Last night, after a short nap and an amazing pasta dinner at my parents' house, I ventured to Buddy Guy's Legends with Matt, my cousin Luis, and Mike Risher for a night of blues. I figured it would be a great place to take Luis that would give him a heavy dose of Chicago. Matt, of course, suggested that going to Duffy's or McFadden's would be a better option and, in the hours leading up to us arriving at Buddy Guy's, mentioned to several people that his brother was dragging him to some blues club. Dad graciously gave us a ride and, after honking at some girls walking down Harrison street near UIC in their going out skirts ("going out" denotes sequins), dropped us off at the doorstep. After paying the $15 cover we headed toward the back bar of the already crowded club and parked ourselves near enough to poach seats at the bar and order drinks with relative ease. I started off the night with a delicious Bell's Amber compliments of Luis who had the same. The bartender was cute and nice so naturally my brother hit on her a little while she busily filled orders. The opening act was Joanna Connor who had a build like the trunchbull from Rold Dahl's Matilda, but without the scowl. She had some serious bluse chops, and could pull off sounds reminicent of anything from the Staple's Singers to the Allman Brothers. The boys were not overly impressed by Ms. Connor, and her tiny, male rhythm guitarist who could also play some serious blues but would have to work on his street cred. to make me believe he had the blues. All in all a decent opening act. Before her set was over, Damitz and her roomate came, and we were soon also joined by Magdonna. While the set was changing in preparation for Carl Weathersby, we switched to cheaper beer (cans of Schlitz or pitchers of PBR), the girls talked with the boys and we fell out of eighth grade dance formation.
Mr. Weathersby went on a little after eleven and the minute he played his first note after his rhythm guitarist warmed up the crowd with a few tasty licks on his hollow body Gibson, we knew why he was the main event. He cranked his two amps way up and played faster, bent strings higher, and sang harder than I've seen in a long time. Even Matt said "Dude, this guy rocks." The crowd would scream out and cheer in anticipation when he would turn down the volume and the band would strum quietly in the background until he would suddenly turn the knob back up and wail on the guitar again. This guy could really work the crowd, he would come down off the stage and play at the front row tables, he even channeled a little Hendrix here and there and played with his teeth.
We all had a great time and ended up staying until I could barely keep my eyes open. It's crazy that I don't go there more often, it is so close to my apartment and well worth the money. All in all the night was awesome, great dinner with great wine (Cechony '05 and '06), great music and even better company!
Magic Slim and the Teardrops are playing the New Year's Eve show there, perhaps I'll get a group together to ring in the new year with some blues.
