LH ROCK JOE'S BAR!!!

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THIS IS THE REPORT I MADE TO AUSSIE THREAD FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN"T READ IT ALREADY

Part 1: arriving and Joe’s Bar
So I am tired to death but so excited it’s insane. After arriving in the hotel I have a moment where I think to myself that I might be out of my mind to be doing this. But then, I notice the message light is flashing. Den and chitownchick have both left messages telling me that INXS has cancelled their Midwestern gigs – my stomach goes thru the floor until I hear that LH decided to come home early and play at Joe’s. Both den and chi got tickets for me and D – how cool are hammerheads? Den has also reserved cds and wristbands for the Virgin thing.
So D and I go to Virgin to get the cds and wristbands and we see all the huge MC posters up in the store. I am now totally psyched again cause instead of being there for a 45-minute set I am now seeing LH 3x. We both feel like we won the lottery or something and keep saying things like "I never have such good luck!”
Okay so we now know that we have to go to Joe’s the next day and I ask the concierge where Weed Street (D guesses it might be next to Crack Alley) and the hotel staff all knew Joe’s and Marty – Oh THAT guy! And gave us directions.
We get there and there are tons of fans lined up outside, we go in and check our coats and try to get good standing spots –which isn’t easy cause the place is already jammed. I am standing about 9 people deep from dead center which seemed idea until the actual show and the professional photogs lifted their cameras. Also the beer chick is standing on a stool right in front of me. I was kind of (not kind of REALLY) hoping she’d move her ass before the LH came on, but it was not to be. You’ll see her head/face in bottom of most of my pix)
Anyway, Black Maker is on stage and really good –they are pumping the crowd for LH and thanking LH for asking them to open. My sister is really into the guitarist and feigns removing her wedding ring. She says to me “Has it occurred to you that Marty Casey is in this building right now?” Den and Liz and I are trying to contain ourselves but not doing a very good job. The cool thing about the crowd is that there are fans of all ages and both genders. Lots of old-school LH fans with original T’s. A local DJ comes out and intros band, the crowd starts chanting “JD sucks” and the DJ laughs, saying “I didn’t say that.”
So Bobby comes out first and because I am tall I can see them each coming out and I am yelling to Den, It’s Bobby, It’s Dino, It’s Billy. I can see Marty in the corner waiting for a dramatic moment to come out. I SWEAR when he came onstage, the whole place drew its breath. I think D and I both said in unison, “OH MY GOD HE’S BEAUTIFUL!”

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They played Straight As An Arrow first, the crowd went nuts. It was such a blast being among fans who all knew all the words to every song. Marty is so fast on stage – he’s everywhere that it’s hard to keep up. During The Tunnel he jumped off stage and came running up to the beer chick’s case. He stood on top of that –right in front of me and I was freaking out. I grabbed the camera from D and am clicking away thinking of all the great shots I am getting not realizing that the camera is on video mode and all I doing is capturing 1-2 second snatches of the song (I’m such a loser!)
He did all his moves –conductor, robot, spinning around (during Eyes Cant’ See), climbed the rafters during Paint it Black and sang upside down. There were bodyguards underneath to catch him, but the guy is strong –no help required!
Ok, funny moments I remember:
1. The father of Samantha Rae (baby pictured buying cd on mc.org homepage) hands Marty that photo and Marty says “I have photo of youngest Hammerhead. What’s her name….?” He then asks what her favourite song is but instead of waiting for answer says. “Oh. It’s Eyes Can’t See? Good, cause it’s next!”
2. Marty talked about the band being LH not MC & LH and said “People make you do things (pause) because of TV shows.” He then said, “We get an extra day in Chicago and this is where we want to be –with you.”
3. Marty asks the crowd to indulge them if they mess up cause they are going to play some songs they haven’t done before. Then they launch into the most AMAZING medley of “I only like it when it rains” and Here comes the rain again.” It was frickin unbelievable. Part of me was saying, C’mon Marty can’t sing Eurythmics. Well, part of me is an idiot. It was incredible.
4. Dino’s bass quit just before one song (can’t remember which –Throw My Head maybe) and he says “Don’t start without me!’ So the bass seems to be fixed, they start playing and the bass goes out again but the song keeps going. I hear Dino yelling for Dan. It was fixed before end of song
5. Billy most adorable person ever. He is grinning from ear to ear and it’s nice to see him jamming with Dino. He thanks the crowd over and over for coming at short notice.

