Early Start

I have sleep problems. I go to bed at midnight and have to wake up at 5AM or 6AM to go be a merchandising genius for 7 hours.
Thursday night it all caught up with me and I fell asleep at 730PM and woke up at 520AM, I was wide awake and did not have to be at work until 7AM. I made myself breakfast, watched 30 Rock from the night before, did not rush to the 147 and made it to work on time.
It felt good and the music gods were with me. I was listening to sprint radio on my phone and 3 songs back to back that I love came on. Usually I listen to one song I kind of like and flip until I find something decent.

Going through old pictures I always mis-place amazing memories and one that I am going to share happened in 2009 these amazing talented boys I interviewed opened up for Ben Harper on his Relentless7 tour. Sold out at The Vic.
In case you did not know who Ben Harper is (which seriously...you should he is amazing), he had that huge hit a while back "steal my kisses", and many many top 10 Billboard albums (6 made it in the top 10 I think), he discovered Jack Johnson, 2 Grammy's, was the one slaying it on Conan's last show to "Freebird" and is married to the blonde lady from Jurassic Park.

It was an amazing night.

My backstage pass/what let me watch the sound checks.
I LOVE sound checks, I always feel as if it is a private concert just for me. Here is what goes down in a sound check.
They do the instruments one at a time and then they play a song the whole way through. Make adjustments and then do another song the whole way through.

Did the interview with the boys and they let me put my friend Val on the guest list. The interview parlayed into me just hanging out/drinking with them until it was their turn to perform.


Don't they just LOOK like fun :)
The lead singer(the guy standing up in the back) has a "list" with his girlfriend and on that list..and for some reason it seemed like all of theirs was Winona Ryder. I always find guys in bands have this thing for her. I don't know why. Indie godess maybe.
Reason why The Vic is my all time favorite venue in Chicago, they let me watch from sidestage/backstage (the staff). So I watched the boys do their thing from backstage and Val still was not there yet. So I started watching Ben Harper who is just amazing.



Watched a couple of his songs then went to meet Val who was already double fisting.

Her ticket looked like this(stole this from her FB page):

She said it is something she will keep forever because it is not even a real ticket like everyone else had.
The caption she has for the ticket, "Gotta love those friends in the biz..."

Overall it was an amazing experience. Met some new friends, got my friend into a sold out show she was dying to see, watched Ben Harper from backstage, solidified my love for The Vic.


Ben Harper and Jack Johnson



My boys The Henry Clay People with their video "Something in the Water"

Off to be productive on this Saturday morning!