I'm bringing my friends

Monday night was the Sky Blue Sky release party at the Hideout, hosted by Sam for Laurie's Planet of Sound (and the record label, and WXRT.) Having attended the release party for A Ghost is Born in 2004 at the very same place, I figured my driving time would be well spent. It was.

The Old Town School ensemble did a good job playing Wilco covers, and then backing the variety of dorks who took the stage for live band karaoke - myself included. Stacy and I ended up trading verses on "Hummingbird" - I don't really want to dwell on the fact that there's video evidence of this somewhere, but it was a lot of fun. I wasn't in the music room for every performance, but other highlights included Sam, Laura, and Kristina's rendition of "Outtasite," Evonne and Edie performing "Shot in the Arm," and of course Lou and Kris on "Hotel Arizona." The Wilco camp was very generous with the donations for the event - prizes for singing included free t-shirts, signed silkscreened posters, calendars, buttons, stickers, and more. That was in addition to the promo posters and postcards that were out for the taking. When I finally left the Hideout, I was laden with swag.

We danced, we drank, we chatted, we bought tamales, and we listened to the new Wilco album. Good times.

(Side note - after ten years of managing to avoid Sopranos spoilers, David Letterman finally did me in for the most recent episodes. Damn it, Dave. You're not supposed to give spoilers in a one-sentence reference to your guest.)