More Wasted Days

Weekend in Chicago for the Burning Fight book release show

Matt, Don and I flew out to Chicago to see a shit ton of great bands from our high school years and obviously to skate and see as much as we could in 3 short days. I have a ton of pics to post so let's begin.

How do you start off a great weekend in the best way possible?...try sitting next to Jimmy Superfly Snuka on the flight to Chicago. Seriously my fave wrestler from my childhood. Stoked.

Don in a pleasant conversation with the hotel.

Days Inn, Elk Grove Illinois. Over the next 3 days our interactions with the staff here would set my views on race relations back about 10 years but hey, a bed is a bed.

en route to the show

Wrigley, that's our stop

food was first on the agenda. there was a hot dog and burger shop right across the street. my veggie burger was excellent but Matt's ham and cheese got the thumbs down. He didn't even take a bite. right in the garbage.

headed up to the balcony to snap some pics of Damnation AD. I have a Sony Cybershot from 2004 so don't expect any pulitzer prize winning shots of bands from the weekend.

wasn't pleased with my vantage point on the balcony so I decided to relocate right in the mix

if anybody knows where my Damnation shirt from college ended up, please get in touch. i miss it.

this is what Betrayed looked like from the doorway

Ringworm

I've been a fan of the Human Furnace since day one.

Your body was found in a ditch
With maggots and scars on your wrists
Swollen wrists, black and blue
Broken off inside of you Crumbled dreams, dollar whore

a lot of friends didn't make it so Don kept them updated

one of the girls taking pics offered to snap one of the three of us so this is a pic of a pic. Don's expression sums up perfectly how we were feeling the entire weekend, so much fun.

Underdog was up next!

Shottsie was on the skins

and Zev was filling in on axe duty

Don yelled "We're skating tomorrow! Let's hear some Frontside Grind!" Richie accomodated and it was time to get surly.

108. Vic came in straight from the garden.

self portrait of me and Matt getting involved

their set was incredible. so much energy.

Killing Time

Anthony ain't afraid to bust out

great fuckin' set. he handed a mic out across the barrier for No More Mr. Nice Guy. I grabbed it and belted it to the back row right along with him.

we were bushed and were getting up early to skate the city before sunday's show so we grabbed some merch and peaced after Killing Time

walking around trying to find the Chicago Diner.

after a bus ride from Wrigley, it was back on a train to the airport where a van from the hotel would pick us up

waiting for the shuttle. We were fully engrossed in my our new books

every time we took the shuttle was an experience. too much happened to describe it all. this is sunday morning on our way back into the city to skate before the show.

see that door with the Do Not Open sign? to make a long story short, it would have been more accurate if it had said This Door Opens By Itself. Hold Onto Something Or You Will Fly Out Onto The Highway Into Traffic

Don making new friends as usual.

downtown in the Windy City

Sears Tower. the only reason I really care about this building is from the scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

we didn't go up so we just took in the view from the sidewalk

Chicago has hella spots

after a couple of wrong turns we found the Pablo Picasso!

great spot

en route to the sea wall. lost!

made it to Lake Michigan

time to start pushing. we had a ways to go.

me taking a pic of Don taking a pic. (see the building in the upper left? the dome type one? that's where we were pushing to)

Don says "Fuckit, I'm swimming."

Don taking a pic of the building Elisabeth Shue slides down in Adventures in Babysitting

still pushing

The Married with Children fountain!

obviously I took time to reflect

then I admired the skyline

the Al Bundy hubba

made it to the sea wall

great session. time to head back to the show.

first things first

the skatepark was only 2 train stops away so we decided to head up and check it out

it was a mob scene so we only stayed for a few minutes knowing we'd have it to ourselves on monday morning

my flatground tracks in front of the stadium

making my way up front for Have Heart

Threadbare

took it up to the balcony for Split Lip/Chamberlain

Bucky's dive during their set was fantastic. You probably had to be there but trust me, it was fantastic.

This guy needed a bigger flash. no really, he did.

We were hanging outside shooting the shit when I look over and see a guy wearing this Integrity shirt. No big deal right? Well except for the fact that the pic on the shirt is one taht my brother tookat an Integrity/Earth Crisis show in Lancaster when we were in college and I used it in my zine.

Here's the page from my zine. Brian, we've been bootlegged!

Converge

Unbroken was up next. dudes were psyched.

my Unbroken pics kinda suck cuz it was insanity and I was getting knocked around. cheers to the bouncers for letting kids dive for the first couple songs. you best believe I got mine in.

Jeff and I are gonna have a lot of the same snaps

great fucking show

you'd never know we'd been up since 5, skating the city all day and had only eaten once. (that was sarcasm)

back to the train

treating ourselves to some well deserved McD's. the last time I had a hot fudge sundae from McDonald's was probably 1989. they're still delicious.

woke up to a 2 hour block of Saved By the Bell! Some of the classic episodes included: Jesse's brother comes to visit from New York, the gang makes fake id's to get into the Attic and the date auction to raise money for new uniforms for the cheerleaders.