Ah, the Taste of Chicago. For nine whole days, downtown becomes THE meeting place for the fattest of the fat and anybody else that wants to try some real Illinois corn on the cob. I seriously think there were 5 booths selling corn on the cob. But the other reason to go to the Taste of Chicago is the music. This year’s headliners included The O’Jays, Ray Davies, Glen Campbell, Macy Gray, and Liz Phair. As per usual, some of the warm-up bands heavily out-weighed their bigger named counterparts. Before the gore that was Glen Campbell, I danced my ass off to The Yonder Mountain String Band. Before Ray Davies, I enjoyed laying in the grass and listening to Mike Doughty and My Morning Jacket. Liz Phair’s performance was outshined by Fountains of Wayne and World Party.
Technically, the free music bonanza started the day before the Taste. Seu Jorge and Amadou & Mariam played at Chicago’s annual World Music Festival. My friends and I got to Millennium Park halfway through Seu Jorge’s set, and I finally had a reason to not like the massive, beautiful Frank Gehry designed stage at Millennium Park. Unless you’re right in front of the stage, you can’t see a thing. I guess if I’m there to watch an orchestra, I won’t mind…but Seu Jorge was really rocking out. I could hear him fine. But, I really wanted to watch. Amadou & Martin were billed as “the funkiest band in Africa,” and if that’s as much funk as Africa has to offer, I’ve had the seriously wrong impression about the level of Africa’s funk. The rest of the audience seemed to enjoy it, though. Of course, they were all Brazilian and drunk.
The rest of the shows were at the Petrillo Music Shell in Grant Park, across the street from Millennium Park. It’s a really nice place to see a concert because you have the Sears Tower to look at in the background. But it’s also a really crappy place to see a concert because the sound there is horrible and for no given reason every show begins with the singing of the National Anthem (not by the band). Nevertheless, The first show I saw was Yonder Mountain String Band and Glen Campbell. The festival organizers said they’d been trying to get Yonder there for years, and they were really glad they finally got them. The band didn’t disappoint, either. They played a short, jam session filled set. The incredible amount of hippies there for Yonder Mountain was surprising. And none of them (us) wanted to be close to the stage, where the seats were. Outside of the fence, in the grass, they were dancing like madmen. It was an image I wouldn’t see for the rest of the Taste. After Yonder finished, more than half of the crowd left. Glen Campbell came on a little while later. I only stayed until he played “Rhinestone Cowboy.”
On the Fourth, the show that I was really excited about came. Mike Doughty, My Morning Jacket, and Ray Davies. Mike Doughty’s set was a little bit disappointing. It was short, he played a cover of Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler,” and basically just phoned in the entire performance. My Morning Jacket did a pretty good job in making up for it. It took me a long time to come around to My Morning Jacket, for years I’ve been bad-mouthing them but recently, I decided to give them a chance and I’m really glad I did. They mostly played songs from “Z,” but they also did a “Greatest Hits” of their other albums. The highlights were the 3 songs that Andrew Bird came out with his violin and whistling skills. During “Steam Engine,” the band took some time to really take the audience somewhere. It was something else. Ray Davies was old and he played a lot of his new album. Nobody wants to hear that! Play some Kinks! And he does, and everybody loves him for it.
The last show I was able to make it to was Fountains of Wayne, World Party, and Liz Phair. Fountains of Wayne, if for no other reason than the fact that they played songs that made me feel like I was in middle school again. They played one of my personal favorites from 1996, “Radiation Vibe.” They also played a lot of music off of their new(ish) album which gave me some vague memories of the mall and young girls shopping for clothes with their friends. World Leader wasn’t anything special. I bet my dad would have liked it, but by this time, I was getting drunk, so I could sit through it. Liz Phair was Liz Phair. She was wearing a surprisingly short skirt and played some surprisingly curse word-laden songs, including “Fuck & Run.” She also sang a song about how her boyfriend reminded her of her favorite underwear, which reminded me of the fact that she began to suck a couple of years ago.
I really can’t wait for Lollapalooza.
