I'm back (for those of you who were not reading)

It's the beginning of Year No. 2 in Chicago and I'm back and promising this will be a regular blog yet again. I'll have at least three new posts per week for nobody to read.

I turned 28 on Friday, but any specifics on that would be too self indulgent and self incriminating to post here, so I'll stick with something safer and more abstemious (that means the opposite of self-indulgent).

The first ever column I wrote for a magazine in Chicago I was bitching about how difficult concertgoing in this town can be. While I have to say that a year later I'm not nearly as discontent with it as I was last spring (a higher paying job and better understanding of the CTA system have a lot to do with this) I still have some frustrations, such as the phenomena of shows selling out insanely early.

Apparently tickets to last week's two TV on the Radio gigs at Metro were liquidated months in advance. The Shins show at Congress sold out months ahead of time, too, and the Arcade Fire shows (all three of them) have sold out as well — and they're not until mid May (I've also heard of scalped tickets going for hundreds on ebay.)

This could mean a handful of things: The immense popularity of these bands I discovered years ago reinfocres my astute prophetic ability to predict what types of music the masses will fall in love. The booking agents for these acts need to do a better job of finding bigger venues for these bands to play while in Chicago. I should turn my back on these aforementioned groups, accuse them of selling out and find new, yet-to-become popular bands that I can wait until the last minute and still get tickets to (while impressing record store clerks with my obscurity along the way.)

OR, I, and everybody else who bitches about missing too many shows in this town because they don't secure tickets in time needs to, should get with program and start paying attention months ahead of time like the thousands of others who gobble them up.