If you were born after 1980, this likely isn't for you...

but for those of us who came of age in the '80s there was a band that never got its proper due: Toad the Wet Sprocket. Maybe it was the awkward name. Maybe it was that they weren't punk, they weren't rock, they weren't country, they weren't industrial - they just didn't have a clearly defined niche. But they were awfully talented and wrote timeless pop songs.

Timeless pop songs, my friends that were on full display last night at the lovely Park West. (have you been there? I haven't been for years, but I will say this - I love having a seat, a table, and a waitress bringing me drink after drink during a rock show...for sure..) Anyway, Toad was in great form last night, joking with the crowd, playing a wide selection from their discography, and just generally putting on a show that, while it may have been one of those much maligned "just making some money" heritage tours, entertained and reminded me why I put myself squarely in the Toad camp since their debut, Bread and Circus, nearly 20 years ago.

Here's a cheap-ass, taped from TV, converted to .wav file, video of "Fall Down" from the album Dulcinea that was posted on YouTube. Not a fitting tribute to how good they were last night, but I really like this song, and maybe some Park West footage will make it online (lots of folks with cameras) and I'll update later on...



and which is my favorite? Old Man Crazy Legs who dances at the 1:47 mark? or the chick who inspired the cover for Hole's 'Live Through This'? such a hard choice...

The opening band for Toad was a Chicago area guy (by way of Iowa - shoutout to the Hawkeye state) named Dick Prall. I have to confess, I'd never heard of him, but friends of ours had and spoke highly of him - I thoroughly enjoyed his set, playing the kind of music that seems, I dunno, to just not be around that much anymore, standard American rock music, know what I mean? You're not gonna like Toad or Dick Prall because they're doing something so radically different with the rock idiom, let's face it, but what they both do, they do exceptionally well and it was one fine evening...

Redraw the Line by Dick Prall