I never knew you could dance to the blues. And then I remembered: you don't play the blues to stay in the emotional gutter of lost love, you play it to cleanse your soul, to vanquish your demons, to reaffirm that you are standing on solid ground in the midst of the storm.
First visit to a blues club in Chicago; what the hell took me so long? Saw Lil' Ed and the Blues Imperials, on an evening with my sister and her friend in town for a long weekend; part of the impetus for all of this was to give her friend a piece of the Chicago experience.
Funny, sometimes, how you can live in or near a place for so long and still miss out on so many things that make it real, make it breathe, and give the city a soul. Now that I have some time on my hands, I think I'll have to do this kind of thing more often. Because whenever you go looking for meaning externally, it is nearly inevitable that you look inward as well.
Anyway, B.L.U.E.S is a hopping little joint; smaller than I expected. The crowd moved in and out like a bell curve, peaking at about 1:00 a.m. We were there early enough to score a good table, and watch for M's friends while taking in the crowd, a lot of whom seemed like regulars given the way they bantered with the staff, performers, and each other. But the atmosphere was friendly; I've been to places like that, where there is a core group and you feel like you are stepping into someone else's territory, where they eye you warily and you start to get a bit self-conscious; what are the rules here, what is the culture? So yeah, it was a good night.
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