Train @ Taste of Chicago, 7/6/2006

Taste of Chicago is the city's yearly food and music fest and draws huge crowds. This year we had the chance to go on a weekday so we ventured downtown (or rather, I chased W. with a cattleprod...). It was somewhat emptier than the last time we had been there (which was like 3 or 4 years ago to see Foreigner).

This is what we ate: fried mustard catfish (I asked the vendor for a "fork" and first he didn't understand me and then he asked me where I was from. How I love that! What's so hard to understand about "foak"? ;-)), goat biryani (yum!), samosas (fried, veggie-filled dough pockets), funnel cake w/cream and berries, oh and a slice of Eli's famous cheesecake with strawberry sauce. All very tasty.

The main reason we had ventured downtown, though, was to see Train. Even though it was pretty crowded and we didn't find a good place to sit, it was still very nice. Mat Kearney opened for them and they were pretty good (never heard of him before, but pretty cool singer/songwriter stuff with some hip hop thrown in for good measure. Actually I had heard their single "Nothing left to lose" on the radio before). So, Train finally started (after the organisers blasted us with radio ads for what seemed like an eternity)! I liked them. Lots of nice interaction with the audience, and I actually knew most of the songs (though not by heart, like some female dorks in front of us).


Below is a video from youtube.com (I didn't even try to take a video this time, since we were too far away from the stage):

Oh, and the weather was just perfect! I'm dreading the really hot and humid days of July and August (weather forecast for this week: 94 degrees. Oh yeah.)