A Beautiful Day

Many of you know that July 4th is one of my least favorite holidays to celebrate. It has nothing to do with the meaning of the holiday, and everything to do with the fact that I associate it most with heat, crowds, and loud noises. Things in and of themselves okay, but together I find them unbearable.

So, when my friend, Redd, invited me to join her on Navy Pier to hear a U2 cover band called Elevation and watch the July 3rd fireworks over Lake Michigan (for whatever reason, fireworks on the 3rd, not the 4th, are the big deal), my first instinct was to take a pass.

However, Redd is not one to be easily dismissed. This is a woman whose every email signs of with "live your life with arms wide open". She cajoled me into not only joining her, but even taking my car to her place in Old Town.

Did I mention that it is estimated that 1,000,000 people (that's ONE MILLION, people!) come in town on July 3rd for these fireworks? Drive my car in that? I must be crazy.

But Redd suggested a side street, Elston, which runs at a diagonal down to Old Town, mirroring the highway, and so I started out. I made it down reasonable time, amazingly avoiding all of the crush, and even found a parking spot right on her block.

Redd is also smart enough to know that the city runs a free trolley system from the El to Navy Pier, so we hopped onboard and made our way to the Beer Garden at the end of the pier, where the band was playing.

Elevation is a lot of fun. The lead singer looks rather alarmingly like Bono (he apparently calls himself Dan-o), and even sounds like him. The best bit was that he does all of the goofy stage theatrics Bono is known for, bringing women on stage and flitting about generally like some elastic-spined zealot, with message t-shirts, cowboy hats, and bug-eyed sunglasses. Redd has a serious thing for the band's fake-Edge. I kept goading her to go shake her moneymaker in front of him, an easy enough task with the small crowd we were in, but she would giggle and then sing along to the band for a bit.

They played a little bit of everything, both old and new, and worked some especially great versions of "One", "Pride", and a closing "Where the Streets Have No Name". They were big on audience participation, and it was a lot of fun to sing along to some of my favorites.

About 80 minutes into their set, they shut things down for the fireworks. As I mentioned earlier, we were at the end of Navy Pier, which is pretty removed from downtown, and especially Grant Park, where the fireworks are centered. This meant that we had fantastic views of the show, but were fairly well removed from 1) the crowds, and 2) the noise. As for 3) the heat, the predicted high tonight was 68 with clear skies. It was well under that. And to top it all off, it technically wasn't even the 4th. How could I complain?

As soon as the fireworks ended, Elevation picked it back up and played for close to another two hours. By the time they finished this second set, most of the crowds had cleared out, and I ended up making it home, via a tram ride, a short El ride, and a drive, in under an hour from Navy Pier. I even found a parking spot next to my apartment building, on the non-through street, when I got home. Best. 4th. Ever.