Memorial Day was largely a low-key affair until early evening when I ventured to City Winery to meet my friend Don Hammontree (who graciously helped me install my AC on Saturday) to see and hear Leonid & Friends perform in concert.
Leonid & Friends is a brass ensemble from Russia with some Ukrainian members which originated a decade ago. They would make their reputation on YouTube as the world's foremost Chicago tribute band. This was of particular interest to Don who is more familiar with Chicago's discography than I am. While I'm confined to their first three albums plus their 1980's hits, Don knows the group up and down and inside and out.
Their set consisted of a mixture of Chicago songs and cover songs from other bands. Among the Chicago songs covered tonight were "Make Me Smile". "Does Anybody Know What Time It Is?", "Feelin' Stronger Everyday", "Questions 67 and 68", "Beginnings", "Saturday in The Park", "I'm a Man" and, of course, "25 or 6 to 4". Mixed with these Chicago classics were "One Fine Morning" by Lighthouse, "I'll Love You More Than You'll Ever Know" by Blood, Sweat and Tears, "Superstar" by The Carpenters, "Ain't Nobody" by Rufus and Chaka Khan and two selections from Earth, Wind and Fire - "Boogie Wonderland" and "September" which was their encore song.
While Leonid and Friends served the music, City Winery barely served the food. I asked my server if I could have a mushroom pizza without cheese. Instead, they bring me a mushroom pizza with cheese. They then insist the cheese is non-dairy. I tell them I don't want any kind of cheese. They tell me they can't serve pizza without some kind of cheese because it will be dry. So, I order a poke bowl instead. But it doesn't arrive. When I inquire about during the intermission, it turns out the poke bowl was given to another customer. About 15 minutes later, I finally get a poke bowl.
Fortunately, I was not charged for it. All I was charged for was the orange juice I ordered for myself and the Diet Coke I ordered for Don. (This was my treat as I also paid for the tickets in gratitude for Don letting me stay at his place and driving me to first of two kidney stone procedures last November). The waiter had the audacity to try to put it back on me claiming I should have flagged him earlier. That was a dick move. He was lucky that I tipped him a dollar. I do try to tip generously as I did with my haircut on Saturday, but this service did not warrant any generosity on my part.
On top of that, the air conditioning was quite suspect and was non-existent in the men's bathroom. This is not the first time my experience at City Winery has been less than pleasant. Although in the case of the Gilbert O'Sullivan concert in March 2023, most of my problems were with other patrons. However, I don't think banquet seating is conducive towards live music.
With that said, City Winery didn't outright rip me off like the Wilbur Theatre did with the Emmylou Harris concert debacle in March 2024 which remains unresolved as of this writing.
While I have vowed not to return to the Wilbur regardless of the disposition of the matter, I haven't written off City Winery completely. There is a Harry Chapin/Cat Stevens tribute group called Wild Taxi which is scheduled to perform there in late September featuring Chapin's onetime drummer Howie Fields and I would very much like to attend that show. However, if that too turns into a debacle, then I might have to avoid City Winery altogether.
Notwithstanding the troubles, Don had a great time and very much enjoyed Leonid and Friends. They are group of very talented musicians and would be delighted to see them again - just not at City Winery.
With that, my Memorial Day Weekend Reverie has been completed. As my friend Christopher Kain would say, "Now back to regularly scheduled programming."
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