I didn’t have enough time to spend getting out there, because if I had a few extra days coming and going, I would have taken Amtrak; I like trains. I enjoy having some room to stretch and being able to walk around and and not wear a seat belt. I like watching the scenery go by as we fly over tracks. But this time, I braved it and flew. Mind you, this is the first time I’ve flown and I was terrified. I stayed up all night, went for breakfast at about 3:30 with Ralph, who was my last minute traveling companion, and my friends, Naiche and Marat, who drove us out to Newark and gave us(me) moral support. I couldn’t relax, couldn’t sleep. I was next to the window, scared to watch the plane leaving the earth and every little movement was unnerving. But we arrived safely and even slightly early at O’Hare.

We took the blue line downtown and headed for Sam and Lisa’s, where Black Tape rehearsed all day, while we totally crashed for a couple hours.

Friday’s program started off with The Moon Seven Times. If you are unfortunately unfamiliar with The Moon Seven Times, they are a fantastic ethereal pop band. The lead singer, Lynn Canfield, had a very cute and Bjork-ish stage persona, jumping around all over the place. There were a couple shouts requesting they play “Michael Writes His Parents” (The Moon Seven Times used to be Area), but otherwise, I didn’t recognize anything they played live. I’ve only heard a couple of their songs on mixes, but they are worth investigating much more, and were definitely one of my favorite performances that evening.

The second act of the evening was New York’s Ben Neill. I have never seen/heard anything like his set, which could probably be best summed up as ambient acid jazz techno with a mutant horn. Very experimental. Very cool.

Love Spirals Downwards approached the stage with a very nervous Suzanne Perry. They played about three electronically oriented versions of their songs and then an accoustic set. Suzanne babbled nervously between songs and didn’t have any funny stories to tell, but she did humor the crowd with a song “Pickle Man”. She also yelled at people whose low talkative roar was obnoxious during sets. She’s very cute.

Vidna Obmana and Steve Roach combined their two ambient acts for one hour and a half long set. Vidna’s naturistic ambience with Steve’s tribal influence and digeridoo was a perfect balance. Now, don’t get me wrong, Vidna and Steve are incredible, I have a couple of their CD’s and the music is so soothing, but to see this act live for an hour and a half is draining, physically and mentally. But they most certainly did not deserve getting heckled (thank god though, they did throw out the guy yelling “you suck”). I highly recommend both Vidna and Steve’s CDs for listening to as you curl up and dream...

Somewhere in the middle of the evening, I recognized the same crazy photographer, Fred Burkhart, that Jon and Dave ran into last year and wrote about. He was snapping people’s pictures left and right and was very interesting to talk to. I told him about my zine and how my friends met him and wrote about him. He remembered them.

There was an after party at The Dome Room, which was free to anyone with a Projekt stub, but it was so far out of the way from where we were. We were pretty tired and decided to take it easy, get something to eat and visit some friends who were staying over at The Days Inn. After a survey of what was nearby, we settled for a place called Muskies, which was right next to the theatre. If you are a vegetarian (like me) or a vegan (like Ralph), it is not a good idea to eat at a place called Muskies. It was the worst falafel I’ve ever had in my life!

The Days Inn on Diversey was turned into Gothic Central this particular weekend, and everyone must have been an interesting sight to on lookers... We visited Carlos and Marissa, who were in search of a cork-screw and desperately working the cork out of a bottle of red wine (and yes, with success, and a little bit of cork!)

Saturday afternoon was spent browsing and shopping around the “alternative” shopping section around Belmont and Clark. We started off with a meal at Cafe Voltaire, which is a artsy vegetarian place. (If you’re familiar with New York City, Cafe Voltaire reminded me a bit of Yaffa Cafe.) Then we wondered about the likes of The Alley, Taboo Tabou, and my favorite place Medusa’s Circle, where I bought a pretty lace dress that has a Botticelli painting on the front.

We lounged around most of the day at Mati Mahal, an Indian delicatessen and restaurant, where this sweet Indian lady did henna painting. Henna painting is kind of like temporary tattooing; staining your skin with henna lasts for about four to six weeks. I got an intricate, traditional design painted on my feet and Ralph got his hand and part of his face painted. The design on his face totally didn’t take, but my feet and his hand look cool.

Around six-ish, we met up with Sam on the street in front of the Vic and ended up helping him lug refreshments downstairs and backstage for the bands. I met Chelsea from Thistle, who was running around taking pictures. She was wearing a Third Nail tshirt, and I asked her if she was from Third Nail, and then she told me who she was... I’m always pleased to meet other zine makers!

