend one day doing some of this stuff right… the sights are sights for a reason?… generally I try to skip over this stuff as fast as possible and get to the music or the arty things. But I do like to do it tho.  The Stadium has amazing stage & metallic, architectural backdrop, but the thing that impresses me most is the huge grassed area out past the seats, where overhead massive, metal curves hold up arrays of speakers for sound to the back.

I wander the city a little to and see it’s shape. Chicago is another city that passes my gauge for a big city, when you are walking on the street - people don’t make eye contact - you know it’s a big city. But Chicago doesn’t have and aggressive vibe like Sydney or Nashville or New York. It’s big, but it still seems to have held onto it’s working class roots, it’s proud of its ethnic heritages, and the definite communities that have formed because of it.  Sure it has corruption, a little danger, but I think it has retained it’s spirit, the reason why… and managed to not sell it’s soul completely, yet.

I get to Kingston Mines, the bar is medium sized and closed for a private function, I arrive too early, and literally have to wait 15mins before it ticks over past 6pm and the private function is considered over. Security guys are always funny… Later Sonia and her boys are sitting up the back row like good musos should ha harr! I join them with a beer, they have a little set of songs worked out (now I am part of one of “those” bands ha) but it’s a good selection of songs, a couple we did before and some new ones.  Ken goes through the chord progression and feels of the new ones with me.  We wait a while, the house band starts up, I notice the bassplayer is pretty average, but they tell me he is a fill-in for the the house band, the regular bassplayer is great.

Couple of other players get up with the house band, and gradually heads into jammer territory. Sonia and the boys are known to the Jam host Linsey Alexander.  You have to understand, Kingston Mines has been a blues club since 1968, and was recently rated best blues club by Chicago Readers in 2016, and Most Popular Blues Club in the Chicago Music Awards in 2016 (again)! So playing here you are playing in an esteemed and historical blues house.

After the house band with a few guests get up, a band gets up lays down some solid but standard blues.  They obviously aren’t too flexible as they play one of the songs the house group played, Down Home Blues, which is actually on our list too, but we decided to not play it, and now its been done twice in the night already… the downside of jams I guess, where standards come out.  I move the stool off the stage, all the bassplayers before me have sat on the stool stage-left towards the back, and plod-esaurus'd through their walkin’ basslines.  I have no intention of doing that.  Linsey looks at me, “ya gonna put that back”, it’s not a question.  I look him straight in the eye, as friendly as my Australian eyes can muster “of course!” with a smile.

We plow through a short set, it’s up, the energy is up, and Sonia’s vocals soar over the top of us. The whole room lights up. Big cheers after each song. We have good interaction as well, moving and grooving, and reacting off each other.  I have a great time with Sonia, the drummer and the keyboard player.

It’s a great little set, time is short, the question is open for us to play an extra song, crowd cheers and wants one, but the band umms and ahhs, and we get pulled, as there are always lots of jammers, and to be fair you can’t hog the stage.  I replace the stool to the bassplayer’s spot. Linsey gives me a wry smile, I think he liked our set.

A couple of musos who were standing near the bar that I talked to before, come over and say hello again, compliment the set, and chat about music.  It’s why I did this trip, and spent the time and money.  

Besides having a great time playing, seeing the cities that developed the music styles I like to play, it’s the getting to hang out with musos at that local level and just chatting about the state of things, what they deal with on a day to day level, not the perceived infamy of it all, but what they actually have to deal with in those cities.  The real and gritty reality of playing music in New Orleans, Austin, Memphis, Nashville, St Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, Montreal, Boston, New York… and like everything the reality is far from it’s famed gloss.

I haven’t got time to soak up too much glory, but I soak up a bit ha ha, hang with Sonia and the boys and chat to a lot of musos around. Things always get more relaxed once people know you can play.  I have to head off as I have booked a session in a studio with Mike Maneechote to record a guitar part on my travel song. We meet at Mystery Street Studios in North Chicago, it’s not far from Kingston Mines and in the hotbed creative north area.  It’s not the biggest studio or the most prestigious, but they are affordable for my side project, but still have a great list of gear.  We are only tracking guitars,  and they have completely excellent gear and rooms at a great price. Chicago must be pretty competitive in the recording realm.

