Rollerskating.. An old activity revisted

So Jennifer and I were on a shopping mission to purchase Roller Skates.. no inline ones but the old kind you had as a kid... Even though they have come back into fashion... not an easy to come by unless you hit a specialty store... Online buying is hard too when you don't know your size in skates...  Ok so we're at Dicks Sporting Goods.. trying on rollerblades to get sizing info..  I literally think a light bulb appeared over my head...   Maybe we should TRY rollerskating before we spend money on skates.. So that's how we ended up at Orbit Roller Rink last Saturday.

I was driving there and remember all time time I had spent at the Oak Lawn Roller Rink... and the music...It was 70's and 80's music...   I had not been on regular roller skates for probably 15-20 years.... I did do some rollerblading about 10 years ago.. Wow was it hard.. and awkward...  We managed to last about 2 hours before we headed to the bar!

Durty Nellies had a Talking Heads Tribute band with a Rolling Stones tribute band opening for them..

Unfortunately I only caught some video of the opener.. I think there were too many drinks in between for me to remember to get the headliner  ..lol

Round 2 is this Sat... more skating and this time a  Poison Tribute and a Motley Crue tribute...

Updates......

So we haven't been posting much but will be trying to update with antics soon. We do have some snazzy events coming up which are gonna be good!!!

XOXO

Hellcat Jenaside

Elgin Brewfest - Friday, June 17th

So our weekend was chocked full of things to do.....yes, amazingly more so than normal. I'm posting these in 3 separate blogs so that everyone can get the full effect and we can cover all the shenaigans.

On Friday after work, Nancy made the long trek from the city to the burbs. When she goes to the 'burbs she really goes!!! The farthest Northwest Burb for the Elgin Brewfest.

We walked to the festival grounds which is about 1 mile from my house. Paid our donation and ticket fees to get our cups of beer. They actually had some good choices to choose from. We both stuck with Shock Top though and had to ask for orange slices. The servers weren't the greatest, but what do you expect from people who aren't getting tips. We also had some festival food...can't go to a fest & not have some type of BBQ.

When we first got to the fest, whatever band was playing was bad. We couldn't wait for them to get off stage. The crowd seemed OK, with whatever was playing since most weren't paying attention anyways.

The mix of Elginites was interesting to say the least. You had families, singles that obviously thinking they were at a club & tweens & teens. The outfits were bad!!! One woman who was on the large size (to be polite) figured a red glitter tank top was the perfect top to wear to this show. As she made her way up to the stage the band even noticed her top to the point of interrupting the show and pointing it out. I would have to say though, the worst thing we saw there was towards the end of the night when several teens decided it would be a great idea at a family event to strip down to their underwear & dance in a line right up close to the stage. It was BAD naked!!

The main band though Infinity http://www.infinity2k.com/ was really good. They did a set which included Bon Jovi, Styx, Van Halen & a Led Zep montage as there finale. They were great with the covers and all the songs were fun to sing along too. We got some video that Nancy will be posting.

After getting some free drink tickets from a guy walking through the Brewfest, we headed over to Medusa's for our free drinks. We ended up meeting the owner who is the original owner of Medusa's that used to be downtown Chicago (think 80's/90's - Industrial & Goth Club). Apparently on Thursday nights in the upstairs bar they do a Flashback to what Medusa's used to be like!! Awesome!!! Even though he was great fun and awesome to talk too, we couldn't stand the music with 1 beat which the DJ apparently loved since he was the only one dancing. I kept thinking "Night at the Roxbury".

We then ventured over to the Gasthaus (I call it the Harry Potter Bar) where if you don't want to see the bands you can go through a bookshelf into a sports bar. This has to be one of the best bars in Elgin. I'm a fan of dive bars and this one has cheap but great drinks, a hidden bar & a stage that usually gets some pretty good bands. It was renovated about a year ago and is no longer the German Bar that was small and cramped. They have a small selection of food which is also pretty tasty.

We stumbled back to my house to continue the adventures.....

June 17-19 Preview

So this weekend includes a suburban fest(http://www.elginbrewfest.com/), a party at a motorcycle club, and Taste of Randolph. And no this is not the beginning of a joke...

So tonight we'll be drinking to the likes of Cover band  Infinity  http://www.infinity2k.com/.
I can see beer drinking and lots of singing along in tonight's future.

Going to see Mr Russia and Rev Horton Heat at Taste of Randolph.  http://www.tasterandolph.com/

The Gravetones / Black Cat Rebellion / Heeby Jeebies - Memories (June 11th, 2011)

This past Saturday, June 11th we went to Memories to wish Alex Cash off on his new adventure being all he can be in.....THE ARMY! He's going to risk his life and limb protecting our country, the least we could do was buy him a couple rounds of drinks.

This time we also brought along a Stand-up Comedian which made normally hilarious antics even funnier.

We were on the guest list to go see Orange Goblin at the Double Door courtesy of Do312, however we never made it there since we were having too much fun at Memories.

