Day off in Chicago (22nd Sept)…..

So there's no show tonight and no travelling for me, so its a day off! Mark, Beth, Kim and Kami are flying back to DC today so they were up early and left the hotel around 9am, leaving Joe, Eric and i in the room. I packed all my stuff as was moving into the room with Jens, Lars and Thomas today as Philippe had gone home yesterday.

We all met in the hotel lobby around 11 and headed out for lunch, walked a few blocks and sat down at a cafe for brunch.

After lunch i left the guys to go get the train out to see my friend Ron whom I'd only seen for a few minutes at each of the pre show meet ups.

Greg was still at Ron's and was just heading out to the airport to fly back to North Carolina, Col was still at Ron's and it was good to sit down and have a quiet chat about the shows, websites, etc etc We also watched the film that Ron took of the 2nd nights show, came out pretty good!  I Headed back to the hotel around 5pm intending to go out for dinner but i totally crashed when i got back. The guys went out for dinner to Joe’s restaurant and i got a great nights sleep and woke around 7 this morning,

Cool art deco type telephone area i saw on the subway yesterday:

Its now 2pm on Thursday afternoon when I'm writing this, were all hanging out in the room (click on this link to watch us partying LIVE now at the hotel Partying at the Blake LIVE now ) drinking beer and were all going to Joe’s at 4pm for some good food tonight as the guys really loved the place last night. Its then on to see the 3rd show tonight and then Buddy Guys blues bar after the show!

Chicago 2nd night show…………

 

Kami and Jake were 3rd row centre right on the isle, Suzanne, Ken,Elliot, Paul, Johnny were at the back of the hall to the right, Mark, Beth, Kim were back of the hall to the left, Wendy & Jessica were rear centre, Jens, Lars and Thomas were about 10th row centre and Gina, Maria, Kim and I were 8th row centre. People were spread everywhere around the arena tonight.

The pre show entertainment started around 8pm as it normally does with the band hitting the stage just before 8:15, pyros, flag bearers, smoke, it was all there, same show just another night. once you've seen one of Rogers shows from the front 10 rows i think its very hard to sit anywhere else to be honest. You just don't se the interaction between the band, the eye contact between the guitarists, the smiles, laughs and facial expressions that go on through the whole show that you just don't see when your anywhere else in the Arena. Having said that, if you want your eyes to focus on the projections and see everything that's going on on the “wall” then its probably too close.

You do see the effect of the 3D images a lot better when your slightly farther back and to the side, they don't work half as good when your looking straight on to them! However your able to see the band through the brick holes later in the show, something you cant see from the sides! So i guess its “horses for courses” but bare this in mind when your seeing more than one show, i would definitely recommend seeing it from different aspects.

one good thing about tonight was the plane actually came down and crashed into the wall as it should do at the end of In The Flesh. It was great to see the school kids really getting into it as well during Another Brick, they were a lot more active than the kids in Toronto.

Few pictures taken during the intermission:

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The sound was incredible, the performance was amazing and the band were very, VERY tight tonight. I have to agree with everyone else that Chicago 2nd night was definitely the best show of the tour so far.

There’s a great post here that describes some of the technical details about the wall, how its build and how it comes down, great read Wall technical details

We caught the shuttle bus back to the West End bar after the show, the bus was packed and the driver put Comfy Numb on as soon as we all got in, the bus just erupted with song!! i didn't take any video of it but i hope someone did!Got back to the bar and had a few drinks before i called it a night and got a cab back to my hotel.

After show at the West End bar:

Chi in Chicago….

Woke around 9am, showered dressed and headed out to the venue to pick up a couple of tickets for a friend i was to meet up with later in the day. I got to the venue around 10:15 only to find out the box office didn't open till 11. It was a beautiful day but a little humid, it said 81 on the weather readout on the train here and it certainly felt like it!

I laid out on a bench by the venue and sunbathed for a little till around 11 ish, as i sat up i saw a guy coming out of the venue and a couple of people taking his picture. I could tell he was someone famous but had no idea who he was, 6ft 7”, black and walking out of the united centre he had to be a basket ball player! I took the following pics and within 5 minutes of putting it on my facebook page my friend Wendy replied to say it was Scottie Pippin, an ex NBA guy who was pretty good by all reports! He’d obviously been good enough to make enough money to buy a nice car!