I also met Holly from Bleeding Like Mine (they were on the “of these reminders”, the Black Tape for a Blue Girl tribute CD), Tara from Lycia (whom I had actually re-met, since I saw her only a few months ago in NYC), and William and Monica from Faith and the Muse. I was really flattered they remembered me from my mailed-in interview I did with them from the Procession tour, and that was 5 print issues ago! All of them are really sweet people.

Saturday evening’s program started off with Faith & the Muse. Both William and Monica were costumed beautifully. William sang one song, and his voice was fantastic. They played a fantastic all-accoustic set that left the crowd hungry for more.

After William and Monica left the stage, Robert Rich, unannounced and quite abruptly floated onstage with his ambient flute and ethereal tunes.

Brother Tom of Arcanta was next in the line-up and god, he has the most beautiful, otherworldly voice! Even with some of the technical difficulties with the keyboards, Tom’s voice is so full and rich, you forget he’s singing acapella. Fantastic to hear live, something about the CD just doesn’t strike the same awe...

The last time I saw Lycia, it was at the BatCave in April, and they played a mostly instrumental set. This time Tara mostly sang, and boy can she sing! The stage seemed so sparse visually with Mike rocking back and forth playing guitar and the barefooted Tara swaying and belting out each song, but the music was overwhelming and beautifully haunting, as expected.

Last up for the evening, was Black Tape for a Blue Girl. Generally, they are a studio band. The members of the band live in different parts of the country, which makes touring very difficult. By popular demand, they will be touring and they are not to missed live. Oscar was very animated and expressive while Lucian was very dramatic and goddess-like. Lisa accompanied Mera’s cello and Sam’s electronics on her flute and overall, they gave an intense and breath-taking performance. Black Tape covered the “top ten” favorites of their fans from “the flow of our spirit” to “through sky blue rooms”. The encore was vacross 1000 blades” and was the hardest, danciest version I’ve ever heard.

After this evening was over, we checked out the Dome Room, which is a club within a club... it’s connected to Excalibur, which I was told used to be the Limelight. It’s a gigantic castle! Mind you, it is not a goth club, but the decorum is really beautiful. The dome shape in the very middle of the club has what I suppose to be God looking in, surrounded by a stormy sky. The music changed from uber-techno to more industrial as more Projekt folks wondered in. Nothing too exciting that evening. I danced a little to some Skinny Puppy, but it was difficult to dance in my fake Birkenstocks (had henna on my feet!), so we were only there for about an hour before we headed over to the Days Inn to hang out and shoot the breeze nearly til sun-up.

Sunday afternoon was like a Ukrainian family day for me... I took a cab to the train to the bus to go to my grandmother’s (she’s my “babca”, pronounced “bob-cha”, Ukrainian for grandmother) and it was really fun to see her and a few other of my MidWestern relatives, my Aunt, two of my Uncles and my cousin Ryan. My mother was also out there visiting, because when she heard I was going to Chicago, she wanted to go... :) Babca nearly stuffed me and my friend with all sorts of food, so we were pretty well fed and well rested. In general, the Ukrainian side of my family are very fun and silly people.

Sunday night was informally part three of the festival back at The Dome Room. It was a 21+ show featuring Loveliescrushing and Thanatos and Scary Lady Sarah dj-ing. (She’s very cool!) Loveliescrushing has changed ALOT since the first time I saw them at BatCave two years ago. When I first heard them, they reminded me of a mix of Cocteau Twins’ mouth music and Jesus and Mary Chain’s heavy feedback. They were good the first time I saw them. Their sound has grown so muddy and cacophonic... they were horrible. No rhyme or reason, just ample amounts of painfully loud noise... they made a very poor attempt to mix techno to their sound... People were walking into the bathroom to stuff their ears with toilet paper! Thanatos was cool. I love Pat’s voice, but the guitar is on the metaly-gothic rock side, so they aren’t the most popular band on Projekt... but they even did a Hendrix cover!

Monday left us exhausted and pretty much ready to head back east. Ralph and I got to check out the Projekt office on Wabash and say our goodbyes to Charles, Pat and of course, Sam.

With some anxiety (on my part), we headed back to O’Hare and were delayed going back into Newark because of bad weather. At least I had an aisle seat! (Unless I have to go overseas, I’ve decided I don’t like planes!) It was good and also sad to be back home...