A few months ago…

Georgia, our 13 year old daughter, found out the Janoskian’s were going to do a show in Chicago. I had never heard of them, thinking they were another “boy band”. In fact, they are anything but a “boy band” and they find the moniker offensive. This group of 5 Australian teenage boys are taking the world by storm via YouTube. So, in February we purchased tickets and asked her best-friend-Madison and her mom-Jill, to go along.

I had only been to Chicago once, but Jill is very familiar with the area, and we were looking forward to sharing this time with our daughters. So we loaded up and began our 3 hour road trip.

Driving into the city.

We got settled into our hotel, right downtown, in the theater district, and changed immediately so we could eat dinner before the show. Our tickets were for great seats, we were in balcony one, right above the stage, the girls were incredibly excited. As we neared the venue, The House of Blues, we noticed a long line of girls, at least 300, and assumed that they had tickets for the floor area…standing room only.  We had been going to grab a bite at The House of Blues, but were deterred by the long line, and stopped in at Dick’s Last Resort.

We had no idea what we were walking into!

Dick’s Last Resort is a themed restaurant…the theme…wait staff as comedians… who insult the guests! The waiter approached the table, throwing down our silverware and menus…proceeded to insult us…and tied bibs around our necks.

Georgia with her bib!

They make hats for the children (and adults who want them) continuing with the demeaning tone.

We had fun with it, the girls loved it!

When you are 13 this is some pretty funny stuff, they were laughing so hard! The food was pretty good too, the girls shared an appetizer plate, and I had ribs and fries.

We left the restaurant at 6:30 pm, the doors for the show opened at 7 pm and the show started at 8 pm. Plenty of time! The line was much longer now, we got in line behind 600+ teenagers.

But we were not sweating it, we had great assigned seats.

As we were waiting Jill struck up a conversation with a young man taking photos of the line, he worked for The House of Blues and was taking photos to upload to their site. Jill asked him why all these girls were waiting in line if we had assigned seating…we thought maybe we were missing out on something. He informed us that it was standing room only, and there were no assigned seats!

The girls did not hear this and Jill and I were devastated. They would be so upset, there was no way we were getting a good spot, and they probably would not even be able to see over the crowd!

Jill continued the conversation, and we found out that if we would go eat at The House of Blues we could purchase “pass the line” tickets for $20.00. We quickly grabbed the girls and went to the front of the line, I did not care if we had to purchase another dinner, I did not want to see my daughter’s crestfallen face!

We got the express tickets, and there were only 40 girls in front of ours!!! They were so excited!

Normally when Jill or I start a conversation with strangers the girls are mortified…but they have now given us permission to talk with whomever we choose!

The House of Blues is a beautiful theater! It is artistically painted in every corner and nook and cranny!

The opening band was Hollywood Ending…

A plethora of good looking teenage boys, the girls were crazy! You could feel the building shaking from all of the dancing and jumping!

Just, Another, Name, Of, Silly, Kids, In, Another, Nation.

Janoskian is an acronym for the above. They throw water, take off their shirts, spoof boy bands… Jill and I were very surprised by the act, and by the short amount of time that they were on stage. It seemed that the show was a track of screaming girls, it was very hard to even hear what the Janoskian’s were saying. But our girls loved it, that is all that really mattered.

Disclaimer:

The Janoskian’s are not for everyone…we looked into the group before we went. The boys tour in the UK and watching YouTube videos and reviews, we knew that there would be some colorful language. We warned the girls before we left that if it was too offensive we would leave the concert. I am not sure if they tamed down their show for American audiences…but was pleased that although there was a bit of off-color language, it was not pervasive.  Since we would be there with the girls we would be able to monitor and discuss it with them.

Georgia also knows that when I say that I may drag them out…I am serious. Both girls were very well behaved, they had a lot of fun, but they also knew that there were ground rules. I am proud of them both!

(Video is not offensive…FYI)

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the Italian Village for dessert and coffee…

We all tried something different: tiramisu, mousse, cheesecake, and a hot fudge sundae. They were all delicious. The restaurant was still serving dinner at 11:30 pm, and the waiter said they would continue until 1:30 am. The food smelled and looked wonderful, would love to try it next time we visit Chicago.

After dessert we headed back to the room, we had a big day of sight-seeing planned for the following day.

The girls fell asleep quickly…must have been counting Janoskian’s!

P.S. I am really loving this camera! The video and pictures shot during this trip turned out great, the Zoom capabilities are incredible!!!!

The camera itself is slim, and light, and the software enables me to play with the pictures!

It is a Canon Power Shot Elph130 IS, purchased for under $200, the battery is long lasting and easy to charge.