Review: The Pretenders

Standing. Second row, center stage. It was loud. It was crowded. It rocked. I got trashed. It was great.

Buffy and I along with Dave and Kate went to see the Pretenders yesterday at the Riviera Theatre in Chicago. I've been a long time fan of the group and this is the first time I've had the opportunity to see them live. The Pretenders first made it big in the very late 70's. Their first hit was "Brass in Pocket" in 1980. Chrissie Hynde, the frontwoman and drummer Martin Chambers is all that is left of the original members and continue on with the band. Original members bassist Pete Farndon and guitarist James Honeyman-Scott passed away about a year after the group released its second album in 1981. Since then the Pretenders have had several changes in line ups. I haven't really followed the band that closely after 1990.

We drove up early and got some drinks and appetizers at an adjacent bar called Fat Cat where they had a very large selection of beers. Wanting to get a good place for the show, we headed over to the Riviera early. We had to wait in line for about 10 minutes and it was cold.  During this time, security continued to walk up and down the line letting us know that no cameras and camera phones were allowed. So Dave had to run back to the car and drop off his camera. Good thing we parked only a block away.

Upon entering the theatre, we had to divide into a boys line and a girls line. This was so security could pat us down for cameras, weapons and any thing else that would cause problems. I've never had to do this for a rock concert. I've been patted down only twice; once in 1985 in Europe where there was more terrorist activities and once by a Peoria county police officer (and that is entirely another story for another time).

Once inside, I found many bar areas. It was not going to be a problem to get a drink in this place. We made our way to the center floor where it was standing only. Upstairs on the balcony there was seating, but we wanted to get close to the band. We got to the second row of center stage; there was already a group of people in the first row. And they were a very chatty and friendly bunch. The first guy looked a bit like Elvis Costello who followed the Pretenders very seriously. He came in from Austin, TX for this show with his friend Willie. There was another guy there who was studying lines for an upcoming play he was in. We also met some women from New York City who actually remember my name. I had to apologize as I couldn't remember their names. They didn't hold it against me.

The opening act was American Bang. They were a southern rock band from Nashville. They even brought along a bottle of scotch on stage to wet their whistle. And from the looks of things, their whistle was quite wet.

The Pretenders finally took the stage and opened with "Boots of Chinese Plastic," a song off their latest album. They followed that up with "Message of Love" from their second album and "Kid" off of their first album. I wasn't too familiar with their latest album, but I have heard the new single "Love's A Mystery" on Sirius satellite radio. Most of the songs they played were off of their new album. But they also played a slew of songs we remember from the 1980's. I was somewhat disappointed that they didn't play "Middle of the Road," or much of anything at all from their album Learning to Crawl.

The band looked a bit odd as their lead guitarist and bass player are young enough to be Chrissie Hynde or Martin Chambers' kids. It kind of looked like a rock n' roll family. But they played really good and Chrissie's voice is still holding. She has to be in her late 50's.

Sadly, they didn't play as long as I thought they would. We were leaving around 10:30pm. Security there was practically pushing us out the door. It was here that we saw one of the members of American Bang leaving out the front door with us.

Once on the road, I either fell asleep... or passed out depending upon you're point of view. Yes, the Heinekens were flowing well last night. Either the sleep made the trip seem not as long, or it was Dave's driving. We did finally get pulled over for speeding on IL Route 17 a few miles east of Lacon. We were the only ones out there. The cop was real cool about things. As he explained how to go about handling the ticket, he said to Dave that he could either "burn it or frame it" with his copy of the ticket. I had to laugh.

Though a long afternoon and evening that went by extremely fast, it was a great time. I am now checking into getting tickets for the Fab Faux in late March. I'll keep everyone posted.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Lincoln

In honor and celebration of President Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday, here is a re-published Top Ten List I featured in the August 2005 issue of the Peoria Jaycees newsletter, The Charge!

Top Ten Things Jaycees Learned About Abraham Lincoln At The Lincoln Library

10.) At the Lincoln-Douglas debate, Lincoln made a rebuff stating, "I knew Jack Daniels.  Mr. Douglas, you're no Jack Daniels."

9.) Made a guest appearance on an episode of Star Trek.

8.) To entertain Union soldiers, did magic tricks with his top hat.

7.) Consistently referred to the Confederacy as "the evil-doers."

6.) After arriving in Washington DC, hired a young Stan Munton as a White House page.

5.) Concluded his Emancipation Proclamation with the Paris Hilton catch-phrase, "That's Hot!"

4.) Started growing his beard after having a queer makeover.

3.) Saved a bunch of money on his carriage insurance by switching to Geico.

2.) Lincoln had an intern named Clinton; Clinton had an intern in the Lincoln bedroom.

1.) You're going to have to wait over an hour and a half to get into the Lincoln Museum.

