August 18, 2005 THE CHICAGO SHOW. Double Door
Thu Aug 18, 2005 5:27 am
The Windy, Rainy City greets us with dreary skies...
http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/eisley
Are these getting boring? Ok. I heard that. I quit.
Great headline right? Man. That's a great headline... I'm not quiting but I
can't post but for a second. (aww... stop cheering) We're checking out of
this Lennox Suites Hotel in dt Chicago. The girls and I strolled out into the
grey to find Jamba Juice. On the way back, the sprinkling deluge of drivel
did come down upon us. Great... another setback besides the free show
to keep people at home on a Thursday night. jk.
Off to the venue. See some of you tonight. Bring a friend. A 21+ friend.
Bring your mom, your dad, your grandmother. Otherwise, I don't think
we'll have a big turn out. Bring your tickets. Sell X-tra's for $15 dollars to
scalpers... tell them "surely you can double your money, man.."
bd
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Sitting outside the Double Door in the bus. weird.
the SUN is breaking thru!!! yes! later.
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Still sitting in the van... doors are open. not too many peeps in thar. So,
I'm bored and this is discouraging so... I thought to post this map of our
routes since February. 1000's and 1000's of miles of sitting on grey vinyl
van benches. I have to admit I was in the front and the seats are nicer.
Anyway...
We're bored. Sitting in the bus. the BUS... our happy thought right now...
especially since it seems like nobody is here... Well, i dunno. 21+ in a
market that Eisley's been in several times recently. I'm not really sure
people know about this show. I mean, that sounds pretty far out,
considering everything, but... a bunch of people I've talked to have said -
"man, we only found about this because we browsed across Eisley's site
yesterday... I wouldn't have known otherwise". But - it's all good, as they
say. Whoever came is in for a giant love sized dose of Eisley tonight. The
sound is pretty sweet here. Intimate, I think they call it. 
But - isn't that a perdy graphic of our tours? I am working on editing a
little stuff - in the bus, etc. and maybe some from tonight's show. Well...
bye for now.
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Well, I spoke too soon..
It's filling up. I jumped the gun. I shot the goon. Somebody shoot that goon. Anyway... I just sombered thru and I'm digging the scene in there.
Eisley is getting put on stage as I type... so, I'd better plug in ya'll. Report about the show directly after. Yahoo!!!!! (real goony goon face)
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AFTER-SHOW REPORT
Hey.... I blew it. I was going to find my way back to the bus, log on and
write a bit, but by the time I got back to the bus, I was the last person to
get on the bus; Next thing - Jeremy said, “are we ready? It was too late
to get on line. We were pulling away from the DD.
Near Blow-Out
I was so wrong. The house filled up... packed. Still shocked over such an
amazing turn out from 21+ crowd. Honestly.. that's amazing. Thanks
muchly.
After the show: veryone was tired. We ate some snacks, Stacy,
Chauntelle and I talked to Jeremy for a while, he got a phone call, Stacy
bailed, I grabbed my Apple, Chauntelle is watching the wide screen, but...
It’s getting sleepy in here. I can’t hold on much longer. Pick back up in
the morning. Nite.
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Good Morning
Eisley is sleeping like Mars chocolate bars, wrapped in 50's paper (yes,
with the old logo)... and the bars are in a box... and the box is put up in
an old fashion pantry... it's dark in there; very dark. I know, I unwrapped
myself, climbed out of the box and opened the pantry door into this
bright - light world.
It's 8:20am - only we lost an hour so it's not really. We're sitting in the
parking lot behind the Magic Bag. I hear there's a "The Beanery" in the
front. I might go check that out, but after I used my secret wireless
decoder ring (well, it's really a wireless finder that Luke's mom got me)
and found there was a signal. Vuahahh.... I'm on.
The Show
Well, I guess we were all very thankful; early signs indicated it would be
a no show... Chauntelle and I were walking around outside and thought,
hey, let's go see what the line looks like; we rounded the corner
and...GuLp; even 20 minutes before doors, it looked like about 10 - 15
people were there. We thought, "oh wow... this is going to be a tough
night to get through".
I kept thinking, "well, I guess Eisley needs to stop touring for a while...
we've just saturated Chicago and other areas... time to go away for a
long, long time - so that we don't ever have to experience this again."
The band was having a hard time pulling themselves up for the show;
combine the fact that they're so tired from touring with the reality that
nobody wants to see you - even a free show promoted HUGE in a market
that supposedly loves you.... it's not a pretty emotional sight. I was
giving them pep talk cpr. Imagine the irony of pulling up in the mammoth
bus and having no one show. (well, a few... but 30 - 50 people would be
like a no show almost)
All in all, the night turned out really great I think. Did you guys enjoy the
show? Sherri was having major problems surviving the hot lights. She
came back to the bus, was listless... very not herself for a long, long,
time in the bus before crashing. I haven't checked on her this morning,
but I'm sure she's ok. I know she wasn't happy with her performance as
a result of whatever she was dealing with. The sound was decent... the
band was about a 7 our of 10, but the Chicago crowd totally made up for
it. Seriously, you guys were crazy. Thanks for the warm welcome. You
turned the night around for the band. I hope they reciprocated with the
songs, the vibe, the love you were hoping for.
I did read that report from the dude at the Chicagoist... which, to be
honest, was a knife in the heart. Chauntelle and I had just looked at the
line of 10 people and then Kim called and read it to me on line. I wasn't
angry or anything... that's what critics do. It's their job to call it like they
see it. I just think he gave himself permission to speak for all of Chicago
when he didn't have a lisence. From my non-jaded, very rational, very
reality based view of what's happening - Chicago is becoming one of the
faster growing markets and certainly, besides, LA and Texas, the most
exciting city for the band to play.
If he'd been to the Metro (Snow Patrol), House of Blues (NFG), The Magic
Stick (Eisley's headlining tour), the Metro (Hot Hot Heat - where it was
difficult to tell who was the headlliner) and... last night, wouldn't he have
had to recant and reconsider? The response has been huge. I'm being as
honest as I can. It's just my opinion, but... I think Chicago is very much
embracing Eisley. Am I wrong? I'm willing to admit I could be way off. Of
course, you guys are fans, so...it's not fair to ask the question here. We'll
see. But not for a while.
Eisley won't be back in Chicago for possibly a long, long time. The
Switchfoot tour doesn't come through here... so, more than likely, it'll be
next year... and not even early next year. Summer, if that. But, we've
certainly been here SO many times, it's ok to give it a break... and not
over-saturate.
Well, off to find coffee and do some video editing - unless something
sucks my time first. It typically does. Thanks! boyd
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Yahoo, Pop2Life, Saturn
Been editing this. Gotta go back into the venue now. We're all set up.
Getting sound going now for sound check. Band is relaxing in the big,
beautiful bus. Thankyou Yahoo and Saturn. I hear many Saturn people
are coming to the show tonight to see what they're supporting. That's
fairly cool I think. And the Yahoo guys and the pop2life people (all guys
and girls) are so cool.
Seriously... they're so into music. They all have music backgrounds -
were band managers, A&R at labels, Tour Managers... all so into Eisley.
The last show they did like this was "the Bravery"; They're totally into
supporting emerging artists and knowing what's cool. I've been hanging
out with them a lot. I like. Corporate or not, they're wanting to make
Yahoo a leader in music... and they have great vision. The new
subscription based on line thing is something like $5 bucks per month for
millions of songs. I dunno. I can't do it.... not for Macs. But, sounds like
an amazing dea. This was not an ad. This was Boyd's honest, unsolicited
journal, as always.
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