meanderingmind

Photography: The Decemberists with the Grant Park Orchestra at Millennium Park, Chicago

After spending half a year in Europe, delving headfirst into the wonders of living among utterly different cultures and mindsets living back here has been boring-or would be if I didn’t live so close to Chicago. Thank god, cause if I didn’t I’d probably be mad with travel anxiety. Getting back into the swing of things is going gradually, but the past week gave me a boost for sure with attending the Cubs/Houston Astros game at Wrigley Field Sunday afternoon and a free concert in Millennium Park last night featuring one of the most heralded independent bands in America The Decemberists backed up by the entire Grant Park Orchestra. The latter will feature more than two photographs, for sure, at the end of the post.

Wrigley Field, thank you for being the gem you are. It’s really one of the most unique sports venues in the world and one of the most beautiful architecturally with its red brick and iconic upper deck stands. Situated among one of Chicago’s liveliest neighborhoods, entitled Wrigleyville, it’s a perfect place to spend an afternoon or evening on the weekend. One can spend the day at the ballpark then the evening or night at one of the local restaurants or bars that run all along Clark Street, Addison, and down Belmont. If you want a cheap quick pizza, I recommend Bacci’s, which rests between the park and the Addison L platform. Sunday’s game was between the Houston Astros and the Cubs; one of the many rivalries of the Cubs, namely due to that they’re in the same division in the league for those who don’t know (outside the U.S.). Baseball games can be notoriously boring to those who haven’t seen a game before (I’d liken it to soccer games for Americans) but thankfully it was quick starting with a 5-6 score by the end of the second inning. We ended up routing them in the end, winning 7-6. It was my and my friend Missy’s first game when we could actually order beer to go along with a game and experience a baseball tradition withheld from us up until a year ago-a sunny, near cloudless afternoon at the ballpark with Old Style and hot dogs.

Wednesday night Millennium Park held one of the few unique concerts in its short new history featuring indie rockstars The Decemberists backed by the Grant Park Orchestra as part of the Millennium Park summer concert series. The Chicago Tribune stated that over 15,000 people showed up yet walking through the park after arriving the numbers had to be higher, it seemed, as people overflowed the lawn onto the sidewalks surrounding the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, peered over the side walls, and filtered back into nearly every available spot of grass in Millennium. It seemed like every indie kid in the Midwest was sucked to that peeled pavilion that evening there were so many. The show was part of the 25th anniversary of the Metro, the iconic club just a block north of Wrigley where the Smashing Pumpkins and countless other Chicago acts spent a good portion of their music careers. It’s the closest thing you can pilgrimage to if you’re a music-lover in the city, now that the Fireside has been closed for years.

I’ll leave the heavy-duty music reviews to music blogsters, but in my opinion the show was an extravagant version of The Decemberists. The orchestra fit well with the band, yet they were restrained by their own professionalism from easily flowing organically with the band. At parts, the band would have a twinge of an urge to go off and lavish some parts of a song but couldn’t because the orchestra (I’d assume) would be lost to Lake Michigan if they had. When they did embellish parts, it sounded a little disjointed despite the aid of the conductor to control the orchestra. Thankfully these were kept to a minimum, although they were painfully noticeable. But hey-I’ll give the orchestra the benefit of ‘It’s not everyday you play with a rock band when you normally play classical.’ The band really took flight when they were on their own, which they were once to give the orchestra a break and a second time for the encore. You really couldn’t get much better than 16 Military Wives being sung by thousands in the center of Chicago (mostly cause anyone probably never would’ve expected it to happen-ever). Nor the entire audience screaming in desperation as they mimic getting eaten by a giant whale, to The Mariner’s Revenge Song. Lord knows what pedestrians on Michigan Avenue were thinking.

I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, being the right side of the stage just when they opened up the unclaimed seats to only a small number of people there. With chances of finding a place to sit dimming quickly, it was nice to find myself among others walk/running to empty seats in the front of the pavilion (normally you’d be paying quite a lot for those seats). A fantastic location that allowed me to get up against the stage during the encore-perfect for photography (especially with the stable, brighter lighting). But also I was able to see staples of the orchestra series, the people, and their reactions to this unorthodox show. A meager trickle of older people (60s and up) left during the beginning few songs of the show with disappointment at the change to the bill, perhaps not expecting to see a rock band with an orchestra. However a good half of that demographic stuck around for the entire main show to enjoy the variety and experience one of the quirkier musical acts our generation has produced. It was a great relief to see the huge spread of music lovers that attended the show, something that was more than just seeing a favorite band play in the middle of a city park with an orchestra.