To help understand this list a little further, a group of us went to visit the then-newly opened Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, IL.  It was very popular at the time and to make a long story short, the line was just too long for us to wait to get in.  So we found other things to do while in Springfield. 

Liver Sausage

This past weekend was our annual hog butchering weekend in St. Thomas, Missouri.  Our cousins and Dennis and I go in together to buy a couple of hogs and we then butcher it for the meat we want.  We always get a good amount of pork chops, pork steaks, ribs, roast and plenty of sausage.

This has also been done in my family in previous generations.  I don't know if it came out of the depression or whenever, but there is something known as liver sausage.  I won't go into any detail about how and what it is made from; it would gross out 99.9% of the 2 people who read my blog.  But suffice it to say, those old timers never wasted a scrap of meat... and some of it usually would find it's way into liver sausage.

Grandma Reinkemeyer always had it for breakfast when I would visit.  It was ok then as a kid, but as an adult, you appreciate it more and I bet you that was some really good eating!  In recent years, I would have it made by Agnus, a woman my uncle in St. Thomas knew.  She's now getting up there in age.  Last year she was ill at the time and couldn't make any.  Dennis and I then made an attempt to make some.  However, we got lazy and busy doing other things and the meat went bad (at least it didn't look good), so no liver sausage was produced.  

This year, I'm assuming Agnus was feeling better than the year before.  However, she just wasn't up to the task of making any more.  I guess she's now retired.  So this time, I made a solo effort to get this delicious meat product made. This was Monday night. And I was going off of 2 different but similar recipes. One was from Agnus; the other I believe was from Aunt Helen.

Angus' recipe did not list any real specifics. It called for flour and oats, but no amounts were listed. It said to bake the sausage, but no times or temperature. Helen's recipe at least had some amounts; and said to bake for 2 hours, though no temperature was indicated. So it looked like some trial and error was required.

The process started off ok.  But by the time the baking took place, I began to wonder if something had gone awry. Both recipes called to skim off grease after baking. Now if a recipe calls for skimming grease, it must be some good eating. Oddly, there was no grease. Totally dry. I might have created fat free liver sausage!  Probably not.

The meat looked to be somewhat fatty. I believed I probably used too much oats and/or flour in the mix and it "soaked" up all the grease. On Tuesday, I fried up... or tried to fry up a piece of it.  It tasted right and was good though it was a bit dry and hard. Dennis and I freezer-vac'ed the meat and it now sits in the deep freezer. Who knows if I'll actually eat any or all of it.

At any rate, it was a good learning experience and I look forward to my next attempt. If anyone wants some, or is intrigued to learn more about this little known meat (also known as brownswager), just send me an e-mail.

Superbowl

Just some comments, observations and opinions of the American tradition we call the Superbowl.

Currently watching the game right now with 7 minutes to go for the 3rd quarter, it looks like Arizona is screwed. Since I don't have any money on the game, I really don't care one way or the other. I usually like to go for the underdog team unless there's some mitigating circumstance involved.  So it would be nice to see the Cardinals take it.

Many times, my interest is more in either the Superbowl party I'm at or the commercials. Now is it me, or have the commercials seem pretty lame the past few years. Some of them are just plain dumb.  Few are funny.  Beer commercials are usually the best. I think the last batch of really good Superbowl commercials was about 8 or 9 years ago during the dot com era.  I saw some movie trailers for commercials today. A Land of the Lost remake with Will Farrell? Uhhh! Where's my Pepto Bismol? 

As for Superbowl parties, I usually attend the Peoria Jaycees "SuperFest." But this year, since we now have the dogs, we can't really leave for more than 2-3 hours. So we are just staying at home in the Doghouse Bar with a pot of chili and fire. We were at the dog park earlier today, so the dogs are sleeping well. They'll be wide awake by the time we want to go to bed.

There used to be belief that if an original NFL team won the Superbowl, then it would be an up year for the stock market.  It proved true for almost 25-30 some years if I remember right, with exception of a couple of years. So for many times, I wanted an NFL team to win... all for monetary gain on my part. But there's been so many changes in football, I really don't know which is what between the old NFL/AFL teams or if this superstition can even still hold.

Half time show. The 3-D stuff was alright.  Springsteen did a good job at delivering a show. It would be tough to pick out which songs to play for only a 12-minute show. He was a bit winded after doing a couple of songs, but the guy is in his mid-50s. However, I don't like the fact he sold out to Wal Mart, so I was leaning towards being in a boycott mode for the half time show. Either way, this year's half time show was light years better than that debacle MTV put on in 2004 with Kid Rock wearing the US flag as a poncho and Janet Jackson with her so-called wardrobe malfunction. 

Anyways, it's time to stoke the fire and grab another Heineken.