Well, it's complete. After a quick trip to New York today for a meeting, I am on my way home. The final toll: 28 bands, in whole or in part. I missed 4 completely.

Who I saw: Shipping News, Super System, Girls Against Boys, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, !!!, The New Year, Uzeda, Pegboy, Tim & Andy of Silkworm, The Ex, Killdozer, Jon & Kat of The Ex and the Mekons, The Didjits, PW Long, Negative Approach, Sally Tims, Scratch Acid, Big Black, Shellac, Quasi, The Mon-Orchid, Enon, Three Mile Pilot, Tara Jane O'Neil, Seam, Coco Rosie, Pinback, Calexico.

Who I missed: Man or Astroman (that hurt), Arcwelder (ditto), Brick Layer Cake, The Black Heart Procession.

And did I mention Mike and I went to see Asia at Avalon on Thursday?



I got there on friday almost exactly as the doors opened. I was the 453rd person into the festival, or so the crash numbers on my bracelet said. Ashley, Mike, and Emily had mechanical troubles with their aircraft, so they were delayed, ending up on Judi's flight, not scheduled to arrive until after the first day's bands. I wandered around a bit between 4 and 5, getting the lay of the land, buying beer tickets and drinking a beer.

Donny and Katie were the first familiar faces to arrive, and they had some friends in tow. We wandered around for a while and eventually checked out the first band: The Shipping News: opinions were mixed, amongst Touch and Go fans, about the artistic merit of Jason Noble's endeavors, but I like this band. The sound was definitely muddled, but they put on a pretty solid show. A strong start.

Alex and Ben arrived next, and we all sort of wandered a bit but listened to Super System. The setup for the festival was pretty solid - two stages within walking distance, bands playing on one stage and then the next, in rapid succession. This allowed for a very punctual festival (ridiculously so - at one point on sunday they were actually ahead of schedule). It also allowed you to wander, eat, drink and shop all while easily hearing whatever band was playing, and this is what we did for Super System, who sounded like they wanted to be The Faint - strangely out of place on T&G but not entirely unpleasant. I made a mental note to check into them some more.

Next up was Girls Against Boys. Again with the muddled sound, but on the plus side they elected to play their entire Touch and Go album Venus Luxure #1 Baby, in order. That was pretty awesome.

Around this time we found a few more of Ben's friends, a posse that included bellahalo, who I'd never met, and a few others. We checked out Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, this being the third time I have seen him this year. I love his energy, and his voice, and, well, all the parts, but each time I'm seen him I am left wanting more. Several of our posse enjoyed them, though.

And then came the much-maligned headliner of the night. You'd think every T&G fan hated !!! but the size of the crowd proved that some of them must just be frontin'. I like 'em, but I have to say this was a pretty boring show for them. I thought it would be awesome to hear them on a big stage, but in fact the opposite occurred, and the big stage made them sound a little wan. They were, if I recall, the first band of the festival to point down to front and center of the audience and start talking to Cory.

Cory is the ridiculously reclusive owner of Touch and Go. He has run the label for 25 years. He's signed bands like Big Black, Scratch Acid, the Jesus Lizard, the Butthole Surfers and more. By rights he should be a towering figure in punk rock, and he is, but he is apparently ridiculously shy. A good 20 of the bands this weekend gave special thanks to Cory - who as far as I can tell watched the entire festival - every band - from front and center. It was an amazing display of stamina from someone who made himself known in almost no way.

Instead of our rightful MC, we were given a hysterically histrionic old guy who owned the Hideout - the bar which was hosting T&G's 25th anniversary festival as their 10th annual block party. They guy was pretty funny. Obviously a really nice guy - and the Hideout is a fantastic bar and you obviously know he's in it for the greater good - but one prone to the occasional long political rant. he also seemed to think the audience was dubious of the charitable intentions of the block party, at one point quixotically going on about how you could inspect the plans for the kid's playground, and even extolling people to come on back to chicago next year to make sure the playground really got built. It's Touch and Go! They are reputability defined. I can't imagine why he thought anyone had any reason to doubt. Anyway, he was funny, frantic, colorful and entertaining, so he gets a two thumbs up in my book.