I was msging Mike from a jam earlier in the week, and organise this session.  I send him an old version of the track, and then a reworked version so far with no Guitar lines on it so he can have a listen and work out a few things on it.  Dan Norman is our engineer for it. He’s really enthusiastic about the track as it is an unusual project.  Recording parts along the way with people that I meet in life, and getting them to put their story into the song.

Dan pulls out a microphone that even I haven’t seen before… which is rare these days, Shure Beta 181C. We also mount a trusty SM57 on the cab for classic guitar cab mic-ing.  I get Mike to use his amp and pedals, as I want him to be totally comfortable with the setup, and also being able to pull the sounds he wants to make.  This part is Mike’s part. The whole idea of this side project for me is that the musicians that end up playing on it have control of their parts, and I just work as guide/associate producer to milk the best out of them and capture some of their essence (in effect) to be timecapsuled into the track.  A lot of people are precious about recordings, but I find after being on so many (probably over 15 recorded EPs/Albums and over 50 singles & demos), and working with many artists, it’s just a snapshot in time of a totally evolving artform.  People can be too precious about it.  Obviously you’ve got to achieve some standard.

But once in a studio sometimes people try to polish the music too much, and the character goes out of it, and they don’t understand that the process shouldn’t overtake the art form.  Making it “perfect", won’t necessarily make it perfect…. :) when they don’t over-polish you know you have a great producer/engineer.

Mike lays down many tones, we do clean rhythm-y bits, overdriven rhythms, then he does some solo-y guitar bits, redoes a few solos when he doesn’t feel right. 

I like to direct my musos, with feeling words, maybe emotions, and try to connect them with the story of the song. We do about 14-15 different takes with 2 mics, it’s a great session! We pack up, Dan back ups/transfers the session onto my USB, I  transfer a copy onto my hard drive there in the studio (and later this is Time Machine backuped onto another portable Harddrive I have on the trip, 3 back ups, call me a computer nerd) but this stuff won’t be able to be redone. I may be flying by the seat of my pants on this trip, but there is still method to the madness.

We are all happy with the session, we pack up and head out.  It’s getting later for a Sunday and Mike has to work the next day (realities of musos), but after a great session and great chats about music, he mentions a great jam that usually happens at The Revel Room on Sundays.  We head out for “one” drink to celebrate a great recording!

The Revel Room is on my list so it’s great to get to one more venue before I have to leave. It’s a great jam more fusion, jazz, funk, neo-soul.  The players are phenomenal. The mix and match and we hear some crazy jams.  We have a drink and chat some more, but eventually Mike has to go.  A great connection has been made.

Mike has to work, I on the other hand have no such responsibilities… so stay longer and listen to more music.  I meet Maddie and Jeff at the bar, who are creatives and musos with friends jamming… we chat about Chicago. Eventually we get to my list, and they revue the things I have done, and my other Chicago places.  One thing on the list I forgot was Mallort! A Chicago-specific liquor, that has been described as old socks in rusted metal, off pineapple in bin juice, "just don’t have it…!" ha ha so I have to have one… Jeff shouts us all a round, and I buy the beer chasers! it’s no-where near as bad as some people described, and definitely more palatable than some of the backyard alcohol I had in parts of Europe. 

But it definitely has it’s own distinct flavour… probably more closer to an Greek Ouzo, or French Pastis Ricard… but the Chicago version does have a more inner-city tang to it, lighter and sharp, rather than sticky and liquorice-y like Ouzo. It’s a great night, it gets a bit wild, and we are the last ones kicked out of the bar… No matter what you think from the news, American’s are the loveliest people you can meet… well if you hang in the right places.  I get some late night Mexican at the Hollywood Grill (its the easiest, healthiest option late on a Sunday :( ) and ponder how delicious St Louis was and how great Chicago has been, so much music and dancing crammed into such a short time. You gave New Awlins a run for it’s money Chicago, in less time.

Next day I check out of my innercity AirBnB, and head to a cafe, before I head out of Chicago. Try to do some pre-research for Detroit, do some social media, and actually started this blog… but it’s taken me weeks to finish it. (the rest of the trip I started getting time poor) I stop in at Green St Smoked Meats Bar and Cafe. Coffee and space, wifi, powerpoints, and like a lot of these places a huge laptop computer party!

​Anyway I have my last bit of Chicago and then head on down the road through Indiana, and then onto Detroit, Michigan