I took the train back to the hotel, got back just as Kim and Joe were heading out to Navy pier for some lunch so the three of us took a leisurely stroll up towards the pier.As i said it was real humid today and i mentioned this to Kim and told her her hairs gonna get all frizzed out when she goes outside. “ no it wont, I've just chi’ed it” she said.  (Chi pronounced Chee) She then went on to tell Joe and i about her hair straigtener’s called “Chi” These get real hot and stop the hair frizzing out!

As we headed out of the hotel we saw the following waiting at the traffic light! are you really allowed to drive a car like this in the US ?

 

We called in at Millennium park for a couple of shots of the been and the outdoor theatre and then carried on walking up the waterfront past the marina and on to the pier.

The pier looked a lot nearer than it actually was! i guess due to the size of the ferris wheel we could see at the entrance, we seemed to walk for miles and it never got any nearer! After nearly getting run over by bicycles on the sidewalk several time we eventually arrived at the pier and called Gina and Mara who had left their hotel a while after us and were going to meet up with us. They were 15 minutes away so we sat down and ordered a drink at Harry Caray’s on the pier.

The girls arrived 10 minutes later and they glad to get some food to soak up the left over alcohol in their bodies from the night before!! We saw Marcia (Ron's wife) Greg and Colin walk past the restaurant and had a 5 minute chat. Ron was working today so Marcia was playing tour guide for the day.

After lunch Kim, Joe, Maria and Gina headed to the ferris wheel, i walked back down to Millennium park where id arranged to meet Lorri to hand over the tickets id picked up for her that morning. Made my way back to our hotel and by the time i got there Joe and Kim arrived in a taxi. Joe had crashed in our room the night before and hadn't got a change of clothes so his friend Eric was bringing him some over when he came over for the show. Joe grabbed a shower in our room however he had no “product” for his hair! Kim had the best product ever she said, she could “Chi “him!!! and she proceeded to do so! much to the amusement of me, Kami and everyone else that wanted to see the video in the bar that night (you kinda had to be there to get the funny side of it)

After Joe had had his “makeover” we got a couple of cabs and headed out to the West End bar where tonight's pre show meet was.It was a little further on the street from last nights meet up place but only half a mile from the venue. Ron had reserved a room for us all that its own private bar and by the time we arrived I'd guess the place was 75% full!

Mark, Beth, Kami, Kim, Joe and i all sat down for some food and 5 minutes later Eric walked in with his brother and sister Jennifer. I hadn't seen Eric for about 4 years and it was great to see him again. Eric and Joe came over to the UK in 2002 for the UK shows of Rogers “In The Flesh” tour, they were both 19 years old, had never been out of the US and were travelling alone, i picked them up at Kings Cross station without having ever  met them before and we had a fantastic week driving round seeing the shows in the UK and Dublin, something we reminisced about a lot both last night and during today. Two fantastic friends with a huge passion for Roger and music in general.Justin had also arrived who again had come over to the UK in 2002 and hung out with us all, i hadn't seen him for 3 years and it was great for us all to meet up face to face again instead of via messages on a forum! Lars had also flown in earlier today from Copenhagen to join us for the next weeks worth of shows and would be travelling to Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Boston with us all.

Adam, Myself, Justin, Joe and Eric       Eric, Philippe, Jennifer, Adam and Joe         Eric, Myself and Adam

 

People were arriving all the time and it was kinda hard to keep up with who was here, who wasn't, who id met the night before and who i hadn't!
Album with pictures of all the pre show meet up people below, as you tell from our faces we had a fantastic time and all get on so well together, just like one big extended family.

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I had a good chat with almost everyone, managed to get round and take pictures with most people too. I had wanted to have a good chat with Johnny “floyd”  but he wasn't at the meet up. Lauren had given him my cell number and he texted me to give me his seat details in the venue where i said id call by and have a chat. The bar had a shuttle bus again to take us all to the venue so we caught that around 7pm and arrived at the show about 7:15.
 
Then onto the show…………..