AXPONA 2022

As early as 9AM on Friday, April 22, early registrants began wandering the halls of Chicago's Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel and Convention Center. By 9:30AM, the first semi-crazed rush for vinyl old and new had begun in The Record Fair. And by 10AM, music was resounding in all its glory in the 138 exhibit rooms and 10 floors that comprise AXPONA 2022.

Can anyone accurately count the number of brands? Perhaps all the angels who can dance on the head of a pin can. But for us mere mortals, enjoying music outside the confines of our shuttered dwellings and saying hello to people long unseen takes precedence.

Music and camaraderie seem to be the top priorities. "I'm safe; I've gotten four shots," said one unmasked publicist to me in the elevator. To each their own reality. For me, a baby-blue N95. Do I look like more like a space being or a platypus? I chose the latter. I enjoy being a platypus.

Back to the show. Let us count the ways to Nirvana. Which to choose first: the individual exhibits, the Ear Gear Experience, the huge number of seminars and quasi-master classes, or the aforementioned vinyl free-for-all (at a price, of course)? Who will have enough residual energy to attend what I expect to be the fabulous Saturday night live concert with Lori Lieberman? It's a grand Easter egg hunt, and everyone wins a prize.

Jim Austin, Julie Mullins, Ken Micallef, Rogier van Bakiel, et moi are covering AXPONA for Stereophile. You can look forward to many, many days of show reports. As for the juicy stuff that follows our final finger strokes, it's a race to see who will post the first comment. Tony, Anton, Jack L, Glotz, Charles E Flynn, and everyone else: On your mark, get set, GO!