Summer Darling North American Tour Diary 6

Day Six and Seven: Chicago, IL

The last two days were incredible. I hesitate to recount them because I know I will fail at adequately expressing the extent of my happiness. The days’ events seem jumbled together in my mind like the contents of my now-all-dirty-clothes bag. Instead of a play by play retelling, I feel I can only provide snapshots of some of the highlights from our time in Chicago.

Snapshot One: We scurried from the gigantic stage of the House Of Blues after completing a stressful soundcheck (our bass head is not working at the moment and we had to borrow Company of Thieves last minute). The room was empty when we left it at 6pm. When we returned at 6:15 to play, the 1300 capacity club was nearly full. It was a surreal experience, as well as logistically stupefying. We didn’t complain.

Snapshot Two: Looking out into the crowd mid song and seeing my friends from Madison in the audience. I felt so proud that they got to witness this epic show. It made the whole tour finally feel real to me.

Snapshot Three: Watching Ok Go from the third floor balcony as the confetti rained down on the screaming crowd.

Snapshot Four: Meeting Lars. Lars is a young boy with blonde hair and two adult teeth. He was as energetic as any fan I’ve ever met. He gave us this advice about being on the road: “Have a good tour but don’t take it over the top but still have fun.” Priceless advice, Lars.

Snapshot Five: Dancing with our friends at Beauty Bar until 2:30 am then taking a cab back to Ok Go’s hotel. Dan left his iPhone in the cab, and the cab driver actually came back 30 minutes later and handed it back to Dan, for a small recovery fee. Somewhere during this debacle I wandered off and got lost beneath the hotel where the service entrance to House of Blues is. Heather received a phone call from me. Apparently I didn’t know why I was down there and had to be reminded that I was there to walk Peno.

Snapshot Six: Eating at Manny’s, an old school, cafeteria style diner in south Chicago. They just put things on the glass counter and if you wanted it, you grabbed it. I grabbed the biggest Pastrami sandwich I’ve ever seen, a potato pancake, a piece of boysenberry pie, and a Coors Light.

Snapshot Seven: Hanging out with the band and Tim from Ok Go in Wicker Park area, or as it looked like to me, a combination of Brooklyn, Echo Park and Melrose Ave. We met a ton of Tim’s friends from Chicago (Dan actually went with Tim to see Tim speak at his collegiate alma mater) and went to a couple of bars and a tasty pizzeria.

Snapshot Eight: Bowling with Ok Go. Damien was kind enough to treat us all to a big giant bowling match at the bowling alley adjacent to their hotel. No one bowls in this bunch, but it was schoolyard fun, chalked full of trash talking and laughter and not a few cocktails.

Snapshot Nine: Cruising through downtown on the Elevated Train. What a way to see the city!

Honorable mentions: Chicago, your people are the nicest city people I’ve ever come across. Both our lovely hosts, Ally and Chris, and the whole Ok Go crew made us feel very welcomed and at home.