yankee

True, Green Mill is more for some serious jazz listening, and best to arrive early before it gets packed. And I think they still do Sunday night poetry slams, but I haven't been to that in ages. It's pretty entertaining, particularly since the judges are selected at random from the audience, and they can rate the poets from 1 to 10 and can also use negative numbers, but just can't go below the lowest score ever scored in a Green Mill poetry slam: negative infinity.

I'm with you. Wouldn't recommend the single room occupancy places. However, if you do want to explore the neighborhood around the Riv, I'd say head up to Argyle and enjoy some southeast Asian cuisine. Oh, and check out the Green Mill.

You could always park on the street, then ditch your car for the weekend. There's often street parking in the west loop. My brother lives around Racine and Washington and parks on the street.

I've heard Alinea is great. My brother and his girlfriend go to all those high-end places like Charlie Trotter's, Alinea, Blackbird, Moto, etc. He says Trotter's isn't nearly as good as it used to be several years ago. He likes Moto best, but he's biased since he's friends with the wine director there. I'm work for an environmental organization. I know more about finding delicious bargains.

Yeah, I'd save on lodging and check out some restaurants. If you want to try something really interesting, check out Moto in the west loop. It's expensive, but really cool. The chef won Iron Chef America. Plus, you get to eat the menu. Oh, and my friend Matt is the wine director, and he's a Wilco fan! Check it: www.motorestaurant.com Of course, there are also lots of inexpensive but also very delicious options for eating and drinking in Chicago. I could go on and on . . . .

Well, if you stay downtown, that's far from the Riv, but close to museums, lots of shopping, and all that. The Riv is surrounded by hotels. . . . but the are mostly the single room occupancy places that give the neighborhood it's slightly seedy reputation. There are some bed and breakfast type places up in Lincoln park, which is kind of between downtown and Uptown. Lincoln Park is swanky and has lots of bars and restaurants and fancy boutique type shopping. of course there are tons of hotels by O'Hare, but I wouldn't recommend that. That's crazy far from the Riv . . . and from everythi

Seriously. It's not the symphony. Last year I saw Wilco at the Barrymore in Madison (smaller than the Riv I think, just as dumpy, but with better, cheaper beer), and at the Auditorium theatre. I enjoyed the Barrymore show MUCH more than the show at the auditorium. Sure, it was crowded, standing room, we were jostled around, it was sometimes hard to see (especially for us short people) and there were hyper, drunk college kids singing along, but it was a blast and the crowd was pumped up! The Auditorium show felt like a show I'd take my dad to see. He's in his 70s and only listens to

To get that extensive, you've got to go see the Wilco ensemble, the Old Town School of Folk Music's Wilco cover band. We've performed Just a Kid, we've attempted Hey Chicken, and at a living room show last year, we jammed with Jeff on a few old dusty ones like Cars Can't Escape and Dash 7. Over the past few years we've attempted to perform Wilco's complete studio recordings, including bonus tracks and . . . . hmmmm . . . . . . interesting . . . . .

I heard about the end of the Lake View Lounge from a friend who attended the closing night blast. Last time I went down that block, it looked like it was indeed gone. Very sad!!! That place was unique. Gotta love 3 old guys in shiny shirts who rock out all night and get the crowd to sing along on Viva Las Vegas. And the tiny stage was tucked behind the bar and came complete with year round Christmas lights and tinsel. Classic. And yeah, Carol's is fun, and has a similar (but less surreal) vibe. It's sure not fancy, but every now and then, I love me a good dive bar! And if there's a l

I'm just sorry the closed the Lake View lounge. It was my favorite dive bar, where the band behind the bar used to announce, "welcome to the Lake View Lounge, were there ain't no lake, and there ain't no view." The three scruffy old guys in the band would then bust into some Elvis and Johny Cash covers and rock the place until around 4 a.m. The place always started out with old neighborhood bar fly types early in the evening, then gradually got taken over by young artist types as the night wore on. Kind of like Wicker Park before the yuppies took over. The closest thing left in town that

Yeah, that area used to be a lot more sketchy back when I used to go to shows at the Riv during college. It's gotten a bit gentrified, like a lot of parts of the city. Even then, it wasn't all that scary. That was, yikes, in the mid 90s. Dang, time flies. The legendary Green Mill is right around the corner from the Riv. That's definitely worth checking out for some jazz or a poetry slam if you're visiting Chicago.

