Entries Tagged as 'the riviera'

The Black Crowes at the Riv

December 8th, 2008 · 4 Comments

On Friday night I met up with Chad, Trent, Limey, Brian, and Jill at Fiesta Mexicana in Uptown. We had tickets for The Black Crowes at the Riviera and were getting some pre-show dinner. I’d been to Fiesta Mexicana in Lincoln Park, but never to the Uptown location. I got the vegetarian fajitas, which doesn’t sound like anything extraordinary, but it was fantastic. You get this whole skillet full of grilled onions, peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes and broccoli. More than I could ever eat, but I had Jill and Limey there to help me out. Everyone loved it.

On to the show. I’d seen The Black Crowes 7 or 8 years ago when I lived in San Diego. We used to go to this street festival called Street Scene and they were there. It was a fantastic show and I knew just about every song they played. This time around, not so much. I guess they’ve released a few albums since then and I haven’t kept up. On Friday they barely played any old songs… I only knew 2 songs the whole night. The band is obviously very talented and has a huge following, but I didn’t enjoy the show as much as last time I saw them. I still had fun, though.

Afterward we went to Fat Cat in Uptown and were there til close. I had a great night. Trent, Chad and I shared a cab home. They were dropped off first and then my cabbie screwed up and accidentally took me almost to Lincoln Square. I wasn’t paying attention because I was calling Dallas. He was out with Killian and was on his way home, too. I finally got home. I was so tired. What happened next could have been a dream, except I had photos to prove it wasn’t. Behold:

Dallas had stopped at Susie’s Drive-In and gotten a foot-long cheese steak, which we shared, and a taco shell full of cheese fries. I was the happiest girl in the world when I saw those. So delicious. And then I fell asleep. Possibly with “liquid cheese” still on my face.

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Feist at the Riv

November 18th, 2007 · 2 Comments

Feist at the RivBefore the show, Jess and I tried to have dinner at a place Chad recommended earlier in the day, Thai Pastry, but it was full and they couldn’t really give us an estimate on how long the wait was. So, not wanting to be late for the show, we went to Agami for sushi. The sushi was pretty good, but I thought it was overpriced. The service was kind of off.. our waiter was big-time pressuring us to order quickly. Also, we each had a really delicious lychee martini, but they didn’t seem to have any alcohol in them plus they were $12 each.

On to the show. I thought it was great. There’s no messing with Leslie Feist’s voice in the studio.. it’s as strong and clear live as it is in her recorded songs. The only bad thing was that she injured her foot right before the show so she had to sit the whole time. I think that normally she’d be dancing around and it would have been a bit more lively. Overall, a great show, though.

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A Night Out in Uptown

May 9th, 2007 · 1 Comment

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I know it’s been years, but these kinds of tickets still surprise me sometimes.. and irritate me how Ticketmaster charges like $2.00+ extra to get the PDF to print. And last night at The Riv they didn’t even electronically scan our ticket, which makes me think I could have just printed out 5 copies and brought 4 of my friends and they’d have never even known.

I’m not a huge fan of the Arctic Monkeys, not because I don’t like them, but because I don’t really know them. A coworker of mine had some extra tickets to the show and Dallas was interested so we went. They put on a great show. I’m definitely going to have to check them out more now. They were very energetic and the crowd was really into it. The lead singer’s cockney accent was so pronounced that I couldn’t understand a word he spoke. But his singing voice wasn’t so bad.

The band that opened for them, I don’t even know their name, they were from Tennessee. They stunk. Everyone around us was happy when they were done. They had a girl lead singer who basically just yelled for a minute straight and those were their songs. And I think I’m an old lady because at the end she was rolling around on the ground and all I could think about was how disgusting the floor of the stage probably is.

Before going to The Riv, we were walking around trying to figure out where to grab a bite to eat. There was a sushi place on Broadway that I’d heard was good and there was Crew, the gay sports bar, where I’d been before and knew we could grab some quick eats. Then a little farther up the street we stumbled upon Marigold, a restaurant I’d heard a lot about but never knew exactly where it was. That’s where we ate. It’s modern Indian food and was delicious. I don’t know about you, but most of the Indian places I’ve eaten have always been very straight-forward, traditional, not fancy, etc. This place has a pretty interior, really great service with more sophistication, they were playing upbeat Indian dance tunes, and the food was really good.

Update:Jim tells me that the opening band was called Be Your Own Pet. Justin says they are all the rage among the bloggers. (not this one!) Justin also sent me Greg Kot’s review of last night’s show.

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Beck @ The Riv

September 22nd, 2005 · 5 Comments

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The Riviera Theater, Uptown, Chicago

Last night I was walking out of the office when Andrew called to ask what I was doing. He had an extra ticket to the sold out Beck show at the Riv and needed someone to go. I was all over it!

A few years ago in New York some friends and I made plans to go to this huge music fest, Field Day. We were going out to Long Island and camping and seeing a million acts like Radiohead and Beck and I can’t even remember now but there were a lot. Then it all went to hell. The concert promoters didn’t secure the land properly and there was some protest about endangered birds’ habitat being infringed on. Long story short, a lot of the bands were cut and the venue was changed to Giant’s stadium. And I got a refund. And I wasn’t going to get to see Beck. wah. Most of my friends were psyched to see Radiohead, but I wanted Beck and I wasn’t getting him. In the end he like cracked a rib right before show time and didn’t play so it was a good thing I got the refund.

Aaaanyway, so I was super psyched to finally see him. He played tons of song from all the albums, old and new. There were only about 3 all night that I didn’t know. The funny thing.. since I’ve been “buying” digital music for the past 5 years and I sit at work with a drive full of 5,000 songs on random and listen to them, I no longer know song names or what albums their from.. but I recognize the songs immediately. Luckily Andrew is a slow-comer to the digital revolution and was there to tell me the title of each song and which album it was from.

Beck, being Beck, can do just about anything and you’ll just look at the guy you’re standing next to and say “well, he IS Beck!” Example: The awesome lame dancer who was on stage wearing a sweatsuit and sweatbands and dancing like that dorky kid at the school dance. Example: During The Golden Age the whole band, except Beck, sat down at a dinner table on stage and ate dinner.. except this wasn’t any dinner. Soon the only instruments being played were dishes with silverware. .. plates, bowls, glasses of water. It turned from the slow mellow song into an upbeat jam and it was AWESOME.

My favorite song of the night was Mixed Bizness. I was also really impressed with a cover Beck did of the Flaming Lips song Do You Realize. Awesome. Andrew totally called the encore – E-Pro, although it was kind of disappointing that that was the only song in the encore.

One last thing. I was SO happy to see Beck wearing white/tan pants and a dark belt and not black pants with a white belt. I’m SO over that.

See also:
» Beck – Guero
» Satan Gave Me a Taco
» Field Day

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