Day two of my farewell to the Dismemberment Plan did not start well. A bad batch of new Lay's guacamole-flavored chips (terrible) left me feeing extremely ill and downing Tums like never before. We arrived at the Metro with the expectation of seeing much hyped Miss Spice and the Malennium band, only to discover they had been replaced for the night by Milwaukee openers Paris Texas! So it was the exact same lineup I'd seen the night before. Paris Texas sounded good once again, but the smoke and claustrophobia were not aiding my poor stomach. I found myself glad that I'd been able to catch them the night before, since things seemed to be heading downhill and I was worried the night would end up to be a total bust. Though I wanted to be on the floor, we thought it best to go up on the balcony where it was airier and less crowded and see if I could recover in time for the Dismemberment Plan to go on.

Luckily, this was the point that things began looking up. Lake Trout came on again, and once again wowed me with their performance, the exact same set list as the night before. The lead singer sounded much stronger than the first time. The drummer is also phenomenal. I've never seen anyone drum so FAST. Pretty amazing. My balcony view of the band also revealed that there was a keyboardist that also played the flute and screamed into a microphone occasionally. Who knew? However, it was during their set that the highlight of my night occured. We were right next to a staircase that led down backstage. I heard the door open, looked over, and who walks out but Travis Morrison, the Dismemberment Plan singer. And guess who just happened to have her camera in case something such as this were to occur? So me being the idiot that I am, I of course started jumping up and down, thrust my camera in Becky's hand and pulled her over to get my picture with him. Few words were exchanged ("can I have my picture with you?" "Sure!" "Thank you very much"), but Becky said he had a nice, big smile for the picture. (Damn, is he short.) What I found weird was the fact that everyone around me looked at me like there was something seriously wrong with me. Could they not tell who he was in the dark, or are Chicagoans too cool to make fools of themselves too? I didn't care, because suddenly I didn't feel sick at all, and I was ready to enjoy the concert 100%.

We decided to keep our balcony area since we had a good view and the downstairs just looked packed. However, it meant that we were too far away for them to see the request sign I'd made for I Love a Magician, one song I'd never heard them do live. I'd just have to hope someone else would request it instead. Finally, the Plan came out ("wow, he really does have a gigantic head" remarked my friend Ben), and guess what? Travis was once again wearing the exact same outfit. Does he have one outfit or lots of gray pants and black shirts? That is the question. They started things off with Gyroscope (the second DPlan song I'd ever liked!), Back and Forth, and Sentimental Man before it came time once again for audience requests. I was really hoping to hear songs I hadn't heard the night before, and after a few too many repeats (why does everyone want to hear First Anniversary of Your Last Phone Call? There are soooo many better songs to request), some different ones came out: Spider in the Snow, That's When the Party Started, Ellen and Ben, Tonight We Mean It ("Wow, you want to hear the old weird shit" says Travis), and YES!!!!!, a totally awesome I Love a Magician. Thanks to the girl who requested that one. However, by far the highlight of the concert was during The Dismemberment Plan Gets Rich, when a girl in a makeshift Hershey Bar costume (a garbage bag with athletic tape spelling "Hershey's" on it) came out and tap danced to the song. I have never seen anything so ridiculous. Travis even brought the mike down to her shoes to hear the tapping. Definitely beat the guy in the giant chicken costume during The Ice of Boston last November.

The final song of the set was mostly covers of random songs, such as The Postal Service's Such Great Heights and some others I couldn't recognize because it sounded too much like the Dismemberment Plan and not the song they were trying to cover. After a brief exit, they came back on for an excellent encore, which of course kicked off with The Ice of Boston. I was curious how the 18+ crowd would react; everyone seemed hesitant to get up on stage at first, but finally one brave soul made his way up there and everyone followed. The main difference between the 18+ crowd and the all ages crowd: everyone on stage in Chicago was about 1 foot taller, and you couldn't even see the band on stage anymore. Good times. After Time Bomb and an absolutely fantastic What Do You Want Me to Say where, yes it's true, people were almost moshing. I like how they started and ended with the two songs that got me into this band, after initially declaring my hatred for them- oh, how things change. And with that, they were gone. Both friends that came with me to this concert were Dismemberment Plan virgins, and they were both thrilled by how great the show was. Becky told me she understood why I went two nights in a row. While I have to say I preferred the Milwaukee venue because it was smaller and less crowded, The Dismemberment Plan put on an even better show in Chicago. Oh how I love this band. I suppose it's good they're going out now, before they started putting out crappy records. We'll see how Travis' solo career pans out. And that picture had better turn out.

-Nicole