Now, there is so many reasons to do this and I'll tell you the primary one in a little bit. But a major contributing reason is that this is a very important blues club in Chicago since 1989, the most famous, I think, and it's the club of blues legendary Buddy Guy.
He's a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, a chief guitar influence to rock titans like Hendrix, Clapton, Beck and Vaughan, a pioneer of Chicago's fabled West Side sound, and a living link to that city's halcyon days of electric blues.
Another contributing factor is that the club is being evicted -
Columbia College owns the building and it's turning it into a student center and the lease expires on May 31.
Now, the real reason that we went is because Buffy has a coworker that is singing tonight. Old Town School of Folk Music has classes - Blues Band - Live!.
Work out the blues with your own Old Town School band. The first meeting will include a jam session, ensemble selection and band placement. Eight weeks of practice will land your band a gig! Final performances will be at Buddy Guy's Legends or another Chicago blues club. Class time depends on student's ensemble designation.
They serve
very good food there, so we were there early to eat. We were all
VERY pleased with our food.
We had to sit through 3 bands before we saw the band that had the singer we were there to see. At times, it was painful... no, really painful, that we were actually checking our ears to see if they were bleeding... 1st band (Lady and the Tramps), very capable, but the lead singer had... ummm... a very poor choice of clothing - she was heavy, and wore a spangly red tube top, and... you know, we really didn't need to see her belly roll actually move as she gyrated on stage, not to mention she had to keep pulling the top up. (I wound up listening, but not watching - I just couldn't do it). Second band (The Rubber Duckies), all guys, keyboard was lead vocalist, a very good sound. Third band (The Carrie Yoko Blues Machine?), female lead much larger than the first, though she dressed so much better. Problem with her - she yelled her vocals. She was the one we had to check our ears for blood.
Two obvious thing taught in class - you must name your group, and you must introduce the bad during a song.
Then came the the fourth group - The Taildraggers, with the person that we came to see - Becki Gartner. OK, now, I'm not saying this cause she's a co-worker of a friend, but... she was definitely the best of the evening. Great voice, good quality, not overpowering. The group was good, too... they even had a guy playing a dobro lap slide guitar, which adds a lot to the sound.
Great, different evening... better than going to a hockey game that we were supposed to go to tonight...
« hide the extended part of this entry