Yeezus City

I listened to Kanye West's new album, YEESUZ, twice on the way into Chicago to get into that Chi-City state of mind. "New Slaves" is a particularly stunning cut. LISTEN:

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Chicago. This was the main destination of the trip. A couple of my college friends have relocated here in the last couple of years and I wanted to see them and see the city again. The road so far has been packed with friends and family and warm welcomes and good times. Chicago is the apex and my last stop with friends to stay with before the long road to Salt Lake City. I started to get overwhelmed by the amount of driving ahead of me. But then I remembered I'm in Chicago seeing some of my best friends and I should just not worry about that other stuff right now.

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I couldn't find really any open mics in Chicago on Fridays so what I ended up going to was God's Garage, a Christian outreach center in West Chicago. They have an open mic on Fridays and the website claims that they'll even burn you a CD of your performance. I called beforehand to make sure it was still on and the preacher, Rocky, assured me they were up and running.

"How many people do you have on the list for tonight?" I inquired.

"… Well, none right now but just come on down!"

Andrew, my college buddy and Chicago fiend, decided to accompany me on the outing and I'm glad he did because if he didn't I would have just played to Rocky and his cat, Hobbes.

The set went fine, I guess, but who can really attribute any sort of critique to a show that's played before your friend, the host of the open mic and his cat. Rocky was a nice guy and explained that he hosted the open mic because he was getting tired of going out to bars on Friday nights to drink and listen to music. He wanted a place for music with less pressure to consume alcohol. He claimed that they have had some really good nights where a lot of people show up and then others where, and he gestured around the empty room. After every song I played he would hit play on this knock-off iPod mini and canned applause would weakly pour out the speakers. It was kind of sad, the whole thing, but not really any more depressing than any of the other open mics.

Rocky invited us out to his church on Sunday, Jesus People, in North Chicago. It's a real rock and roll church, he tells us. He is not turned off by our admission of atheism and even admits that even though he tries to do this to stay sober on Fridays he'll likely go out drinking tomorrow night. He also explains that the whole point of God's Garage is to accept anybody and everybody, regardless of whether they're religious or not. He recalls going to certain churches or community groups and feeling judged and unwelcome. God's Garage is a place removed from that cynicism. It's a place for music, first and foremost, and secondly a place for christians to come together. This guy gets it, I thought to myself.

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Tomorrow: NO SHAME THEATER Open Mic where I get 5 minutes before the hook yanks me off stage.