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Lollapalooza, day two
I got to Grant Park a bit later today than yesterday, which was okay. Nada Surf was playing at 12:30, and I got into the park right around 12:40. Just as I made it over to their stage, they started playing "Inside of Love," which is my favorite song of theirs. Yay! They rounded out the set with "Always Love," which also made me happy. During this set I opened a frozen bottle of water, which exploded all over me and soaked my white t-shirt. Nice.
From here I thought I'd give Fiest a try, but a slow start couldn't keep me interested. Once again Transmission pulled through, as they had recommended the Go Team. Oh holy crap, is this band fun. It's one of those bands where every instrument imaginable is played by about 12 different people, and it's just a blast. The announcer referred to them as "England's best party band," and I think that's probably spot on. I really enjoyed their set. There was also a passel of clowns dancing and jamming out to them, which I actually found amusing and not creepy. Such is the power of the Go Team. After this I took a break for lunch, and like an idiot I had a hankering for a gyros, which meant I hiked all the way back across the park to the Greek Delights food stand. The line was ginormous and SLOOOOOW. So that effectively killed an entire hour.
After that it was back to the south side of the park for Wolfmother, who totally kick ass. It's such old school rock with the guitars and the drums and it's like Led Zeppelin or something. Very awesome. Unfortunately I started feeling very tired, so I went over to the far side of the field and took a quick nap on the hill. Ten minutes later I felt completely recharged, which was good as I was supposed to meet Steve@theMovies and his friend Tim. We had made plans earlier in the morning to meet by the beer tent, but I hadn't realized there were two beer tents on that side of the park. Whoops. Eventually the guys found me, and we watched Gnarls Barkley perform. They did a cover of the Violent Femmes' "Gone Daddy Gone," which I loved. Of course the crowd went nuts for "Crazy," but sadly right afterwards the mass exodus began. They're a good band, people should have stuck around to watch. Oh, and in case anyone's interested, their costume of choice for today was to have everyone in tennis outfits. Not as much fun as their Star Wars ensemble, but hey, it was hot. I don't think anyone would want to be in a full Chewbacca outfit in 90 degree heat.
Steve and Tim took off in search of food, and I went to see the Smoking Popes. Yay for the hometown band! I've loved them for years, so seeing them live was great. They played "Let's Hear It for Love," "Midnight Moon," "Gotta Know Right Now," and my favorite, "Rubella." Unfortunately I had to leave their set early to meet up with Steve and Tim for the Flaming Lips. But oh holy God was it worth it. They are SO GREAT live. Wow. Of course Wayne did the thing where he gets in the giant space bubble/hamster ball and rolls around on top of the audience. The stage was flanked on one side by a team of Santa Clauses, and the other side by girl aliens in minidresses. Behind the band were four giant balloons -- two NASA spacemen, one alien, and one Santa Claus, all of which had people manned inside to make them dance. Wayne had a streamer gun which he fired out at the audience throughout the show, as well as tons of giant ballooons that were batted around throughout the set. They started out with "Free Radicals" (during which everyone screamed along "fanatical FUCK!!!", which in turn just reinforced my belief that you don't bring little kids to concerts). This was followed up with "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" parts 1 and 2, "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song," "She Don't Use Jelly," and "Do You Realize?" which everyone sang and cheered along with. The crowd was SO THICK for this set. We had to weave in and out just to get anywhere remotely near the stage, and even then we couldn't even make it past the sound board. It was really great, though. I absolutely have to go see them again in a setting where I can actually SEE them. I wish they had played "Fight Test," or something off The Soft Bulletin, but that's okay.
During this set I got a text message from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mei_x that she'd finally gotten to the park, so afterwards I met up with her at the merchandise booth. We then stopped for drinks and grabbed a spot on the lawn to wait for Steve and Tim. They found us pretty easily, and we listened to The New Pornographers from across the field while we waited for Kanye West. I was rather split on whether to see Kanye or head back across the park to see Manu Chao, but I knew if I didn't see Kanye I'd kick myself later. He did all his really big hits: "Jesus Walks," "All Falls Down," "Through the Wire," "Gold Digger," "The New Workout Plan," "Diamonds from Sierra Leone," "Crack Music," "Drive Slow," and "Touch the Sky." Common, Lupe Fiasco, Twista, and GLC all came out for a song or two. I'm glad to have seen Common, because I really like him. If only John Legend could have come out...
Anyway, that's day two. Tomorrow I'm heading in early to see Mucca Pazza at 11:45. What am I thinking? But really, this is an absolute blast. I'm really loving this festival. Hopefully in another year or two Lollapalooza will be thought of in the same breath as Coachella or Bonaroo as the big music festivals in the US. The fact that it's a twenty-minute train ride from home just makes it all the better.
