We're back at the Navy Pier/Skyline Amphitheater. It's pouring down rain and I wonder attendance will suffer. It doesn't. If anything the audience is more enthusiastic than when we were here 3 days ago. A couple of sustained standing ovations — one just as we entered the stage - and then a really long one at the end of the show — so long it made no sense to leave the stage for the encore. We just played more songs.
Poi Dog Pondering was the support act. They are hugely popular here, which helped make the evening an event. Tonight they had their whole 12-person contingent and they sounded massive. I can see why they're so popular here - wonder if it translates to disc? I was given a couple.
Sometimes I get a hotel suite, as we are buying chunks of rooms and the hotel throws one in at the price of a regular room for the "leader," which is sometimes me and sometimes Daniel. Well, today I hit the jackpot; it's a huge 2-story suite with a conference table, stereo, and, best of all, views of Grant Park and the entire waterfront.
So, I suggest that since it's the last night of the leg, we party in my room. We hoard the wine and beers from the bus and backstage and order some Chicago pizzas. Mauro brings a wallet of CDs and puts on Cartola, which sounds lovely.
Wish I took a picture of this room. This suite is a rock and roll cliché - posters and gold records on the walls. Here's Robbie Williams(!) and big red paintings of U2 — there's even an autographed guitar hanging in the bedroom.
The party is winding down, the place is a mess; hardly anyone is left. By the stereo, Mauro is trying to teach an Arabic Danish girl how to samba.
As I watch the party I feel like it must look like we're “living the life," but a movie or TV mini series version of it. The rock dream.
