Back from Chicago!
Lollapalooza was AMAZING. Chicago was 10 degrees cooler than Houston, with half the humidity, so it was an absolute pleasure to spend three days outside.
Day 1. BoB (who put him on a stage at 11:15 on the first day?). Jukebox The Ghost. Neon Trees. Foxy Shazam. My Dear Disco. American Bang. The Constellations (this is the band I hadn't seen before that I enjoyed most; hit me up if you want some of their music). Jimmy Cliff. Cymbals Eat Guitars. Semi Precious Weapons (Dear Justin Tranter, you are awesome, but you are smoking crack if you think Lady Gaga is "rock and roll"; also, I was standing back in the shade, and didn't realize at first that the woman stage diving was Lady Gaga). The Strokes. I didn't go to the Lady Gaga set - it was set against The Strokes, and I prefer the Strokes' music; it was interesting to read reviews saying how amazing the spectacle was, b/c the people I know who *did* see her - who had seen her at Toyota Center a couple of weeks ago - said it was too slow for a festival show, and boring in the middle with her trying to tell a story and do her costume changes, but it picked up in the end when she did Poker Face and Bad Romance and Alejandro. People watching (Little Monsters) was outstanding.
Day 2. Blues Traveler, Against Me, Gogol Bordello, AFI, Social Distortion, Slightly Stoopid, Green Day. BEST COVER OF THE WEEKEND: Social Distortion's Ring of Fire. Green Day's set was pretty elaborate, with the skyline screens that held projections of everything from actual buildings' windows to starlight to words and phrases. Their entire set was slick, really, from years of crowd management. IDK, I think I'd've appreciated another full song rather than 10-minute versions of Hitchin' A Ride AND King For A Day complete with covers of a handful of other songs. LOL, the dude they pulled up from the crowd to sing Longview totally laid one on Billie Joe; he also did an outstanding job on the song. And the little girl who came up to bless him on East Jesus Nowhere clearly had a WTF expression on her face, like she was wondering why her mom handed her up on to the stage to this random dude. It's weird for me, now, to hear 21 Guns w/o Whatsername.
Day 3. Company of Thieves. Blitzen Trapper. The Ike Reilly Assassination. Frightened Rabbit (eh, too reminiscent of Gaslight Anthem and Lucero). Band of Heathens. Hockey. Wolfmother (best I've heard them, soundwise). Erykah Badu. Cypress Hill. Soundgarden. Soundgarden was pretty good. I am spoiled, and have heard Chris Cornell perform Soundgarden songs at small venues, and in comparison the sound at the park was not optimal, IMO. In fact, during Black Hole Sun, the guitar was so overpowering and dissonant that my ears hurt. I don't know if it was deliberate, lowering the vocals to make it less of the Chris Cornell show and more a team effort, or what. But the bass was as punishing as expected. I enjoyed that the stage set up was pretty simple, even the projection on the screens for the crowd was black and white.
Random thought: I would like to explore the differences in philosophy and aesthetics between the Seattle grunge scene of the 90s with the California punk scene of the 80s and 90s, which led to dudes like Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Ness having sleeves and scattered ink everywhere, where as the dudes in Pearl Jam and Soundgarden and Nirvana/Foo Fighters have little or no visible ink, in comparison.
When we weren't at Grant Park, we were either at Kuma's Corner or The Map Room, which is right around the corner from our friends' house. Mmm, beer.
During our travels, I finished reading Hella Nation, Evan Wright's other book. It's a collection of essays expanded from articles he wrote for various other publications, I believe. There is a great deal of self-description in them, far more even than Generation Kill. To me, he comes off as a self-centered misogynistic pig (YMMV). But now I understand the Jasmin reference in Stay Frosty, LOL.
Dear Gmail: STOP FUCKING WITH THE LAYOUT. NO LOVE, ME
Day 1. BoB (who put him on a stage at 11:15 on the first day?). Jukebox The Ghost. Neon Trees. Foxy Shazam. My Dear Disco. American Bang. The Constellations (this is the band I hadn't seen before that I enjoyed most; hit me up if you want some of their music). Jimmy Cliff. Cymbals Eat Guitars. Semi Precious Weapons (Dear Justin Tranter, you are awesome, but you are smoking crack if you think Lady Gaga is "rock and roll"; also, I was standing back in the shade, and didn't realize at first that the woman stage diving was Lady Gaga). The Strokes. I didn't go to the Lady Gaga set - it was set against The Strokes, and I prefer the Strokes' music; it was interesting to read reviews saying how amazing the spectacle was, b/c the people I know who *did* see her - who had seen her at Toyota Center a couple of weeks ago - said it was too slow for a festival show, and boring in the middle with her trying to tell a story and do her costume changes, but it picked up in the end when she did Poker Face and Bad Romance and Alejandro. People watching (Little Monsters) was outstanding.
Day 2. Blues Traveler, Against Me, Gogol Bordello, AFI, Social Distortion, Slightly Stoopid, Green Day. BEST COVER OF THE WEEKEND: Social Distortion's Ring of Fire. Green Day's set was pretty elaborate, with the skyline screens that held projections of everything from actual buildings' windows to starlight to words and phrases. Their entire set was slick, really, from years of crowd management. IDK, I think I'd've appreciated another full song rather than 10-minute versions of Hitchin' A Ride AND King For A Day complete with covers of a handful of other songs. LOL, the dude they pulled up from the crowd to sing Longview totally laid one on Billie Joe; he also did an outstanding job on the song. And the little girl who came up to bless him on East Jesus Nowhere clearly had a WTF expression on her face, like she was wondering why her mom handed her up on to the stage to this random dude. It's weird for me, now, to hear 21 Guns w/o Whatsername.
Day 3. Company of Thieves. Blitzen Trapper. The Ike Reilly Assassination. Frightened Rabbit (eh, too reminiscent of Gaslight Anthem and Lucero). Band of Heathens. Hockey. Wolfmother (best I've heard them, soundwise). Erykah Badu. Cypress Hill. Soundgarden. Soundgarden was pretty good. I am spoiled, and have heard Chris Cornell perform Soundgarden songs at small venues, and in comparison the sound at the park was not optimal, IMO. In fact, during Black Hole Sun, the guitar was so overpowering and dissonant that my ears hurt. I don't know if it was deliberate, lowering the vocals to make it less of the Chris Cornell show and more a team effort, or what. But the bass was as punishing as expected. I enjoyed that the stage set up was pretty simple, even the projection on the screens for the crowd was black and white.
Random thought: I would like to explore the differences in philosophy and aesthetics between the Seattle grunge scene of the 90s with the California punk scene of the 80s and 90s, which led to dudes like Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Ness having sleeves and scattered ink everywhere, where as the dudes in Pearl Jam and Soundgarden and Nirvana/Foo Fighters have little or no visible ink, in comparison.
When we weren't at Grant Park, we were either at Kuma's Corner or The Map Room, which is right around the corner from our friends' house. Mmm, beer.
During our travels, I finished reading Hella Nation, Evan Wright's other book. It's a collection of essays expanded from articles he wrote for various other publications, I believe. There is a great deal of self-description in them, far more even than Generation Kill. To me, he comes off as a self-centered misogynistic pig (YMMV). But now I understand the Jasmin reference in Stay Frosty, LOL.
Dear Gmail: STOP FUCKING WITH THE LAYOUT. NO LOVE, ME