At first I thought this news was a joke considering that Wilco HQ chose to announce it first thing in the morning yesterday on April Fool’s Day, but this turned one turned out to be true (unlike that silly jokester that said Deadmau5 and Daft Punk would be playing Red Rocks)…
Wilco and Andrew Bird are playing at the Kane County Cougars minor league ballpark in Geneva, IL the night of July 8th. Given that Fourth of July falls square in the middle of the week, this is the big Fourth celebration for my hometown. Yes, that’s right — Wilco and Andrew Bird are playing some minor league ballpark in the far Western suburbs of Chicago, some small town that only old ladies care about thanks to all the “shopping” you can do on Third Street. I grew up walking distance from this ballpark (even though you can’t really walk there given the road system set up to funnel into the stadium) and it holds a special place in my heart in a few ways. This is the place where my mom would take me and my brother and sister when I was still a baseball little leaguer. Me and friends would try out their pitching speed machine and try to flirt with girls when we weren’t trying to flirt with girls at the mall. This is the closest Ticketmaster box office after the Rose Records closed in downtown, and this is the spot where me and friends scored front row tickets to the 1998 Beastie Boys Hello Nasty tour. Shit, this is even where my 10 year high school reunion was held (which I skipped because I’m cooler than that)…
Crazy to think of how cool this would be for me to see, and yet I don’t think it’s in the cards at all given that I’ll be camped deep in Big Meadow for High Sierra. At any rate, if anyone in Chicagoland can make this show, head on down Kirk Rd. a little farther, take a left onto Geneva Dr. and float your way through the cul-de-sac’d streets to find Britta Lane…. that’s where I grew up.
Those who missed Wilco when it occupied Chicago for five nights in December can dry those dampened eyes. The band will make another local pass on July 8, this time at Fifth Third Bank Ball Park (home of minor league baseball’s Kane County Cougars) in Geneva, Illinois, along with fellow-Chicagoan Andrew Bird. A fireworks display will be the exclamation point on this heavyweight of a night, which already has all of the earmarks of a classic.
The music director there must friggin’ love this band…
