Location: The Whale
Show: Lamprey St. Patti's Alternative Artists Parade with Environmental Encroachment and friends
Cost: Free
Things I missed to be there: Adhamh Roland at the Lowercase Collective; Jam at the Orphanage
Reason for going: Better than all other options, known or unknown
The first time I went to The Whale was the Summer before I started started college. I was seventeen years old, in the midst of a three year relationship that I thought would last forever. I was full of self-esteem and open to anything. When someone called me up and told me to go to the Lamprey Pig Roast, it was probably the furthest South I'd ever been to for a party that wasn't at someone's parents house (at the not-very-South location of Halsted and Canalport). I don't remember much of the details of that evening except that it was one of those magical, inspiring nights that the summer was full of. I'd missed out on the swine but the fire pit was in full effect, as was the beer and Devil in the Woodpile. I got my dance on and my laugh on and my drink on and wouldn't see the place until four or five years later when it participated in the Version fest that dubbed Bridgeport the community of the future with The Whale listed on their maps as The house of the Future.
I ditched the Typewriter/ Mathematicians show at Texas when the prick at the door wouldn't let my friends in and biked over to the Lamprey Compound. There was still a fire pit going, but the majority of the yard was taken over by a maze of tubing. Model Rocket Scientist were playing and they blew us away (but the album the dude gave us was kinda meh). That whole night, I had the same feeling I did that first time. I was thrilled that they were still operating out of that dope spot, even if I was a bit saddened by the fact that I'd been missing a half decade or so of cool shit.
Outside of the annual pigroast, one of the things I'd been missing out on was the St. Patrick's day parade. I'm not sure when the parade usually falls. St. Patrick's happened on a Saturday and the Lamprey parade happened a day later. It was your standard weirdo parade with overlapping crew diagrams of kids from The Rat patrol, Lumpen, T.H.O.N.G., Terry Plumming, WZRD and the extended Environmental Encroachment family rolling down 18th Street with freakbikes, costumes, drums and horns.
Back at the Lampreys everyone did their own thing. Johnny Payphone was passing around a hat and tasering people for charity. Drunken vegetarians fought over hunks of steak as soon as they came off the grill. rotten Milk passed out on a couch. People paired off and snuck off to parts unknown. Impromptu jam sessions were happening all over until everyone came together in a big mess around the fire.
I don't really think of Environmental Encroachment as a band, so much as a thing that happens at parties and spectacles. As such, I'm glad when it does. I saw them for the first time, that summer that I first went to The Whale, and had one of those magical experiences. Since then, I've probably seen them play more than any other group in this city, and I don't think I've ever been disappointed.
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