Day VI: Tuesday, October 22 -Chicago, IL

People, the very definition of a rock and roll tour is that the band needs to come perilously close to dying at least once or twice. Well, folks, today was our day.

We struck out for Chicago (fittingly, my kind of town) pretty early after enduring Pete's nearly half hour, tear filled goodbye with Julie's dog. You know, as Pete says, with a love that strong it's tough to let go. But despite the pain, he promised to write her often at her email account iamasweetpuppy@www.happywoof.bark.

Anyway, we headed out of Michigan full of rock excitement only to find out that it was raining. Now this wouldn't be a big thing for most people, but for us it was an absolutely huge cup full of suck. The van's wipers work shall we say...um, sporadically? at best? You see, to make them work at all you have to do that washing thing with the windshield wiper fluid where you click the lever and the wiper just goes once. You know that thing? (What the hell do they call that thing?) Anyway, the drive to Chicago was permeated by shouts of "oh crap!," "damn it!," "son of a ..." and various other profanities while Jordan took us through the driving rain, only being able to wipe the windshield once every four or five seconds...manually. I, for my part, kept looking out the windshield and couldn’t see a frigging thing, then I’d see a swerving semi, then a sheet of water, then a speeding sedan, sheet of water etc. Always being calm, I took this opportunity to sit in the back, grip the door handle and regret all the things I never did in my life while I patiently waited for the sweet embrace of the crypt. The good thing about me in the band is that I never overreact.

But we made it people! Yay! And of course, once we hit town the rain stopped cold. Such is life.

On to the show. It was a pretty good show, with everyone starting to get in a good solid groove after a week on the road. We were just really starting to hit our stride with four songs left in the set when the sound guy comes up and yells "one more song." What? Now, people, this is some bulls*&t I do not like dealing with on tour, but unfortunately it happens all the time. One person tells you one thing about a set time and then another person completely contradicts the first person by interrupting you when you’re on stage and cutting you off. Be warned, folks, there are a lot of people on weird little power trips in the bars and taverns of this great land. But we don't play that game, being the rock and roll rebels we are. We chose to play a medley for our last song and thus managed to play two songs for the price of one. Look out, Mr. Keith Richards, this is the real rock spirit!

To calm my still rattled nerves after the show I got a little silly on the drink with Dakota Floyd and played pinball. I am not good at pinball. Like, really not good. At pinball.

Tomorrow - Columbus, OH!