Okay, the band is absolutely amazing –really tight and better than their records, really. I thought people were just saying that, but it really is true. I had to keep telling myself to look at the other band members, but Honestly, it was hard. Marty is truly beautiful. All weekend the four of us were trying to put it in words – and there just aren’t any. The way he performs reminded me, and this might sound strange, of Michael Hutchence – so much energy and magnetism. I promise every person there felt that Marty looked right at them during the show. It was intense and fantastic.

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I know I am posting this REALLY late, but thought I'd share it again for those who don't get over to the Aussie thread. Apologies if it's Old Hat!

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Part 2: Virgin Records

So we have a day off to recover from Joe’s and do some house hunting. My sis and I take train to Wheaton to do just that and find a nice article on MC in the morning paper – which really helps the commute. It was a long but fun day but once again I didn’t sleep a wink. I was awake all night trying to figure out what to say to Marty and boys at the signing. I really wanted to hand Asia gift bag to MC, but was afraid that he’d be sitting at end of table and I would be carrying it front of other guys in order to hand to MC. It seemed too rude. So, we could each bring one thing to be signed. I hemmed and hawed –cd, Tshirt, photo? – but eventually chose this picture

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and made two copies so D and I could each have it signed by band. Friday comes and we’re layering up cause it’s cold. The salesman at Virgin had told D and me on Thursday that we should come early cause they were expecting a lot of people. But there were two issues we had to deal with. One, my frickin right leg was not cooperating very much and 2) it was actually beginning to snow. The store opened at 9:30 but the event was slated for 1 p.m. We decided that showing up at 11:30 was fangirl enough for us. We walk around the corner on Michigan Ave and the crowd is already lined up down the block. D went to the end of the line and I sort of entered the twilight zone, passing all these people I thought I knew – other mc.org fans whose pics we have been looking at . Met chitown, slh, Karen, tons of others, saw that Den and Liz had good spots. It was fun but weird “Oh you’re chk?!?”
Behind us in the queue is this lovely old lady and her daughter. She is 78 and doesn’t miss a LH gig – she tells us that Marty and her son lived in the same apartment building and that Marty used to come over with his guitar and sing to her grandkids. Her 7-year-old granddaughter would say she had to fix her hair if Marty was coming over cause he’s her guy. It was so sweet. She said, “Marty is a nice boy. And so talented!”

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Okay after more than an hour in line, they begin letting people in 20 at a time. We are about 7 or 8 “rows” deep, dead center. The store is playing the cd and we’re all humming along. Denise puts her scrapbook into my ACP (Asia-Aussie care package) and we wait for band. It’s packed, but the fans are all very civilized –so much so that the Virgin staff comment on how well behaved everyone is. There is a small stage with drums and three stools set up. Bobby comes out and once again I can see him, but no one else can. Dino and Billy come out next. Dino is wearing sunglasses, Billy a hat. Marty then comes out wearing his sunglasses. He looks hot, but damn I want to see those eyes. Billy says something about “This is a little early for us. That’s why we’re wearing hats and sunglasses.” Marty is of course too hot to describe. He says they didn’t expect so many people. He asks how many people are from Chicago and how many are from out of town. It’s about half and half and he looks pleasantly surprised. They do an acoustic set, six songs, I think including The Riddle, Call of Distress (which is amazing live cause Marty really includes the audience in it), Rain on My Brain, then Marty says. “let’s try a little Tunnel” and he also takes acoustic guitar and plays. I have to admit this was my first fave LH song and I feel totally validated every time I hear them do it – It’s great, the crowd loves it, sings every word. He then says, “We’ve avoided doing stuff that I did on TV—until today.” He says he asked the band ten minutes before they came out to try this one. They play WYWH and crowd swoons in unison. Last, they play Trees, and finally Marty stands up so people can see him. The funniest bit was toward the end of the song when he very intentionally did a little Mad Conductor move for the crowd. It looked like he was going to laugh. Probably the most fun during any/all of the shows is singing Trees. It’s just too damned catchy. The entire crowd really yells YEAH YEAH YEAH!

