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Tuesday had lots of parties and receptions. I'm sure I was with the herd and stuck with one venue. The House of Blues had two events - Pulvermedia's blowout show with Jeff's perennial house band, the Herding Cats. These guys are flat out great, and this was the best I've seen them for sure. MetaSwitch also had a party at HOB, but a more scaled down event. It was still fun, though, and I particularly enjoyed it because they had a great blues band, Mississippi Heat. That's my kind of music, and Chicago is where you go for the real thing, so I was pretty happy to see them.
So, here are the best photos plus a 3 part video of the Herding Cats, all shot from my Nokia N90. If you've seen the Herding Cats before, you'll love this post. I haven't come across any clips of them, so this could be a first. The clips are highlights from their signature closer, "Whole Lotta Love", and if you haven't seen them, this will be a treat. Links to the clips are at the end of this post, after all the photos. Hope you like it, and please let me know what you think!
Ok, here we go....
I didn't realize HOB was next door to the Marina City Towers, definitely the coolest apartment complex (marina included) I've ever seen. Chicago is one vertical town.

Carol Daniels, MetaSwitch's gracious host, among many other things; Mississippi Heat band

Herding Cats photos....

Every rock star's fantasy- the women in the crowd couldn't help themselves, and just had to get up onstage and do their thing - ye-ahhh, baby.......

The star of the show - this guy is just plain awesome. Ginger Baker is still my all-time fave, but this guy will give a run for his money. Note to self - suggest to band they cover Toad, Ginger's showstopper from Cream....

Let's not forget the rest of the band - this is one tight unit...

And finally, no Herding Cats show is complete without the incomparable "Mustang" Farrell Shapiro. He always does a great Mustang Sally, along with Tiny Dancer and a rocking You Shook Me All Night Long. He's so at home on stage.
It's Jeff's party, so if he wants to get up there and lead the sing-along, nobody's going to object. All together now - "Ride, Sally Ride"...

Herding Cats video clips - each is about 2-3 minutes long, and should be watched in order. The whole Led Zep performance is longer than this, but hey, I'm doing this off a phone, not a HandyCam....

Part 1 - that opening riff is sooooo cool - you just know this is going to be good...

Part 2 - check out the strobe light effect - at certain points, the video looks out of synch with the audio

Part 3 - anyone who has seen their show will know why this clip opens with a shot of an empty water bottle. The drummer - John - pours water over the top of his drums during this sequence, and when he brings down the drumsticks full force, the water explodes upwards - very cool effect, but I didn't catch it on tape - dang!

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