Wrigley Field Parking

Quiet Corral is rounding up local fans with its dusty Americana

Delta Gamma 's fifth annual battle-of-the-bands fundraiser, titled (of course) Delta Jamma, took place on a fold-out stage better suited for festivals than for local benefit shows. Lacking enough material to fill a 20-minute set, the band members tuned their guitars with shaky hands, trying to ignore first-gig jitters. Isaac Flynn recalls it fondly.

"We told ourselves we'd never get to play a stage that big again," he says. "The girls even hand-made this awesome banner that said Quiet Corral with a boot and a cowboy hat, like we were a country band." Quiet Corral didn't win the battle but, looking back on the group's first year, it may have won the war.

One year later, Quiet Corral is mounting a smaller stage for a bigger audience as the opener for Southern-blues outfit the Delta Saints at Lawrence's Jackpot Music Hall. The venue is packed to shoulder to shoulder — spilled drinks and sweat abound — as band members lug drums, mandolins, guitars and bells onstage.

"Thanks for waiting, everyone," singer Jesse Braswell Roberts says, before the band rips into "Thieves," a campfire gypsy romp that sounds like Vampire Weekend abandoned in the Wild West. Quick, rolling drums flow under aching chords. An opening chant declares: Sunset is when we wake ourselves up/Fill our hands with our rusty knives and set out/Take nothing else along with us/Our pockets will be full by the time the morning comes.

The payoff is worth the wait: Women dance on bar benches, and the crowd stomps in unison. For once, the Jackpot's ruckus lives up to its Western décor. Like the band of vandals that Roberts and company howl about, Quiet Corral has stolen away with an unusual amount of good fortune in the past 12 months.

Drummer and producer Jim Barnes moved up from Mississippi to work at the Art House, a Lawrence studio that recorded the band's slick-sounding EP, Quiet Corral, pro bono. The studio is co-owned by Flynn's father, who also runs Mass Street Music in Lawrence, where Flynn grew up with musical mentors and no shortage of gear. Flynn dates guitarist Eric Davis ' sister, who's a graphic-design student at KU and handles the band's artwork for free. Davis' uncle collects buses, one of which he's lending the band for its summer tour (which includes a choice date at the Wakarusa festival).

"It's progressed just about as quickly as it can for a local band," Flynn says. "We're so thankful."

Despite talk about thieves and rusty knives, Quiet Corral met through the usual mundane suburban channels: churches, Little League and the like. Despite the casual formation, there's nothing easygoing about the band's process. "With six people, we can't just throw songs together," Davis says. "There's a very fine line between being a big sound and being a big mess.

Internet Fosters Black Market For Wrigleyville Parking Passes On ...

With guest passes purchased in books of 15 for $8 or about 50 cents each, the upside profit potential is enormous if you can sell a guest pass for $5 to $10 each. Lakeview residents can buy up to 30 guest passes every month. A $16 investment for their 30 passes could potentially be turned into $300 with minor effort. Theoretically, an organized and motivated person could max out their annual guest pass purchases at 360 (30 x 12) and potentially generate several thousand dollars in extra revenue each baseball season.

While re-selling and buying these guest passes is a violation of the Chicago municipal code, it’s hard to enforce and getting more difficult to police these infractions as many sellers and buyers are abandoning the traditional method of discreetly hawking their passes on side streets surrounding Wrigley Field.   With potential fines from being caught ranging from $200 to $500, sellers and buyers have moved to a safer place to transact this lucrative black market business–eBay and Craigslist.

Both Craigslist and eBay keep these illegal transactions much more anonymous and safer for both parties, while all but avoiding the scrutiny of police or Department of Revenue enforcement.

One listing on Craigslist says , “Be my guest on any of the shady side streets and avenues surrounding the friendly confines, including the “Cubs’ Night Games Tow Zone,” and sells the guest passes in blocks of 5 for $50 or 10 for $90.

“These are perfectly above board,” said another seller contacted via email, who was also advertising guest passes for $10 each on Craigslist. “I just have more than I can use and want to share them with people who can use them–it’s a great value. You’d be impressed with how much parking is available.”

Another young woman posted in her listing that she had just moved out of Lakeview and was looking to ditch the balance of the guest passes she had purchased for $5 each–10 times the original price.

It’s also not uncommon for scalpers selling tickets to Cubs games will throw in a free guest pass just to sweeten the deal.

Despite what seems to be a spike in Craigslist postings for zone 383 guest parking passes, Bever feels illegal sales for passes to be down this season.

“From my perspective it’s been down this year,” says Bever who wasn’t sure if  it was the Cubs poor performance this season or city enforcement efforts that are keeping illegal sales at bay. “But I haven’t seen a greater trend for online sales.

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