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Once the set is over, the band goes and takes a breather while the autograph thing is set up. The Virgin people tell us that there are a lot of people, there will not be any personal pix with band, you can have 1 thing signed, and show your wristband. We all start snaking our way thru the store and now the butterflies are building up. D and I sing Clouds (it’s on the system at the store) and feel a bit calmer. She is feeling strange cause she doesn’t know what to say to the band – she’s a fan of the music and thinks MC is hot, but isn’t on the board or anything. She asks me what to say “Hi, great show last night” ? I am having problems of my own forming words so cannot offer any advice. At least she is sensible enough to take pix before we reach the table. (Interjection to say that Tony, the hot guitarist from Black Maker, turns up with his little girl and joins the end of the queue. We told him what a great job they did at Joe’s and ask why he doesn’t just go to the front!?)
Okay, so it turns out Marty is the first one at the table, then Dino, Bobby and Billy. D got a GREAT shot of the four of them so I’ll pester her for that. She also got one of Dino and Marty with ACP. So for some reason I go for first and it’s quite out of body. I smile, put the ACP on the table and say to MC and DK, “This is a gift from all your fans in Asia and Australia.” I really hardly looked at marty. It was like I couldn’t or something. I hear Marty saying something like “Wow, that’s so cool” and I say something about flying in from Hong Kong. The Marty takes my arm and looks me straight in the eyes and says “Oh, you’re the one who talks to my sister on line. It’s really nice to meet you.” I almost peed my pants – Jen tells Marty about this? OMG what has she told him???!!! Marty Casey knows who I am??? WTF? I am seriously in parallel universe now. I look at him and say it’s nice to meet him too and that I keep asking Jen to tell her little brother to play Clouds, but he hasn’t done it yet.
Then I am in front of Dino and I recall that he once said something in a PM to me about Beef Chop Suey. So I say, “Hey Dino, I was going to bring you some beef chop suey, but nobody in Hong Kong eats that crap.” He laughed and I told him that we’d take him for a good meal when he came this way. Then I said hi, nice to meet you to Bobby then I was in front of Billy, who was talking to lots of family. I noticed that he had lots of guitar picks piled up and I said, “Hey Billy, I’m going to take one of your picks,” and he said “Help yourself! That’s what they’re for! (it says Lovehammers on one side and Billy on the other)

So I wait at end for my sister, who is having a grand time. After Marty said something to me about Jen, then D says to him, “Well, if our sisters are becoming friends, maybe you and I should continue the trend.” He just looked at her. It was hilarious. Then Dino says to her, “Oh, you guys are sisters? Are you twins? (lmfao) She says “no, I’m the younger one.” OK, so I did call her a nasty name after that. The Liz and Den came thru the line – I didn’t see them at all talking to guys. We were all so jazzed and excited that we couldn’t stop talking, giggling or thinking about how hungry we suddenly were. So we walked to Uno for some deep dish pizza and to look at our pix and recount the days’ events so far.

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After lunch D and I decide to walk back to hotel past the Chicago Theater, where the busses are parked. We saw the INXS busses earlier but now the LH green machine with trailer is there, too. We take some stupid fangirl pix in front of bus and decide to go into Chicago Theater to ask what the deal is with bringing cameras. We see Jeremy in the lobby unpacking LH T-shirts and we shout out to him. He says hi but has no idea who we are or why we know his name. It’s pretty ridiculous, really. So we ask the box office dude about cameras and he says not to even try to bring them. But we’re only half paying attention because INXS is doing their sound check and we can hear JD singing Suicide Blonde. Either that or they were playing the record really loud cause it sounded EXACTLY like Michael Hutchence singing.
We listen for a minute then decide to leave our cameras at the hotel – it’s literally one bock away; I can see the theater out my window. We figure we’ll pick up the cameras after the show and take them to party. So Den and Liz come round to the hotel and drop off their cameras too. We listen to MC&LH on the cd player in the room, then head out to the Theater. It’s already a scrum. We queue up for T-shirts – there were only two variations and some sweatbands, as I recall. We almost reach the front of the line when Den gets a call from Jen who says she’s in the lobby and wants to meet us. D looks at me like I am completely flipped – one of those looks that says, how often are you online that Marty’s sister is calling you and Denise?
We get our T’s and then find Jen, which isn’t easy because she is the teeniest thing you have ever seen – beautiful, sweet, gracious and really tiny. She knows all our names and introduces us to Liz, Marty’s other sister and her cousins (jill and mike?). Liz asks me why I would fly so far for LH and I tell her “A wise man once said, Life Don’t Wait For No One.” She laughed and everyone agreed that you gotta do what you gotta do.