After the first night, me, Ben, Alex, and Darren got some awesome noodles and then went to an awesome local bar called Beachwood, where Judi, Ashley, Mike and Emily had reconnoitered, along with Julie/Belahalo and her posse. We drank and then we went to our respective sleeping quarters.

Saturday was the epic day. Ashley and I were the only two from the Boston posse crazy enough to go first thing in the morning. Well, noon. We got there and bought our nice posters for the festival, and then watched band one of the day, The New Year. Not enough awesome things can be said about The New Year. I have seen them a bunch, but like many bands of the weekend, they over delivered, and they also had sound radically, radically improved over anything from the day before. Everyone in the audience was roundly stunned. An excellent performance. Me, Ben, Ashley, Ryan and everyone else who were there were roundly blown away. Except for probably Donny. He's cranky.

On to the next stage for Uzeda, who were pretty much like I remembered them, but solid. Their bass player and drummer are so tight, so in sync, that it's almost impossible to comment on anything else about them.

Then came Pegboy who were hilarious and easily the most fun band of the weekend. The lead singer proclaimed his complete drunkenness, at 2PM, at the outset of their set, and flipped us all off. After finishing the first two songs, out of breath, he proclaimed "I am too old for this. And I'm too ugly. But you guys are even more ugly." After the third song he fell over. But rocked it, he did, and their songs were pretty brilliant - I remember them being so much more punk, and they were, but the working class, melodic punk in the vein of Social D, only without the weight of the major label years on them to detract from their cred.

Moving on next was Tim and Andy, formerly of Silkworm. Silkworm broke up when their drummer died under tragic circumstances, and as far as Ben and I know, this was their first performance since then. It was only scheduled to last 15 minutes, but instead lasted only maybe 10. It was awesome, and you could see the brilliance of the band immediately. I always loved Silkworm and Seam - the beginnings of the "indie rock" thread of T&G that has lead up to bands like Pinback today. I saw Silkworm back in the day (and Seam, and Slint. I saw all those S T&G bands) but remember little about them. You could tell they were hurting being up there, but it was appreciated - there were tons of what were very clearly fans being moved by the experience, and it's good they did it, I think.

Moving on, after a hilarious poltiical rant by our MC about the virtues of Holland, making it sound like a paradise (clearly this man doesn't read the papers) he ended with "this band is called THE EX." Out they came and said "well, that last part is true." They played a solid, damn fine set. The Ex are awesome, and I'd only seen them once before and must not have been paying attention enough. They ruled. We were all well chuffed about the whole affair.

Everyone more or less disappeared for a while in the afternoon, but I weathered through. Soldiered through the first half of Killdozer, who I loved in college, before my feet gave out and I had to go sit for an hour. They were awesome, though, pretty much like they aways were, maybe a little less scary since I'm older, but a little more so since they are.

Next up was Jon and Kat - Jon of the Mekons and Kat of the Ex. This didn't really do it for me. It needed something more than his guitar and vocals and her drums, fine though they were.

The Didjits next and man, this is where the punks began to take over the night. It was pretty awesome how T&G helpfully let it's punk crowd off the hook in buying a weekend pass by putting Pegboy, the Didjits, Negative Approach, Scratch Acid and Big Black on the same night. I mean seriously. How often do such punk lineups happen? It was needless to say pretty punkerific. The Didjits were probably my least favorite of the punk bands that night, but, then, the Didjits are probably my least favorite of the punk bands that played. I am really unqualified to speak to their performance. It sounded punk and murky. They didn't have the fun of Pegboy or the fear of Scratch Acid.

PW Long was next, formerly of Mule. One of the few instances of the Country side of Touch and Go showing through. It's weird how much great alt country Touch and Go has put out, and how little it was represented here. Freakwater, anyone? Anyway, PW Long was great, although his set was super short.

Mike, Emily and Judi arrived somewhere in here and I remember thinking Mike would love Negative Approach - that they were right up his alley, and sure enough, he seemed to think them just dandy. Mike music, through and through. I liked them, though. They were the one T&G punk band that still seemed downright scary.

