Dave Leaves Chicago – Goodbye Party, The Whistler

With a heavy heart, I’m sad to announce that Dave is officially leaving Chicago and heading out to New York.

His plans to move have been in the works for some time now, and his official goodbye party was tonight. A big factor for him was the fact that his girlfriend, Donna, moved out there last May. Additionally, he’s hoping to find more audio work doing music for films/documentaries/TV.

It’s been a long while that Dave’s been in Chicago, as he was settled here when I first arrived fresh out of grad school, back in 2000. It’s difficult, really, to imagine Chicago without Dave.

Like many others, we gathered at The Whistler to celebrate Dave’s time in Chicago, and to wish him well in New York. I travelled there with Liz, Ben and Chris, and we had some trouble actually locating the bar.

The only real mark of the place is on the door – no windows, no nothing. A small, muted door on Milwaukee that you’d miss if you blinked (and we did, walking by it twice while actively looking for it).

Took a photo for future reference.

Inside, the bar itself was incredibly small. And quite dark. A lot of my photos didn’t turn out, and as is often the case with a super dark interior… any sort of Flash more or less lit up the entire room. So I tried to keep it to a minimum.

Overall, the bar itself was quite small. Cozy, I’d say. Not a lot of room to walk around, but once you got to a good space… you more or less settled in.

L to R it’s Liz, Ben, Chris and Dave.

Dave, talking to more folks who came by to wish him well.

Near where we were situated, there was a large photo that I liked. It reminds me of Danny’s a great deal.

Throughout the evening, I got to sample a few of the house drinks. One of my favorites was the Rosemary Collins – gin with lemon juice, and a sprig of Rosemary thrown in.

Dave talking with Kristen, with halos in the air.

Justin and Dave.

Many, many years ago I attended a divorce party for Justin and Dave. There’s a lot of history between the two, as they met back in their undergraduate days at Indiana University. While I met them during my sophomore year, Justin and Dave have been around one another a great deal, over the years.

They lived together for a good while (hence the divorce party), and tonight marks another big milestone. On doing the math, it’s interesting to note that the two of them have known one another for near 15 years now. Kinda crazy.

Saying goodbye to Dave was a tough thing, and you could see the strain as people left throughout the evening. In talking about it, he said that each time someone left it… it got difficult, anew. I guess in some ways, though he’s the one leaving Chicago, tonight he experienced the reverse: a lot of his friends saying goodbye, and them leaving him.

On my way out, I got some good hugs in. And Dave’s last words on our way out were “This isn’t goodbye, it’s just good night.”

A sad evening, but there are so many good things to be happy about, for Dave. I hate to see him go, but I also know it’s the best thing.

Good night, Dave. And good luck in New York!

Related:
Dave shows up on this blog more times than I can count. So I’ll let Google keep track.

Instead, I’ll share just one link – one of my favorite Dave Fischoff memories: Dave Fischoff, Jens Lekman: Logan Square Auditorium, Chicago

And this also feels fitting – below, I’m enclosing the video for Dave’s song, Small Drifts: