Built to Spill was so awesome live. Man, they rocked it hard. That had to have played for like an hour and forty- seven minutes or something. I was just so blown away, man. When they started playing, I thought they were just pretty awesome. And then this other guy and this other other guy came on stage and that's when the show really got to be awesome. I think that one of those guys was in the opening band.

Hey, that opening band was cool. I usually hate those opening bands. Sometimes I go and play pool or something while they're on stage. Or lots of times, I don't even go to the show until I know that the headliners will be playing. This time, my friends wanted to be in the front, so we had to come out at the start of the show. Man, I was so ready to see Built to Spill.

One thing I didn't say is that one of my friends couldn't make it to the show. That really sucked. She was gonna go and then she didn't want to or something. I hate that. I mean, Built to Spill is so awesome. She's stupid.

But hey, that band before Built to Spill was cool. Oh yeah, they were the Delusions. They had this totally different look going on. I guess I mean that everyone in the band had a different look going. One guy looked like he was in some country band-- he played a guitar. Then there was the girl-- she had pony- tails and a cool, tight necklace thing. She looked like a grrl girl. She sang kind of like that, too, and played bass. This other guy was another guitarist and sang. He also played some thing that someone else said was a pedaled steel or something. He looked like this friend I had who really liked all those bands in Chicago. I don't remember the drummer. I couldn't really see him. I think that he sweat a lot.

Anyway, their music was kind of mixed up like how they looked. We were all talking about it later that night at the Popeye's. The songs were different from each other, which I guess was awesome, because I didn't get bored really. They sounded like REM, Squeeze, Foo Fighters, Slant 6, the Rentals, Velocity Girl, the Judybats and the Velvet Underground.

Anyways, they were all out of Built to Spill stuff after the show and they had the Delusions CD so I got it. And Phil Ek produced it, which is awesome becuase I love that guy's last name. Ek. I forgot it in my friend's car for a while so I didn't listen to it for like a week and a day. He kept forgetting to bring it back. I think that he thought it was really great. He said that they reminded him of... and then he stopped and said they reminded them of too many things. This is cool, though. He said he thought that "their sound was such an amalgamation of previous sounds that they were the essence of what music is and does." I didn't really get that at first, so I took a nap. I woke up later and thought about it and I think that he meant that everyone can sound like other stuff. My idea was that they blend those other sounds together so much that this is a new sound. Like a hybrid sound or something. I don't know.

I wonder if they'll come back on their own tour or something. I Hope It Dies On a Sunny Day came out last year, so maybe they'll have a new album some time. That would be awesome.

-Chip Chanko