Yeah, Barack was totally inspiring. He really got everyone fired up!

Here are some 2006 photos with the Old Town Schoo Wilco Ensemble.

AWESOME!!!

Yes, this one was a blast!!! The recording did circulate at some point but we were slow to share since we wanted to make sure it was OK with Jeff. There's also a thread here with lots of photos and stories. The OTS Wilco Ensemble has done 2 living room shows with Jeff, so there's a thread in here from the 2006 show somewhere too.

Yeah, the timing was unfortunate, but at least Bob had to miss it for a good reason. (He's great in the Snow Queen at Victory Gardens everyone should check it out!) When we first heard about this opportunity, Bob had hoped he could get to the 50th after performing in the Snow Queen, but the two performances ended up being pretty much at the same time. In any case, kudos to Jeff for including members of the ensemble. What a cool guy to think of us! And perhaps Bob will have another chance to play with Jeff.

too bad bob's missing from that photo!!! he's the reason the wilco ensemble exists!

Congrats to the Wilco ensemble members. Sorry i missed it! The ensemble actually has lots more members, but if we'd all been on stage it would have been totally out of hand (there are probably at least 50 people if you include both current members and alumni). Unfortunately, the guy who created the ensemble couldn't be there. Fortunately, that's because he was busy performing as a talking, singing, guitar playing reindeer in The Snow Queen at Victory Gardens. A few of us Wilco ensemble members went to see it last night and it was really fun. I definitely recommend checking it out! S

It was nice seeing you there! Everyone seemed to be having a blast, including the bands. It's always fun to chat with the members of Two Cow because they seem so thrilled when people come out to see them and really enjoy the show. Totally nice guys! They're planning a few shows in England, so if anyone out there is in Brighton or London, check these guys out! They're a really fun live act!

Two Cow Garage totally rocked the Hideout in Chicago last night. They were mixing up the band a little with the other band that played, Grand Champeen. They played some new song I didn't know, so I can't come up with a set list, but it rocked. They are really high energy and lots of fun. And they're nice guys who are glad to hang with the crowd between sets and enjoy the other bands. They're in Milwaukee tonight, and St. Louis Saturday, so seriously check these guys out! http://www.myspace.com/twocowgarage Rock on.

The purse idea is kind of odd but cute. I just wonder who's doing the knitting! I'm not sure how one would work guitar strings into a knit purse . . .

Nothing posted yet about an auction . . . which makes me wonder whether it's happening this year.

Nels Cline: GREAT addition to Wilco, or THE GREATEST addition to Wilco? (I could ask the same about Glen.) So yeah, I really like the current Wilco lineup. They sound great as a band and I get the impression that they work well as a group and enjoy making music together. I suspect that even if someone like . . . that guy on keys whose name I can never remember . . . Mikeal? Anyway, . . . I suspect that if any piece of this finely tuned rock machine were removed, his absence would be felt more than his presence is noticed. All together, they have such a rich texture and I like the w

I'd like to think that hearing Wilco in a mall or grocery store doesn't mean that Wilco is being used as Muzak. I'd like to hope it means that some good music is starting to replace the offensive muzak we get subjected to. And as much as I don't like chains, I have to admit that Starbucks and Chipotle have somebody with a little taste doing their music programing. It helps give good music a chance at being heard over the din of the disposable pop tunes and American Idol type crap. And anyway, while I prefer my local coffee shop, I know some full-time coffee shop workers who'd rather wo

I heard New Madrid in Chipotle recently and was surprised!