Day 22 - Austin to Chicago

Heading for Stubb's

I felt like shit the next morning after the Austin show, as if I'd been sleeping for an hour or so.  Woke up to the news that Bandago didn't deliver the new rental after all, and that we had to go to the airport to pick it up. Good thing they let us know after we had been to the airport to deliver the other van!!!! On top of that we needed to pay for the van upfront and present a major credit card. It all worked out in the end,  but we left for Chicago so much later than we should have, which meant that the dreaded drive from Austin to Chicago was going to be even worse than anyone of us could ever imagine. And this new van was also a marshmallow piece of shit. Furthermore our Bandago Sprinter was still not fixed, all our fucking gear, luggage, stands and booths and a lot of personal items were still in El Paso. Ugh!

Tampon of Coil

After having John, the owner of the Elysium, meet us at the venue to pick up something we had forgotten (yes, it was MY piece of luggage. I've had some remarks from the rest of the guys on this tour for always bringing my luggage into the venue, but never bringing it out again, and furthermore for never actually bringing my luggage into the hotels resulting in early morning phone calls to our TM to get the van key in order to fetch my toothbrush and some clean boxers), and after eating a late brekfast at Stubb's (jeebus!), we were ready to start our hellride through most of United States of fucking Assholes (no offense intended). We caught traffic in Dallas so bad that when stopping for food several miles north of the city, we had only done 1,5 hours worth of driving according to Google maps, but we had been in the bloody van for about 4,5 motherbanging hours! Shit! This tourture of a ride (I'd rather be flogged and fisted while pulling a plow through a field dense with cactuses than doing this drive again) didn't end till 6 am, almost 16 hours after we left Austin and after driving through one of the meanest thunder storms I have ever witnessed. We booked in to some Super 8 inches Dix Up Yours motel in Missouri, about a hundred miles outside St. Louis. This is the first time I've checked in during breakfast and then checked out during the same breakfast serving. Had 2,5 hours of sleep before it was back in the torture chamber for another 7 hrs to get to Chicago in time for load in at 4 pm. Fuck everything!!!

The reason why we hated the new rental

Amazingly enough we actually made the Chicago show. The locals agreed to push the doors an hour, and so we actually had some time to recover, get the soundcheck done and also meet all the VIPs that had to wait outside longer than they had expected. Good thing we had some extra time cause, as those of you who have been following our blog know, we didn't have all our gear. Among other things we were missing our (my) booth, and the table the venue could provide was as low as a bench, so I was desperately trying to figure out what to do to solve the problem. Luckily the area behind and around the venue was a shithole, and that gave me an idea. If there are homeless people aroun, there ought to be junk present - and behold, only a few yards away from the back door I found a pile of trash and was able to build something close to a DJ booth. Cover it with a black cloth and you're ready to go.

Afterparty Chicago

The venue was pretty cool. Chicago was actually the first US city Icon of Coil performed live. That was back in spring of 2001 where we played at The Beat Kitchen followed up by another show the next day in Aurora. This time the venue had a sort of secluded backstage area downstairs including a private restroom and a shower. Gotta love it! Most venues this size in the US don't even have doors in the public bathroom stalls (Minneapolis anyone?). Quite a lot of people came out to se the show in Chicago and we are very grateful for that. The PA sucked and we are very ungrateful for that.

The next day we had to return the van (good riddance) and our original bandago van was now on its way from El Paso to Chicago, but it wasn't scheduled to arrive until 7 pm. After the horrendous drive from Mexico to Alaska (or something like that) and spending too much money on different transportation solutions, we had to make the sad and difficult decision of cancelling our next show in Indianapolis. It was particularly hard since we, as far as I can remember, never have cancelled a show before. We are sorry we had to cancel, and we do highly appreciate the hard work put into the show by promoters. And to all the people who were disappointed, we will be back and we hope that y'all will be there then.

Chris and Ape on the fire escape

Since show day suddenly turned into an off day, many of us took the opportunity to sleep more than the usual 4 hours. Then some of us went shopping, some enjoyed Chicago parklife, personally I stayed in my room trying to update the tour blog (!) Suddenly Ape came into our room wanting me to come with him and Chris up on the roof to drink vodka. I reluctantly joined him, and once inside Chris' room I noticed his window lead out on the fire escape. All the other room windows along the staircase had steel bars, so i guess it was meant to be. We got out on the stairs and my fist clenched the handrails like it was my job. Yeah, I am afraid of heights and hated being out there. Chris did of course notice this and started jumping which fucking freaked me out. Their plan was to wait until it was dark and then climb onto the roof above the 16th floor. I did not partake in that plan. 

Hard Cock Cafe, Chicago

Andy, Leyna, Ape and I went out to have dinner and ended up at Hard Rock Cafe where there was some loser band called The Hat Guys or something playing shitty cover songs. They played so annoyingly loud that the shitty HRC burger tasted even worse. Leyna didn't really dig her rare salmon either. Back at the hotel Ape and Chris finally went up on the roof, though. They got some really cool skyline pictures and they obviously spent some time drinking up there, because when they came back down they where fighting like two fourteen year old sisters. Chris ended up forcing Ape out of the room, and since Ape didn't leave, but stood outside the room waiting to be let back in, Chris called the front desk telling them that there was an unidentified man standing outside his room :-P

More notes from Pittsburg and the Gothic Cruise yet to come....