Lollapalooza 2008

Since Lollapalooza starts midday tomorrow (Half Day At Work!) and goes into the night I won't have time to update until maybe Monday. But if I do, it will be right here on this post.

For those of you going to the show, look for me at these band's sets which I will not miss for the world.

Friday
2:15-3:15 - The Go Team
4:15-5:15 - Gogol Bordello
5:15-6:15 - Mates of State
7:15-8:00 - Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks (Sorry CSS)
8:00-10:00 - Radiohead

Saturday
1:30-2:30 - Mason Jennings
3:30-4:30 - DeVotchKa
4:30-5:30 - Explosions In the Sky
6:30-7:30 - Broken Social Scene
8:30-10:00 - Wilco (Sorry reunited Rage Against the Machine)
11:00-??? - Broken Social Scene - Afterparty at The Metro

Sunday
3:00pm - Roll out of bed
5:15-6:15 - Flogging Molly
6:30-7:30 - Girl Talk (Sorry Gnarls Barkley)
8:15-10:00 - Nine Inch Nails unless I really want to see Kanye West

Otherwise I'll be bouncing around from set-to-set trying to catch as much as possible.

Update (12:22 am Saturday): I knew the moment of the night was probably going to come during the Radiohead set and it did. The band was playing at the southmost stage with the backdrop of the South Loop and the Field Museum behind them. There was a glow from Soldier's Field where, I know now, the Bears were holding a fan family night and I commented on it between songs.

At the end of the family night, there was a fireworks display. Radiohead kicked into "Fake Plastic Trees" from The Bends and I watched as the colors exploded in the sky and how they reflected off the building. It wasn't intentional and you'd have to be several degrees beyond stoned to believe the song and display synced up. Still it was a really beautiful moment and one which I'll treasure forever.

Alright, I'm too tired from the sweltering heat to stay awake much longer. Tomorrow is going to be a long day including an afterparty. I'll update at the end of the day if I'm still awake enough to be coherent.

Update (9:10 am Sunday) Sometimes in life you have to take the good with the bad, the better with the bitter. So when you take a frisbee to the face at Lollapalooza, try to remember it was at Lollapalooza that you blocked a frisbee with your face. Call the guy a fucking asshole and move one with it.

There are too many bands to see to waste your time on some piece of human trash (Seriously, this guy was a total dick. No "Sorry"s, just laughing.) and you were on your way to see Broken Social Scene. Which Dan and I did see. For the first of two times. As the sun was setting behind the Chicago skyline. Which was awesome.

The second time was later that evening at the Metro. After an ordeal with the doors not opening until when the opening band Yeasayer was supposed to be on stage, BSS hit the stage around 12:30 in the morning and played straight until 2:15. There wasn't a lot of duplication between their set earlier in the day and they actually played my favorite song, "Lovers Spit." Dan and I caught a cab home after the show and climbed into bed at 3 am.

Update (10:39 am Monday)

I'm back at work today and, despite having the worst dry-mouth ever last night, I woke this morning without Lil Wayne voice. I'll have to try even harder next year.

My brother wasn't able to stay for yesterday's festivities. All of the bands he wanted to see started after 5:00 and he had a 7 hour drive back to Minnesota to tackle. We went to brunch out in Bucktown with one of his friends, we said our goodbyes (all the way until this upcoming Saturday) and he drove home.

He does get a million points at life though because he figured out a way to take off his wrist band and get it onto my other friend's wrist. Since he has a big wrist and her wrist is small, he cut his band close to the clasp and then she and I stitched it onto her wrist with a needle and thread. We tightened the clasp so it covered the stitches and it looked like it had been on her wrist all along.

While there we saw three different acts and all three were an absolute jam. Flogging Molly is always great, Girl Talk was off-the-hook and then Mr. Kanye West brought his manic energy to the people. Overall Lollapalooza was great and I'm glad my bro was there to share it with me.

P.S. The new Ghostface and Raekwon?

Once I Start I Cannot Stop Myself

A few weekends ago Susie and I were riding in our car. She was driving and I was riding shotgun which means I'm in charge of keeping good music on the radio. We were listening to Jack-FM when "Closer" comes on. It's easy to forget what a good song it is. Almost fifteen years ago it's really good for both shaking your fists or for shaking your ass.

I like "The Fragile" as much as I like "Pretty Hate Machine." Still the matter is Trent Reznor writes better songs when they drive. When he's being atmospheric and ambient, he's good enough to get by. When he's rocking (and not in the way the new R.E.M. album strives to rock), there are few who can keep up. Which is why I was happy as I listened to the new Internet-released Nine Inch Nails album, "The Slip." Here are some of the songs which stuck out for me.

999,999 Just a minute and a half of ambient humming. One might ask what's the point of putting a track like this on an album. It's kind of a waste of space on your hard drive. I like to think about it within the context of "the album as a performance." This track is like the moment when the lights go down and before the band steps on stage. This is the album telling you to get ready for the show to start. Hence the connection between the title of this song...

1,000,000 ...and this song. Like a good concert opener, it immediately grabs you and like a good NIN song, it punches you in the mouth for a good four minutes. There's a moment I love three minutes into the song. The song stops abruptly and you ask yourself, "Is that the end?" Then it comes back in after four or five seconds like comic timing. It absolutely slays me.

Letting You I was one of a few kids in middle and high school who were good at sports but not a jock-ass-motherfucker. So while I didn't hang out behind the loading docks sneaking smokes, I heard of Nine Inch Nails before "Closer" entered my peer group about 1995. (Things were different back then and it might take a year between the release of an album and when it even high school freshmen had heard it.) The first Nine Inch Nails song I ever heard was actually "Happiness in Slavery" on a cassette of songs from Woodstock '94. This song absolutely takes me back to that moment.

Discipline There's this phrase which was created by the early-80s English ska band and oft co-opted since then: FUCK ART LET'S DANCE. You can sing all of the songs of pain and angst you want. Unless you throw in a song you can move to occassionally, you're just complaining. So let's dance motherfucker. See: Boy, Fall Out.

Lights In the Sky Okay, I take back a bit of what I said earlier about Trent being good enough to get by when he writes "quiet" songs. Because, if I really am being honest, the best song he ever wrote was not "Closer" but "Hurt" as completely validated by Johnny Cash. This song is just Trent's voice and a piano sounding as heart-achingly beautiful as both are possible of being.

(Hi CJ. How are you?)

I'm Going to Lollapalooza '08

Last year around this time I received an e-mail from a friend. It said there were special discounted three-day passes to Lollapalooza for sale in a very limited quantity. By the time I got to the website they were gone. Later on that day, however, I overheard a co-worker talking about how she HAD been able to get the discounted passes. I commented about my envy because I had wanted to get passes of my own.

This morning that same co-worker showed up at my desk and said, "Was it you that I was talking about Lollapalooza with last year?" After I confirmed it had been me, she told me, "Go to the website right now. They're on sale again." Thus I will be attending all three days of Lollapalooza 2008 in Grant Park with my brother for the low, low price of $60 a piece.

Consider me even more fortunate though because of the double-billed headliners as reported by the Chicago Tribune this morning.


Radiohead


Nine Inch Nails