March 17th, 2009; Chicago

You know how you can tell I'm back from my birthday trip? New posts on The Nothing Files. That's right, bastards, I went to Chicago to turn 30 on St. Patrick's Day, and I fucking made it back, to tell the tale.

Chicago has the second highest Irish population in the US, so it's for good reason that The History Channel says that no city in the world celebrates St. Patrick's Day near to the extent Chicago does (sorry Boston, I just write what I hear). But I'm not talking about dying the river green and throwing up on cops with more of an Irish heritage than you've got. I'm talking about what I did.

And what I did was rock the fuck out. We started at a pretty cool Irish bar called Pint for drinks and dinner. Lots of Harp and corned beef with boiled cabbage. Good food and a really nice waitstaff. Felt like a good St. Patrick's Day bar. Then we were off to the main event. Flogging Molly, live. Shit yea. I've seen them before, but never on the biggest Irish holiday in America. This was the culmination of their Green 17 tour. Hitting up the states and counting down to St. Patrick's. They didn't leave much behind, tearing through their songs at full tilt. Some of the songs they said they hadn't played in 8 or more years, but they still played most of the fan favorites and the hits. It was a great show at a packed house where everyone came to give it their all, get hammered and rock. Chicago, you did a damn fine job. I'm proud of ya.

The day after I managed to kick reality into my soaked head to check out The Field Museum. They have a really hip exhibit on Pirates, and if you're in the area between now and Oct. 25th, I highly recommend you check it out.

Well, I'm 30 now, so you can't trust anything I say, but at least I left my 20's with a hell of a roar. I'll leave you with a video I found from that show. The sound quality is shite, but you'll get the overall impression. Cheers.