Matt and Kim! Well, just Matt in this picture.
But there are others.

Some time around 6pm, with still little of a plan for the evening, I chanced upon a posting on a message board about Japanther playing at a bar in Chicago. Which is wonderful, because I totally missed seeing them and Matt and Kim just weeks earlier in Brooklyn, leaving town because of the impending transit strike of doom. It was a wonderful night and I took some pictures.

I also ran into one ex-girlfriend from four years ago (just minutes after asking someone else if she was said lady), one high school acquaintance I last saw probably seven years ago, and some former/current Kalamazoo folks. And then the party I was going to in Wicker Park got shut down. I ran into people from the show all night long, it was like being in Bloomington and seeing everyone after a show at Rockit’s or some such, after saying goodnight to them.

My favorite thing about holidays, by far, is how they transform the normative moods people have. Most everyone both at the show and just walking around Wicker Park was so friendly, so outgoing and convivial. I wish every day random people would play drums on the corner until the cops came, and talk to me about typefaces in taco joints (him: man, impact is the best. i use it on banner ads all the time. me: dude, you need to check out helvetica neue. it will change your life), and rock out so hard that you’ll spend the next year wondering if every show you’re at was as good as this one.

Which really brought me back to spite towards alcohol. Not to the people who drink it really. But moreso the culture that encourages people sector off portions of their lives for acting crazy, that cripples peoples’ natural abilities to be spontaneous and free, and declares that such things are really only possible if you destroy your innards and pocketbook in the process. But really, that’s just a sidenote. What a great night.