Chicago Theater, Chicago IL January 17 2020
Venue Capacity 3828
Well it would not be a winter trip to Chicago without a blizzard, and Friday was no exception. Snow pounding down sideways in a city that really does look pretty damn cool as a winter wonderland.
The evening started off with a long awaited surprise for my good friend Tara. Her husband and I have been cooking up these shows in Chicago since the early fall and she had no idea where she was going until a couple of days ago. After all, as her husband Joe says, this is the YOT, the year of Tara. Once she knew it was Chicago she knew she was on her way to see TTB. What she didn’t know was that Bob Burns and I where here to celebrate the YOT with her. A little background, all of us have been friends since the early eighties (almost 40 years), dating back to college at Montana State in Bozeman.
We decided to meet up at The Wit, where Tara and Joe where staying. Last minute Joe called audible and the meet up was switched to Smith and Wollensky’s aka “close and expensive” Bob and I took our seats downstairs in the bar and shocked the shit out of Tara when she arrived. Once the tears cleared the party was on.
After we where sufficiently fueled we headed to the venue. The iconic Chicago Theater. Opened in 1921 and refurbished in 1986 this is one of the coolest old theaters in the country. If you have not been there the architecture and frescos are just classic.
TTB took the stage at about 8 PM and ripped through and impressive first hour and twenty minute set that included TTB classics and a an Allman Brothers cover or two. Intermission followed with more laughs and high jinx’s.
Second set was just smoking and featured all of the 12 members of the band and concluded with a cover of the classic Coaster’s tune “Lets Go Get Stoned” paying homage to Illinois recently enacted recreational cannabis laws.
Here is the setlist courtesy of setliest.fm.
60shows60years 