Today's tally:
Boys in kilts - 1
Sightings of a mime with a sock puppet - 3
Men on stilts drinking beer - 1
People wearing the same pirate T-shirt - 4
People with significant asscrack sweat - 1
From here I thought I'd give Fiest a try, but a slow start couldn't keep me interested. Once again Transmission pulled through, as they had recommended the Go Team. Oh holy crap, is this band fun. It's one of those bands where every instrument imaginable is played by about 12 different people, and it's just a blast. The announcer referred to them as "England's best party band," and I think that's probably spot on. I really enjoyed their set. There was also a passel of clowns dancing and jamming out to them, which I actually found amusing and not creepy. Such is the power of the Go Team. After this I took a break for lunch, and like an idiot I had a hankering for a gyros, which meant I hiked all the way back across the park to the Greek Delights food stand. The line was ginormous and SLOOOOOW. So that effectively killed an entire hour.
After that it was back to the south side of the park for Wolfmother, who totally kick ass. It's such old school rock with the guitars and the drums and it's like Led Zeppelin or something. Very awesome. Unfortunately I started feeling very tired, so I went over to the far side of the field and took a quick nap on the hill. Ten minutes later I felt completely recharged, which was good as I was supposed to meet Steve@theMovies and his friend Tim. We had made plans earlier in the morning to meet by the beer tent, but I hadn't realized there were two beer tents on that side of the park. Whoops. Eventually the guys found me, and we watched Gnarls Barkley perform. They did a cover of the Violent Femmes' "Gone Daddy Gone," which I loved. Of course the crowd went nuts for "Crazy," but sadly right afterwards the mass exodus began. They're a good band, people should have stuck around to watch. Oh, and in case anyone's interested, their costume of choice for today was to have everyone in tennis outfits. Not as much fun as their Star Wars ensemble, but hey, it was hot. I don't think anyone would want to be in a full Chewbacca outfit in 90 degree heat.
Steve and Tim took off in search of food, and I went to see the Smoking Popes. Yay for the hometown band! I've loved them for years, so seeing them live was great. They played "Let's Hear It for Love," "Midnight Moon," "Gotta Know Right Now," and my favorite, "Rubella." Unfortunately I had to leave their set early to meet up with Steve and Tim for the Flaming Lips. But oh holy God was it worth it. They are SO GREAT live. Wow. Of course Wayne did the thing where he gets in the giant space bubble/hamster ball and rolls around on top of the audience. The stage was flanked on one side by a team of Santa Clauses, and the other side by girl aliens in minidresses. Behind the band were four giant balloons -- two NASA spacemen, one alien, and one Santa Claus, all of which had people manned inside to make them dance. Wayne had a streamer gun which he fired out at the audience throughout the show, as well as tons of giant ballooons that were batted around throughout the set. They started out with "Free Radicals" (during which everyone screamed along "fanatical FUCK!!!", which in turn just reinforced my belief that you don't bring little kids to concerts). This was followed up with "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" parts 1 and 2, "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song," "She Don't Use Jelly," and "Do You Realize?" which everyone sang and cheered along with. The crowd was SO THICK for this set. We had to weave in and out just to get anywhere remotely near the stage, and even then we couldn't even make it past the sound board. It was really great, though. I absolutely have to go see them again in a setting where I can actually SEE them. I wish they had played "Fight Test," or something off The Soft Bulletin, but that's okay.
During this set I got a text message from
mei_x that she'd finally gotten to the park, so afterwards I met up with her at the merchandise booth. We then stopped for drinks and grabbed a spot on the lawn to wait for Steve and Tim. They found us pretty easily, and we listened to The New Pornographers from across the field while we waited for Kanye West. I was rather split on whether to see Kanye or head back across the park to see Manu Chao, but I knew if I didn't see Kanye I'd kick myself later. He did all his really big hits: "Jesus Walks," "All Falls Down," "Through the Wire," "Gold Digger," "The New Workout Plan," "Diamonds from Sierra Leone," "Crack Music," "Drive Slow," and "Touch the Sky." Common, Lupe Fiasco, Twista, and GLC all came out for a song or two. I'm glad to have seen Common, because I really like him. If only John Legend could have come out...Anyway, that's day two. Tomorrow I'm heading in early to see Mucca Pazza at 11:45. What am I thinking? But really, this is an absolute blast. I'm really loving this festival. Hopefully in another year or two Lollapalooza will be thought of in the same breath as Coachella or Bonaroo as the big music festivals in the US. The fact that it's a twenty-minute train ride from home just makes it all the better.
Today's tally:
Boys in kilts - 1
Sightings of a mime with a sock puppet - 3
Men on stilts drinking beer - 1
People wearing the same pirate T-shirt - 4
People with significant asscrack sweat - 1