Sally Timms, of the Mekons, next, who apparently has moved to Chicago and started doing alt country/folk. I liked her a lot. It was solid. Again, though, it was too short. Aex made a comment about her having recently toured, so I'll make a point of checking her out next time she comes round.

And then we have Scratch Acid. Really one of the two most anticipated reunions of the weekend, though there were so so many exciting reunions. David Yow didn't whip his penis out. They were as scary and terrifying as ever. David looks old. He still looks like he could fuck you up. And the band delivered.

Upon the end of Scratch Acid, Ashley and I made the painful, painful strategic decision to forgo seeing Man or Astroman on the "Go" stage to push forward and be as close as possible for Big Black on the "Touch" stage. The upside of this is it freakin worked, and we were really freakin close. The downsides were twofold: we had to stand there, packed in like sardines unable to move, for an hour. And we missed Man or Astroman. I love love love Man or Astroman live. Emily, Judi and Mike all reported they were awesome. I don't regret my decision - we're talking Big Black here. But man, it hurt. Everyone crammed in all shared the same feeling - oh, oh, the pain of what we're missing. The suffering we are enduring for Albini.

But worth it it was. Big Black was only billed to play "A couple of songs," and no matter how much you wished it would be more, in the end you knew it would only be just that - this is not a band that aims to pander to the crowd.

But deliver they did. The sound was awesome. Albini's guitar was ridiculously more loud and noisy than it is in Shellac now. The songs pounded. Roland the drum machine droned on. "I know what you're thinking," Albini deadpanned. "You're thinking 'what was the big deal?' but trust me, in the 80's, it was something else. my hair had a fade." They did their four songs - no hits, of course. Heaven forbid they play "kerosene" or "fists of love," but it didn't matter. It was fantastic. And we were all there, like some rite.

They played four songs - "Cables," "Dead Billy," "Pigeon Kill" and "Racer X." There were a LOT of Naked Raygun shirts in the audience. Seriously. A LOT.

Albini also displayed a touch of eloquence. "It's pretty obvious we didn't want to do this, and we're not into this sort of thing, but we're here for one reason. When they write the history of rock, they skip from Hendrix to Nirvana. But in those years, this is where it was. The 7,000 of you out there now know that - in the 80's this is where rock was. This man, Cory, made it possible. We're here to salute him, and what Touch and Go was to us and to so many of you." I'm paraphrasing here, but he nailed it.

Then came the mighty Shellac, who were the assault you always know and love them to be, though strangely Albini's guitar did feel a bit weekend. I never really thought about it, but the sound has definitely evolved over the years and hearing Big Black songs back to back with "The Admiral" or "Prayer to God" made it very clear. Um, I can't believe I just wrote that. I saw Big Black and Shellac. Holy hell. Ashley and I stayed up front for as long as possible. I had a mental image in my head that I would make it through to "Prayer to God" and then go back, but it didn't quite work out that way. We had been standing in one spot for something like two hours at this point. We needed to work our feet. We found our posse, and made a plan, and then watched the rest of the set. It was a strange order for Shellac. They ended on one of those long meandering songs that they do - the one about the transmission going out for 10,000 years. I'm looking through the track listing of all three albums and I seem to be missing it - it wasn't "Didn't We Deserve..." from Terraform, but I clearly recognized it. Maybe it was on one of the singles? I'll have to look when I get home. anyway, it was a strange order, and sort of noodled out to the end, which I thought sort of ironic given how Albini is pretty much the anti-noodler defined. But damn if it didn't sound fantastic. I've had a serious, conscious jonesing to see Shellac for about a year solid now, and this really really hit the spot for me.

Afterward the Chicago posse went to a bar in Wicker park and drank and ate and looked through Albini's production credits and um I don't remember. I got drunk. Back to the Hotel. Bed.

Sunday. here is my confession: I slept through Arcwelder. Yes, I did. I know, I know. Luckily Rock Tourist corespondents Ashley and Ben were on hand, as was Mike. I made it to the festival toward the tail end of Quasi, who I love and were as solid as always.

Next up were The Mon-orchid, who I was unfamiliar with and didn't particularly love, though they were plagued with sound problems and eventually quit early. I could hear a grain of something interesting in there, though, and suspect I should probably go back and check them out.