We actually got there amazingly early after stopping off at Paddy Mack's for some chicken fingers & Blue Moon's. The Blue Moon's were good, the service there sucked and the chicken fingers...not the best.

The Heeby Jeebies went on first and for an itty bitty little girl she can BELT out the tunes! Did some great covers and a couple of originals. Very good, rockabilly beat and you can dance to it!

Next up were Black Cat Rebellion who have some GREAT outfits & a great sound. A mixture of punk, Horror Rock & with some Rockabilly roots. Pounding drums, Echo-y guitars and melodic vocals make them exciting to listen to and even better seeing live. Don't miss them if you get a chance to see them as they are well worth it. Personally, I'm hoping they come back soon as I missed out on getting a CD and would like to see them again.

Headlining the night were The Gravetones. Their mixture of Gothabilly, Horror Rock and plain old Rock make them exciting to see live. Scary Larry certainly brought his A game to his performance (he was under the weather last time we saw them) and he's always entertaining to watch onstage! The Bass guitar was pumping & sadly we didn't get to see Brad take off his shirt. I'm getting disappointed as I've been talking up the "Gun Show & The Chest of Steel" to Nancy and both times..shirt on! The drums were pumping and the music was great!! They are a fun band to see live and have some great original tunes. Though the crowd was pretty light, they gave 110% anyways.

It was great celebrating with Alex before his new venture and we wish him the best of luck. Take care of yourself and come back safe.

After the bands we of course hit up our favorite hangout - THE EXIT!

As always, the Exit was a great time & Corporal got a giant purple kiss on the cheek. Towards the early morning, pictures were taken which only 2 are safe to post, the rest...way too racey! Nancy ended up driving to the breakfast of champions....The Golden Nugget!

Once again I was driving back out to the 'burbs while the sun was coming up!! Another great time was had by all!

This weekend (June 17-19) we are hitting up Elgin's Brewfest, The Rebel Knights MC Spring Fling & possibly Cobra Lounge, and finally Taste of Randolph to see Mr. Russia & Rev Horton Heat!! It's another looooonnngg weekend.

Memories and Exit...

 opps we missed the show at the Double Door.. Having too much Fun!

MayFest 2011

Polkaholics played at Mayfest this year..  If you haven't seen them you should really check them out.  They are extremely energetic and always have the crowd dancing. Who doesn't love Polka with a punk swing to it. I have included some short video from the show.  

Nothing beats German Beer, Brats and the Polkaholics....

Friday, May 20th - Reggie's & Exit

So on Friday, we went to Reggie's to see the Krank Daddies & Calabrese play. Both bands were amazing!!! Krank Daddies are a great Rockabilly/Psychobilly style band with some great songs & catchy lyrics. Certainly worth the price of admission!!! Calabrese had the whole creepy, B-horror movie vibe going with great hooks, amazing musicians and catchy songs! If you haven't seen them Live and UNDEAD....DO IT!

Since it was 17+ we didn't quite know what to expect. It was not quite the kiddie fest I thought it might turn out too, which was really good. What was hilarious was the two guys from Southern IL that are "hickabilly" - their words, not mine. The one guy wanted me to go with him to a wedding this Saturday....yeah, right!!! We spent the rest of our time there trying to shake them.

We then went over to the Exit (that's right, twice in one week). While we were there, this guy comes in and starts talking to us. He's dressed in 80's retro prep gear, all that was missing were the boat shoes & puca shell necklace. He said "I'm from the Gold Coast, just got in a cab and this is where it took me". Really, who does that!!! I don't know many cabbies that #1 - know where the Exit is or #2 - would just take someone there unless they said...I wanna try and pick up some punk rock chicks with tattoos. I'm going with plan B. We're pretty sure that he may have tried to slip something into Nancy's drink cause he wouldn't leave us alone the rest of the night either.

We met some great people from the Circus (Barnum & Bailey's) who were on vacation and got to hang out with some people that I haven't seen in way too long but miss hanging out with!!

Cheers to Frenchie, Mickey & Corporal.......Hope it's not as long that we hang out again.

This weekend....it's another Tattoo for me and we're playing the rest by ear!!! I'm sure we'll be updating soon.

Kisses....Jen

Monday Night Antics - 5.16.2011 (My Take)

So last night we (Nancy & I) went out on a Monday night which is kind of a rare occasion for us since we both have to work day jobs early in the AM.

We had tickets courtesy of Q101 to see an advanced screening of TNT's new series Franklin & Bash. The screening was at the Vertigo Sky Lounge in the Dana Hotel. Good thing I had already seen the shows stars (Mark-Paul Gosselaar & Breckin Meyer) in the lobby of my work in the morning since they didn't attend their own screening. At least not as far as we know, but we did leave early.

Left early because......

1. The food (free) was bad and probably from Costco or Sam's.

2. The drinks were over-priced & the wait staff were doing up charges on the drinks which leads to a funny side story.

3. The venue was tiny (only 50 people max but crammed 70 in there)

4. It was cold & we were outside

5. The show wasn't funny & people were not laughing....not a good sign at all.

6. Out of all the mottle crew of people that were all about getting things for free - 2 homeless people that swarmed the servers as soon as they came around.

