Eisley at the Double Door. comments: 1 comments Last night, at the Double Door, Eisley played a free show. And although it was a free concert, I managed to spend over 20 bucks during the course of the night. Beer and books, baby. I drove up to Chicago, picked up my friend Suz at the UIC Medical School, and went to Wicker Park for the show. As many of you know, the parking in Chicago (much less any city) is goddamn atrocious, but I was lucky to find an open meter right outside the venue. Now I was surprised that one quarter gets you one hour in the meter. I'm so used to Champaign-Urbana, university parking where one hour costs 75 cents. No wonder the school gets well over a million dollars in parking alone; meter prices are so fucking high, and the University parking police shell out tickets like whores spreading hepatitis. Suz and I had time to kill before the actual show started, so we stopped by a used bookstore near the Double Door. The place was literally stacked with all sorts of books, from the basement to the attic. They even had entire sections devoted to the occult, sex and erotica, veganism cookbooks, and literary criticisms (I actually found a book written by my Hemingway professor). In the basement, I was browsing through the humor section and found the Daily Show's America (The Book) for a mere 12 dollars. Needless to say I bought it, primarily because I love humor at a reduced price and I want to be a god-hating, tree-hugging hippy-liberal just like my roommate Caroline -- who just happened to first introduce the book to me when we were living together. After purchasing my book, Suz and I walked to the Double Door and presented our tickets. We stood in front of the stage while we waited for my friend and fellow cartoonist Pat Doran to show up. I then bought myself a beer and demonstrated to Suz (who was never much of a bar person at her school) bar-ordering etiquette. At 9pm, some dude from Q101 (Chicago's definitive alt-rock radio station) introduced the opening band, Days Away. This came to a surprise considering 1) I didn't know there was an opening band, and 2) since when has Q101 taken interest in indie music? I have never heard them even play fucking Eisley on their station. Days Away was pretty good. I especially liked the lead guitarist and the drummer's work; they knew how to play and play really well. The lead singer and bassist, on the other hand, were subpar and bore a striking resemblance to my former roommates, Mike and Glenn, respectively. The lead singer, once the strings on his guitar broke, started to mamba on stage. Pat Doran eventually arrived mid-set and said he didn't care much for the opening band. He also asked me to take a pic of him so he can use it on his MySpace page. Personally, I liked this one: Eisley came on around 10, and I had three beers too many. They played nearly all the songs on their first, full-length album "Room Noises" (save "Lost at Sea" and "One Day I Floated Away"). For those of you don't know, Eisley is composed of three sisters (Stacy-Vocals/Keyboards, Sherri-Vocals/Guitar, Chauntelle-Guitar), their brother (Weston-Drums), and a family friend (Jonathan-Bass). Unfortunately, their bassist wasn't present, but they got their cousin to fill in. He, I might add, looked like my Purdue friend, Aaron. Can you believe Stacy is only 16? That means when she appeared in the "Marvelous Things" video, she was only fucking 15-years-old!. I feel like a dirty pedophile every time I look at her... Sherri, however, is my age, and I am simply infatuated with her. As pictured above, we even exchanged glances at during the show (perhaps it was my awesome-looking artsy hat that got her attention or the fact that my camera's flash kept going off, whatever). During the show, some drunk guy in dreadlocks made some sexual comment towards Sherri and the other sisters, and she turned away in disgust. The other two laughed and blushed. At the final encore, Eisley played two of my favorite songs, "Just Like We Do" and "Tree Tops." I was actually amazed at Stacy's acoustic guitar solo on "Just Like We Do"; I didn't know she even played guitar. After the show, Pat Doran, Suz, and I ran into Chauntelle, Eisley's lead guitarist, who happens to be the sister Doran thinks is the hottest. We talked to her for a little bit, and I even took a picture of her and Doran together. That's all fer nawr. More pics on my Flickr site. pleasantly brought to you by phillip retuta Friday, August 19, 2005 @ 3:58 PM everything here is property of phil. therefore, do not take and/or alter anything here without written consent... he has a friend that's a lawyer and another who's VERY intimidating! if you want to use or request art, please e-mail him! all non-original pictures, names, and characters are property of their respective companies and people! this bitch is powered by blogger.