Tuesday, 24. November 2009, 17:09:37
There are two people which I consider extremely important in the world of Rock and Roll. Bono (more on him later) and my close personal friend Roger Daltrey (I also have a bridge for sale). A couple of weeks ago, Rog was playing a small venue in Chicago called the House of Blues, a pretty cool place, unless you are 5'3" tall. Then the sight lines suck. We decided to stop round and pay him a quick visit. So as the moon rose over Chicago, we walked on down to the HoB.
Much to my surprise, as we walked along, I ran into an old friend. Not quite the same
old friend as I ran into in Cuba, but a good friend nonetheless. It was the
Capital Grille. I had a fantastic evening in Detroit at the Capital Grille many years ago, and I did not realize it was a chain. The Capital Grille have a signature drink called the Stoli Dole
On the bar is a large jug full of Dole sliced pineapple, which has been marinating in Stoli Vodka for a week.
There is a tap on the bottom, which the bartender can be tricked into opening, and pouring some vodka into a shaker of ice. The vodka then gets transferred to your glass.
They are a most wonderful concoction, so we decided to have several.
The Capital Grille also has a to die for Peppercorn New York Strip Steak.
Now as you can see from my shirt we were on our way to see Roger, the lead singer of the greatest Rock and Roll Band of all time, the band that epitomises ROCK AND ROLL (with capital letters). Keith Moon, went out young in a blaze of glory, The Ox made it until he was 60 when he had a heart attack in a hotel room in Las Vegas, with a nose full of coke and two hookers in bed with him. Pete made history by smashing his equipment, Keith threw a TV out of every Hotel room window that he stayed in.
I was feeling a little foolish sitting in this extremely posh restaurant eating a steak that cost over $40 US, and the potato was extra.
A place that has bottles of wine on the list that are over $800.00. I wondered if I was being true to the spirit of Rock and Roll. Then our waiter informed us that there were several other tables in the place, having dinner, prior to going to see Roger. We were over a half mile from the HoB, and there many posh steakhouses closer to the concert than this one. The HoB only holds 1500 people
Do the math and tell me, what that says about the demographic of Rock and Roll.
The show was fantastic. Roger still rocks at 60. He had Simon Townshend, Pete's brother playing with him, and Simon knows how to rock and roll pretty well too.
The rest of the band were kids, but the kids had all worshipped at the altar of The Who, and the drummer had studied long and hard at Keith's unique style of drumming.
In the end, I think, that it is not how old you are, or how much money you have, but how much fun you have. We had a lot of fun that night. Although the next morning Kim mentioned something about swearing off Stoli Doles.......
Cheers
Baba O'Bryan
(Yes Eddie, I know it is a song about a fine Irish Lass)
November 2009January 2010
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