Video: Craig Finn – “God In Chicago”
From We All Want The Same Things, out March 24 on Partisan Records.
The thing with spoken word pieces is that you have to sit still and pay attention, and while that can be tough to carve out time for, “God In Chicago” makes it worth your while. “Her mom found her brother, then she found a container wrapped up in a newspaper stuffed in a duffle bag with hockey pads and seven grand in rubber bands.” As far as opening sentences go, that’s a pretty great start to a story. You might be able to guess where it goes from there: she calls the narrator and they drive to Chicago to sell the contents of the container and have a night on the town.
Craig Finn says, “It’s a story about a guy and a girl pushed together to try to fix a problem. In doing so, they push into unchartered territory for both of them. Going to a bigger city without supervision for the first time is a huge moment, no matter how you get there. I was trying to capture that. Also, I wanted to show how easy it is sometimes to take a break, if briefly, from our regular lives.”
I remember being a teenager and driving to the city for the first time. We didn’t have to sell any drugs, thank goodness, but my homie and I got loaded and ate Harold’s chicken with our shirts off in somebody’s University of Chicago dorm room. We listened to Spacemen 3 and Starship Beer and went to a silly hat party. He wore a fez. Good times.
“I was already in love with the song and I was mostly struck by the words and their pacing,” says video director Kris Merc. “The spoken word quality of the narrative had a somber, melancholic tone that left me feeling a bit reflective about the fleeting moments we all face in life. We decided the video should tell a story about the meandering nature of youth. From there, we created a narrative that follows the fleeting journey of two young characters who find beauty in their bleak circumstances, carving out hope in their own way while knowing their time together is limited. It’s a meditation on the idea of memories, nostalgia, and the feeling of being caught up in a raw moment. All this happens in a landscape reflecting contemporary America. In this search for meaning, you can feel the raw emotion of something lost and something gained. There is a lot of tension, but I think the problems we all face are the same. ‘We all want the same things’ – the camera is constantly seeking solace; It is seeking out a truth not easily found.”