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CHICAGO - SSION TOUR PICS


I was in a bad mood when we arrived in Chicago because my friend Rita wouldn't answer her phone. I was coming down from the night before and feeling really bloated. I was about to sever our friendship for good when she finally answered her phone and promised to take me out to Ruby Tuesday's for dinner.

Our first show in Chicago was at Berlin, a fag bar in Boystown. The dressing room was E-mazing, complete with eight bottles of vodka, two bottles of Crown Royal, two cartons of Marlboro lights and a note on our door from the promoter that read, "Dear SSION, I wanna eat your ass for the rest of my life."

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We invited some kids off the street to come party with us in our dressing room. We listened to Britney Spears's "Womanizer" on repeat and proceeded to smoke those two cartons of cigs in under two hours.

We didn't go onstage until three in the morning 'cause I couldn't get my eyebrows to look right.

When we finally hit the stage all the fags went crazy. It was such a great show that I seriously thought about shitting onstage and kicking it into the audience.

Our biggest Chicago fan, Derek, showed up looking fierce. Check out this video he made.

The next night we played at Metro with CSS. Like The Woman, they too had been perfecting the "face of bitch."

I noticed that Carol from CSS played a Fender Venus, which had been "co-designed" by Courtney Love (who is my favorite woman in rock)! I showed Carol how to play "Doll Parts" and she was so appreciative she gave me her guitar. I was so appreciative I smashed it during soundcheck!

The show that night was awesome. I always love playing on big stages to pre-teens. They really seem to get us, you know?

A group of Asian chicks was completely obsessed with us, so much so that one of them started crying while I was signing her t-shirt. I was a bit freaked out but then I remembered that Dead or Alive had been huge in Japan, so it was probably a natural reaction.

After the show I went on a mad hunt for some cookies (which led me to Subway), while the rest of the band went on a mad hunt for weed.

Except for Albert, our 16-year-old in transition, who went on a mad hunt for love and acceptance.

CODY CRITCHELOE

photos by Megan Mantia