Funny side story - We had two rounds of drinks and it was $10.00 drink night. The first round was $10.00 ea. at least. On the second round, we got charged and additional $2.00, when we asked why the price went up, we were told that the first bartender probably didn't charge us enough. The waitress then proceeded over to the bouncer and the bartender and had a pow-wow which lead to repeated stares and pointing at us. Really!!!! We paid the tab, it wasn't like we were NOT paying...what's the problem. Decision - Vertigo Sky Lounge looks cool, but certainly NOT worth going back too.

After this adventure....we left around 8:30p. We decided to hit up the Exit to catch Johnny Murder, Tracer Bullet & The Creepin Cadavers. We only stayed until 11:30p but it we did catch Johnny Murder. They were really good. Not a ton of space to play in either but they put on a great show. It's too bad we didn't get a chance to stay to catch the rest of the bands...next time fellas. It was great seeing people I haven't seen in awhile though and I haven't been to the Exit since 2005 so that was pretty sweet too.

We'll be going to see Calabrese at Reggie's on Friday - May 20th and we both have incredibly busy weekends so I'm sure we'll post more later.

Kisses.....Jen

It's a slow week for us...

So we are on a little hiatus. We also need to catch-up on posting our adventure to the Wax Trax Retrospectcle and some cool video's.

We'll get back to posting soon though.....May is looking like a BIG month with lots of things going on.

Also, if you're in a band/musician/bad poem reader/comedian/UFC fighter, etc and want us to come check you out, take some pics, do a little review...ie: self-promotion for you & us...let us know either here, Twitter or Facebook. We'll see what we can do:P

Jen

Pearls Mahone & The OneEyed Jacks - Huntley, IL

Offie's Tavern in Huntley, IL is a "local" bar. Nancy and I took an adventure out to the bustling farming area of Huntley, IL. As soon as we got a little ways out, I could hear some dueling banjos coming from the corn fields and swear I saw some Children of the Corn!!

Once we got to the bar, we were fashionably late...I swear you could hear the record skip when we walked in and everyone turned to stare!! We were certainly not regulars! LOL

The show was great though and Pearls singing is AMAZING!! She's got some pipes! The rest of the band totally rocked it too. If you get a chance check them out, it's worth the price of admission!! They are going to get HUGE!!!

The Cherry Vodka & Red Bulls were delicious and super bright pink which totally fit the 50's Theme they had going on inside. It looked like a kiddy cocktail, but packed quite a punch.

Flowers & Branches Colored - 3rd Sitting for Sleeve

So yesterday I was at Topnotch Tattoos in Elgin, IL getting my sleeve worked on by Eric Thvelt. He's amazing not only as an ink slinger, but also as an artist! He started working my 1/2 sleeve into a whole design last Spring and since he books at least 6 months in advance, it is taking awhile to complete. I'd rather have it done right though than rushed!!

He has done the entire top 1/2 of my arm and combined what I had by Jeff Satan into an overall design and theme. Like most Asian tattoos it combines the elements Earth, Air & Water with Cherry Blossoms and Sea Creatures.

Enjoy the pics!

And I shot them after working out so ignore the sports bra & smell of sweat:P

We must be in the PENTHOUSE...Baby!

Tonight at 5:30p Nancy and I will be at the United Center in the Penthouse Suites drinking free booze & eating free food compliments of a vendor!

That's right...we'll be watching the Blackhawks in style. Will we really be watching the game.....we'll just have to see. I heard a rumor about a dessert cart and some top shelf liquor so we may be watching that disappear instead.

"We're just having desserts & liquor"!!!

Pics will be coming after tonights adventure.

Lollapalooza

The ticket has been purchased.. I went to the first bunch of these... took some time off from it, from going to concerts all together but.. it was long over due to start getting out to see shows again.. I missed it!!!
It still doesn't seem correct that this is 20 years later....  I actually still have my ticket stub like this once shown in this clip.....  I still call it the World Music Theatre.....  ;o)

JC's Kraken Tattoo @ Electric Art in Fox Lake by Kurt (Bowser) Klein

So after much talking, we are taking like months...since August of last year. JC finally decided to get tattooed again! I had to do a little bit of pushing to get him to actually go through with it but....check it out! Amazing!!

Kurt is actually so good, that I'm getting yet another one on May 7th. Apparently I can't stay away from the ink!!! Especially since I'm getting my sleeve finished on April 15th.

So here's the pics....enjoy!!!

Flaming Pasties

So we decided it would be fun to video blog about this summer's activities.... I know it not summer quite yet but this concert deserved to be included.....  Mind you I am rather short and it was very dark in this bar....

The main reason we turned out to this venue on this particular April Fools Day was to see
Pearls Mahone and OneEyed Jacks.  Here are a couple of snippets... too bad I don't have the patience (while drinking) to get an entire song...

Filmed at the Brauerhouse in Lombard