ALARM music editor Jamie Ludwig headed to meet friends at Dick’s Last Resort in Chicago last week. Unbeknowst to her, she was about to experience an intimate performance — with youngsters celebrating birthdays — by legendary Bad Brains frontman HR.
Dick’s Last Resort is sort of a hybrid of Hooters and Chuck E. Cheese. Not many establishments can boast an assortment of long-abandoned brassieres hanging from the ceiling AND be the perfect place to host your child’s next birthday party.
I would have no reason to be here except for the restaurant’s proximity to my friends’ offices on the south side of the Chicago River.
When my friends called me en route to Dick’s asking if Bad Brains would ever play at the chain restaurant, I thought that perhaps their happy hour had become a little too happy.
HR had played across town the night before on a solo tour for his latest release, Hey Wella (DC Hardcore), but there was no way that the hardcore icon would play a seafood chain where patrons are encouraged to don bibs and two-foot-tall paper hats (those of us there for the beer were not subjected to such bizarre headwear).
But to my surprise, I was completely wrong. In the midst of half a dozen birthday parties, an all-out prepubescent food fight, and several tables of white-collar workers enjoying an after-work bucket of peel-and-eat shrimp, HR and his band, jokingly calling themselves “Good Brains,” took the stage.
Beginning with the title track from the record, “Good Brains” played an impressive half-hour rock/reggae set to its entourage, three loving fans in the first row (us), and a handful of mothers who looked vaguely concerned while their children, who will not understand how awesome this was until they get into punk rock in 5-10 years, watched on with blank expressions.
A nice girl celebrating her friend’s birthday offered to take pictures at my request (thanks, Sarah!).
In the end, fun times were had by all, and I learned a valuable lesson: don’t be so quick to dismiss that bar band at the local shrimp joint. You never know what you might miss.
– Jamie Ludwig
HR: www.myspace.com/hrofficial
DC Hardcore: www.dchardcore.com