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So the show is about to start. Our seats aren’t very good and it seems that the Caseys are scattered throught the theater –wherever they could get seats. Dawn and I climb up 3 flights to the lower balcony. The good thing is that we are in the front row of the lower balcony. The bad news for everyone behind us is that we are both very tall and we are unwilling to sit down during LH set. Marty comes out and they do abbreviated Ultrasound with lots of conductor moves. Marty is in his black plants with the top stitching, a pink shirt and black jacket. He also has sunglasses on to start the show but neither they nor the jacket stay on very long. I cannot remember the exact set list; I know it included Rain, Riddle, Tunnel, Eyes, and a special treat – Better Off Walk Away. (Marty was sitting on the speaker singing –"Indian style on the bedroom floor getting a kiss and wanting more.”) During Tunnel he ran into the crowd and we lost sight of him. I think he was getting hugs from all the Caseys! Then they did Trees, with Marty playing on Billy’s soundboard for a really cool intro to the song. The crowd was really into it by now and doing the YEAH YEAH YEAH thing again. Then for last song they do Ring of Fire –best bit was my new fave Marty move, a very intense air guitar that mirrored exactly what Billy was doing. There was plenty of backside showing (much to horror of more conservative attendees) lots of conducting, spinning and really ASTONISHING work by Bobby and Dino. Seriously, I don’t think I ever air drummed before, but I did then.

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After the LH set, the crowd went nuts, but of course no encores. It was 45 minutes and done. A lot of LH fans went to the lobby to see if band would turn up for another meet and grab. D and I bumped into Jen again who was waiting for her parents. I had one of my airhead moments. Jen was looking toward the front doors when she said she was waiting for her mom and dad so I asked if they were coming just to see INXS –it seemed odd to me that she was waiting for them after LH was done. She laughed and said yeah, they came only to see INXS.
I’m an idiot.
INXS were a couple of songs into their set and D and I were still talking to various Caseys and Hammerheads. Jeremy came out to say that because the LH had been signing autographs all afternoon, they weren’t going to do a m&g. We all kind of hung out for a few minutes then wandered back into the theater to catch some INXS. JD looked really good, sounded pretty good, but he doesn’t have MH’s range, so when they did Original Sin it just didn’t seem right. Also there was something wrong with their sound –the bass was far too loud. Anyway, we figure we’ll check out the show for a few songs. JD sang By My Side to a little girl in the audience, who it turns out, was Marty’s niece. Then they did this song called something like Taste It. This is the one everyone’s been reading about. JD had some, um, interesting moves during this song during which he simulated masturbation with the mike stand. D and I just looked at each other and decided that was enough JD for us. We get down to the lobby and wouldn’t ya know it, every other hammerhead left at that moment too. It was too funny. Everyone was just kind of creeped out. D and I walked back to the hotel and called Den to tell her that whenever she and Liz wanted to come over and get their cameras, it was fine by us. I think they were already in the lobby too so we met up in about 5 minutes.
So we all decide to walk to Hard Rock Hotel where chitownchick etal have arranged a post-convert party with band. We are very excited as Marty told Nancy/BBE that they would be there. We once again decide to walk past the CT to see the busses and the stage door. The INXS crowd is already filing out. We turn the corner and see Bobby posing for pic with a fan in front of bus. But he turns and runs onto bus before we can tackle him. Unfortunately he is the last Hammer on the bus and it starts to move away. (Which means we have just missed MC, damn!)

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We get to HRH and recognize a few fans, (nancy, the two chitowns, Penny, etc) we arrange some cushions and chairs and all start talking about the show. For awhile it’s just some sister fans who have ditched hubbies and boyfriends to hang with band. I am feeling like sad groupie, but if you’re in for a penny, you’re in for a pound. We order some munchies cause we realize that none of us has eaten since Uno. I give the waitress my credit card to start a tab. Then a bunch of people come in including Dino and Bobby and a lot of their old friends from school. Dino is with his beautiful girlfriend Gina, Bobby is f-ing gorgeous and about 6’3” . Immediately the vibe of the whole bar changes from laid back to loud. I realize about 10 minutes into it that I am still sitting down – I think I was having a Fellini moment –it was all too surreal and not at all my usual scene. D and I start hanging with the friends of band who tell us that a couple of years ago the LH used to call them and say “you guys have to come to the show or no one will be there.” And now they have a hard time getting tickets. At some point it occurred to me to retrieve my camera. So D and I get our pic taken with Bobby