Lollapalooza 2006, Day 2: Food Lines Reminiscent of Communist Russia and Dancing Santas
Today had a late start and generally seemed slow. Some good acts, some OK. Nothing that made my head explode really, but enough to make me dance and jump so much that my feet hurt like hell.
We saw:
* Nada Surf as we walked down the street to get in, and then a little bit as we ate lunch late, so there weren't very many crowds yet. Nada Surf was great, much better than that one hit single "Popular" would make you believe. Unfortunately, they were partially drowned out by a band on a closer stage...
* Sybris, who didn't suck, but we nothing special. After that, my day began in earnest as we sat in the middle of the south field, playing Uno and listening to...
* The Go! Team, a large British group that was oodles of fun and with energy like nobody's business. We stayed put to listen to...
* Coheed and Cambria, which is basically a Rush cover band, and they had a few okay songs, but they yelled way too much. Couldn't hear a damn thing, really. After that was...
* Wolfmother, who was great and quite impressive. I would even consider buying the album, which is how good they were; a great live show. We stood up and walked to the main stage nearly halfway through their set to camp for...
* Gnarls Barkley. We were against the sound booth walkway barrier (which leads from the stage to the booth, so we could lean over to have a great view). Again, we played Uno and held our ground, learning from yesterday's pre-Editors asshole-related issues, through the cunning use of our sheet-blanket. A bright blue twin sheet with white stars on it (my college bedding) definitely shows other people what is my space and what is not. Gnarls' performance was great; they were all dressed up as tennis players. I couldn't have asked for a better set. After, we caught a little of...
* The Smoking Popes as we hit the porta-potties (I forgot to lock the door and made a new "friend"--eew, but my bad) and filled our water bottles as we headed for the north field to catch...
* The Flaming Lips. Before the show, a little more than half an hour before they went on, we decided to grab a bite for dinner. I stood in line for nearly 25 minutes waiting for one hot dog, one hamburger, and one chicken sandwich. The waiting was so bad I half expected there to be no food when I got to the front. Eventually, I got the food and we headed to the field but everything was taken--it was a hugely popular show. And why not? Inflatable dancing aliens and santas and astronauts, and two large groups of dancers--one as santas, one as sexy aliens--shooting streamers, huge blue balloons to bat around, giant plastic hands, a band member dressed up as a skeleton, an exploding yellow balloon filled with confetti, and one hell of a show. They were impressive, and I'm glad to have seen them live. I texted Katie to see if she wanted to meet up and she wrote back that it was VERY crowded and we agreed it was every man for himself. So we headed back south with the crowd before all of the Flaming Lips fans stood up to leave, and every time we looked behind us, it seemed like a bajillion people were chasing us. We got to the south field and, although at least 25,000 people watched the Flaming Lips, there must have been 30,000 either seeing...
* The New Pornographers (which we listened to a little, really good!), or waiting for...
* Kanye West. We were in the "waiting for Kanye" camp, and by "we" I really mean me, and Mike and Rob played very nice and watched with me. We were on the softball field (so in front of the sound booth) and on stage right, about 150 feet back. If it wasn't for the four giant men in front of us, we would have had unobstructed views, but we were near the big screen and could catch what we were missing on there. When they would show shots of the crowd, the entire field was covered with people (I doubt anyone saw the other headliner, Manu Chao.) It was almost scary how many people were there, I was so close to the stage too (all things compared). The show was phenomenal, and although I wasn't as familiar with the songs from "College Dropout" as others to keep up sometimes, but the show was well worth the wait.
We got back here at around 11, mostly because the walk from the field to the car was about four blocks and we were on sore feet.
So tomorrow is the last day, and with a very, VERY full day ahead with an "everyone's there" Red Hot Chili Peppers show to cap it all off, I don't know how I'm going to make it to work on Monday. Most excited for The Shins; Rob's camping out for RHCP. NOW? Now I'm going to bed.
We saw:
* Nada Surf as we walked down the street to get in, and then a little bit as we ate lunch late, so there weren't very many crowds yet. Nada Surf was great, much better than that one hit single "Popular" would make you believe. Unfortunately, they were partially drowned out by a band on a closer stage...
* Sybris, who didn't suck, but we nothing special. After that, my day began in earnest as we sat in the middle of the south field, playing Uno and listening to...
* The Go! Team, a large British group that was oodles of fun and with energy like nobody's business. We stayed put to listen to...
* Coheed and Cambria, which is basically a Rush cover band, and they had a few okay songs, but they yelled way too much. Couldn't hear a damn thing, really. After that was...
* Wolfmother, who was great and quite impressive. I would even consider buying the album, which is how good they were; a great live show. We stood up and walked to the main stage nearly halfway through their set to camp for...
* Gnarls Barkley. We were against the sound booth walkway barrier (which leads from the stage to the booth, so we could lean over to have a great view). Again, we played Uno and held our ground, learning from yesterday's pre-Editors asshole-related issues, through the cunning use of our sheet-blanket. A bright blue twin sheet with white stars on it (my college bedding) definitely shows other people what is my space and what is not. Gnarls' performance was great; they were all dressed up as tennis players. I couldn't have asked for a better set. After, we caught a little of...
* The Smoking Popes as we hit the porta-potties (I forgot to lock the door and made a new "friend"--eew, but my bad) and filled our water bottles as we headed for the north field to catch...
* The Flaming Lips. Before the show, a little more than half an hour before they went on, we decided to grab a bite for dinner. I stood in line for nearly 25 minutes waiting for one hot dog, one hamburger, and one chicken sandwich. The waiting was so bad I half expected there to be no food when I got to the front. Eventually, I got the food and we headed to the field but everything was taken--it was a hugely popular show. And why not? Inflatable dancing aliens and santas and astronauts, and two large groups of dancers--one as santas, one as sexy aliens--shooting streamers, huge blue balloons to bat around, giant plastic hands, a band member dressed up as a skeleton, an exploding yellow balloon filled with confetti, and one hell of a show. They were impressive, and I'm glad to have seen them live. I texted Katie to see if she wanted to meet up and she wrote back that it was VERY crowded and we agreed it was every man for himself. So we headed back south with the crowd before all of the Flaming Lips fans stood up to leave, and every time we looked behind us, it seemed like a bajillion people were chasing us. We got to the south field and, although at least 25,000 people watched the Flaming Lips, there must have been 30,000 either seeing...
* The New Pornographers (which we listened to a little, really good!), or waiting for...
* Kanye West. We were in the "waiting for Kanye" camp, and by "we" I really mean me, and Mike and Rob played very nice and watched with me. We were on the softball field (so in front of the sound booth) and on stage right, about 150 feet back. If it wasn't for the four giant men in front of us, we would have had unobstructed views, but we were near the big screen and could catch what we were missing on there. When they would show shots of the crowd, the entire field was covered with people (I doubt anyone saw the other headliner, Manu Chao.) It was almost scary how many people were there, I was so close to the stage too (all things compared). The show was phenomenal, and although I wasn't as familiar with the songs from "College Dropout" as others to keep up sometimes, but the show was well worth the wait.
We got back here at around 11, mostly because the walk from the field to the car was about four blocks and we were on sore feet.
So tomorrow is the last day, and with a very, VERY full day ahead with an "everyone's there" Red Hot Chili Peppers show to cap it all off, I don't know how I'm going to make it to work on Monday. Most excited for The Shins; Rob's camping out for RHCP. NOW? Now I'm going to bed.