Chico Banks wasn’t scheduled to play at B.L.U.E.S. Tuesday night, but the obscenely talented guitarist couldn’t hang around the Lincoln Park club very long before being coerced into taking the stage.
Banks strapped on his guitar and told the crowd he is a “Candy Lickin’ Man” — the suggestive title of his first CD. When his call for like-minded men in the audience went unanswered, the incredulous bluesman did a double take.
“Being a candy-licker ain’t nothing to be ashamed of,” he said before leading the band into a funky, up-tempo groove. “It’s a part of life.”
Double entendre and guest appearances are commonplace at B.L.U.E.S. Often voted Chicago’s best blues bar — putting it in the running for best blues bar in the world — the cozy club and neighboring Kingston Mines form a hub for the city’s blues scene. But unlike the much larger, more famous club across the street, B.L.U.E.S. offers listeners an up close and personal experience with the first true American art form (take that, jazz!).
Opened in 1979 by Rob Hecko and Bill Gilmore (who now runs Bill’s Blues in Evanston), B.L.U.E.S. seems out of place among the ritzy bars on nearby Lincoln Avenue. The bar’s d