Last night was a helluva lot of fun!
Seriously, it was the most fun I' ve had playing in a long time (and I always have fun playing).

Band-by-band synopsis:
Dave King can all the way from Toronto and was quite entertaining. He was a one-man band who played live drums to a sampler, picked up the guitar and sang. Some of his tunes were pretty darn good.

The Oohs From the powerpop capitol of Springfield, Illinois (Literally, the capitol), came this 4-piece of power pop classicists. Think Raspberries meet The Shoes and that's pretty much dead-on. They hit every genre cliche, and I loved every minute of it.

The Prailines HoP bassist Tim's wife's band (Tim played with them last night). IT was the first time I saw the full-band, and was very, very impressed. I always knew that Pam had a beautiful alto, but wasn't sure how it's translate to a live rock-band setting. One word: great. She writes beautiful, country-tinged pop tunes and has an ace band. RIYL: Gene Clark, Velvet Crush.

The Injured Parties I've know leading injurian, Larry Dean, for some time now. He is a pop music geek of the highest order and has always been a helluva songwriter. Sometimes, he doesn't have quite the right famework for his songs. This is not the case with the new band. The 3-piece power trio sounds great and the new songs are some of the best I've heard from him.

Hop On Pop We had a blast and felt like it was a good show. I'll let others be the judge of that, however.

Red Plastic Buddah Totally ditto.

The Three Fifths Matt's new band is a lot more pop-oriented than his last band, and more Matt-oriented, too. That's all good news. Great songs, buddy. And I could not resist jumping on-stage to sing that harmony on "Caught In the Middle". Hell... SOMEBODY needed to sing it!

Thanks to Jen and Josh for gettin' the babysitter and braving the Lincoln Park parking situation (which was surprisingly good, even if it was Sunday night).

Sounds like a great time. Glad you had fun, Todd.

sounds like it was a blast. wish i could have been there

Oh yeah, you guys missed my on-stage "wardrobe change" between HoP and RPB. It was quite the moment.

Seriously one of the most fun shows I've played

Thanks for the great synopsis, Todd! and special thanks to Jen and Josh for making it out. It really meant a lot.

Last night really felt "on" in every way. I started out feeling fairly subdued, but by the time I got a couple of beers in me I was jumping all over the stage.