Monday, August 10, 2009

The Best Weekend of the Year Part 1

I really don't even know how this starts or where it ends but I can promise you that you'll be sick of reading about Lollapalooza well before I'm done blogging about it by the end of this week- I will do my very best to keep it to three posts - one for each day of the festival, and will keep the reviews brief.  I tried to take a picture of every band I saw but some didn't turn out so well so F it.  

Festival Rules:

1) Bring a flask of vodka or rum (mixers are sprite or coke) and water

2) Get ready to be jostled.  Be more patient than normal but not so patient that you let some fratboy asshole who's only there to see snoop dogg push you around.  Stand your ground.  

3) Try to meet friends but don't miss your must-see acts.  If you really love a band, it's every man for himself.  Meet up later to avoid bitterness.  I pulled this twice this weekend - for Band of Skulls and Cold War Kids.  

4) If you're with someone who loves a particular band, don't be an asshole and trash them while they're on stage, thereby distracting your friend.  

5a) Be realistic.  Don't burn yourself out on Friday and Saturday running back and forth and everywhere and miss someone you really like on Sunday.
5b) Don't go out after Lolla and miss someone you really like the next day.  
5c) Don't get blackout during and after Lolla and miss someone you really like the next day.  

6) Make a #2 happen before you leave your house.  No matter what.  

7) Enjoy the people watching

8) Don't follow everyone.  If there's a long line where you are, you're usually missing something.  

9) Drugs are bad...mmmk.  

10) Don't write a blog about Lollapalooza.  That's so typical.  Plus, everyone will judge you about who you saw and didn't see.  

Now, on with the show.....

I put in some work early Friday morning 
and got to the festival at 11:15 am.  This pic is the calm before the storm...literally.  It started raining about a minute later and didn't stop for seven hours.  Good times.  

I went to see Hockey first at 11:30, which I was really excited about.  Excited enough to be in the front row.  They are a really young (like 12 in the case of the lead singer), up and coming band so it was unfortunate that their set got short circuited by power issues.  They were pretty broken up about it but tossed some beers into the crowd, which was cool.


The rest of Friday went like this:

12:30 - Manchester Orchestra.  They were excellent.  Really dug them live.  Knew I would.  


1:00-2:00 - Shelter from the rain.  
2:00-3:00 - White Lies.  A bit morbid but overall good.  Pretty sure they just had the #1 album in the UK.  They have a bright future.  


3:00 - 4:00 - Heartless Bastards.  KC gets a fro-hawk. 
 

4:30 - 4:45 - Ben Folds.  Extremely disappointing.  His prime was 12 years ago.  Food break. 

5:15 - 6:00 - Fleet Foxes. Probably underrated because they are so soft but really wonderful performance.  Weather was at peak level of miserable here so it was tough to really enjoy.  

6:15 - 7:00 - Thievery Corporation - They really were a corporation.  There were a million people in this band.  Entertaining but not as much as seeing the cops chasing down this naked dude who was dancing around and trying to get up on girls.  My camera magically censored this picture, which I hoped would happen.  


7:00 - 8:00 - Of Montreal - they get their own blog.  That's it.  For real.  Make that four Lollapalooza blogs.  Apparently I am prone to hyperbole AND beating a subject into the ground.  

8:15 - 8:40 - Crookers.  They were fun.  I get bored of DJ sets after two songs though but thanks for Graham for suggesting the pit stop.  

8:45 - 9:15 - Kings of Leon.  Cookie cutter performance.  I didn't sense the inspiration. 

9:25 - 10:00 - Kid Cudi.  He had his moments but I most appreciated the humor.  I appreciate good commentary and I didn't hear good between song commentary from anyone else this weekend so points for that.  


11:00 pm - So tired I can't even stand.  Hit the bed hard.  Some other sights of the day include hula hoop girl and inflatable raft girl ....






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