I spent the afternoon of Record Store Day last Saturday over at Reckless Records in Wicker Park to pick up all the releases I wanted and catch two of the three in-store performances. When I got there, the place was really crowded and it had been most of the day from what I was told. I’m sure the nice weather helped entice people to come out and stimulate the economy by buying some music on this day.
Blasted Diplomats
Blasted Diplomats
Blasted Diplomats
The first band who played was called Blasted Diplomats and was comprised of some employees of the record store. They played a set that was compirsed almost entirely of cover songs of various types of music including a Husker Du cover. Normally such a practice would anger me, however on this day it seemed rather appropriate as if they were sort of representing some of the kinds of music you could find in the store.
Blasted Diplomats
Blasted Diplomats
The next band was a surprise but I think the word must have gotten out by the time the band were starting to set up their equipment as to who it was because all of a sudden the store became too crowded to move and people were packing in the place everyplace they could squeeze. What this sudden big crowd were waiting for was Lawrence Arms.
Lawrence Arms
Lawrence Arms
Lawrence Arms
I’ve seen the band play once before and thought they put on a pretty good show. I also know they have a lot of fans, especially in this city so I wasn’t surprised that the store was completely packed with people all the way to the entrance! The band played material from a variety of their releases and inbetween songs the singer would tell stories and entertain the crowd as they decided what song they would play next. The crowd ate it up and during a couple of songs so many people were bouncing up and down in delight that I thought the floor might cave in and we’d all end up in the basement! It was a really fun and enjoyable set and because they are such a popular band it made the event feel even more special.
Lawrence Arms
Lawrence Arms
The crowd during Lawrence Arms