Somewhere in there I ran into my most excellent friend Rachel, and her rock star husband Zach. I introduced them to the boston posse. Zach ran off to do some preparations, but Rachel stayed with us and we hung out for the next few hours.

After that was Enon, who many of my posse already knew and liked, but i had never heard. They struck me as interesting and different, and very indie, and had a good fuzz noise about them that I always love, and they are now on my "best to check them out" list. We also thought it was funny how all these people lined up to be at the front of the stage for them, even though they're one of the few bands of the festival that you could easily go see on tour right now.

Next up was one of the highlights for all of us, the reunion of Three Mile Pilot. Our posse of like 10 or so watched this one, and it delivered. Zach is such a great bass player. And the songs are so fascinatingly 50% Pinback and 50% Blackheart now, which of course you never could see back in the day. The set went well - rachel had mentioned they were nervous but there was no need to be. They pulled it off. They played one new song - a bit more melodic and poppy than the rest - and it was funny how they almost forgot to explain that they did, in fact, have a record on T&G coming out soon.

Tara Jane O'Neill was next and she was awesome. I've seen her a bunch and I promptly made a mental note to go see her at PA's this weekend - yes, it's true, I'm gonna skip the Who (yawn) for Tara Jane O'Neill and Victory at Sea.

Seam were next, and they were awesome. I loved Seam back in the day, and it's hard to understand, watching them now with a fresh ear, what was so interesting about them because they were so perfectly the precursors of indie noise pop. It was a nice trip down memory lane, though, and they played a solid, solid set.

Then we went to get more noodles, so I missed Brick Layer Cake and Black Heart Procession. I know, I know. Sue me.

Back in time for Coco Rosie who were a fascinating mix of ultra annoying and kind of intriguing. I liked what was going on musically, but most of the time - though curiously not always - I hated what was going on vocally. I dunno. I need to listen to it one more time to really analyze it. I'll probably in the end decide I hate it but I'm not quite there yet.

And then came Pinback. I'm gonna go ahead and say the mighty Pinback. I'll bet no one's ever said that before, but man, Rob's obvious fan boy obsession with Touch and Go clearly drove him to new heights of rock. That and the fact that his mesa boogie amp head broke and they put him through a Marshall instead, which he said he never played but man, he totally should. It made his guitar loud, it made him rock, and the whole thing ruled. Zach was quiet and dead on perfect as always and I have no idea what that last song was, but jesus if it didn't rule and rock in a way I didn't know Pinback could do, and believe you me, I have seen PInback many, many times.

And, finally, we come to the last band of the night, and of the festival, Calexico. I had been an early fan of Calexico, mainly from my fandom of the Friends of Dean Martinez and Giant Sand, but somewhere along the way they went too ethnic, and they lost me. I had been trying to think of the best way to describe them to people who didn't know them all weekend, and in the end I came up with "music you'd hear at a taco party," which seemed to fit the bill. Everyone decided we had to stay for a few songs just to hear what kind of music Rick would play at a taco party, I guess. We gave them our due, the second song was better than the first, the third back to taco party, and we left. There were many goodbyes, and a bit of confusion, but in the end we just cabbed it back to our hotel and drank in the lobby bar, where some woman pronounced immediately upon our arrival that i looked like Jack Black, and she didn't mean that that meant i was fat, and that I should come over and hug and kiss her. Hrm. We drank until we were all drowsy, and went to bed agreeing to meet in the lobby at six am - a feat I miraculously achieved, even though to do so I had to set my alarm 45 minutes in advance, and needlessly steal a half hour of sleep from my girlfriend. And for that, I apologize.

An excellent weekend, all around. I'm sad I didn't get to see Jess, and we didn't spend enough time with our friends - Rachel, in particular, I wish I could have seen more of. I randomly ran into two people who I didn't get to spend enough time with - my high school friend Chris Joy and my friend Liz's boyfriend. When you're in festival mode, sometimes your social life's gotta take a back seat - we are all slaves to the rock.

Tags: chicago, recap, rock, touch and go 25, travel
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