retro blog #1: lolla recap

Again, my apologies for sucking at blogging this month. Obviously I've been ridiculously busy. Part of that busy-ness has included severely rocking out.

I kicked off my month with a last-day-of-July billing of The Go! Team and CSS at Turner Hall Ballroom. I actually only was able to be there for the Go! Team, but I did get to catch up with old co-workers before the show and old board members afterward.

The next afternoon I headed down to Chicago for Lollapalooza which will end up being my only music fest for the year since I skipped Pitchfork.

We got down there a little late (thanks to traffic and a crammed El full of freakin' Cubs fans), but caught the tail end of Bloc Party. Fortunately we met up with some friends and got really, really close to the side of the stage for Radiohead. I already posted the video, but here are some more pics from that AMAZING show:


I have way more, but I won't bore you :). The show really did meet all my expectations.

The next morning after a delicious homemade breakfast from our gracious hosts (my friends Heather and Sam), we headed down to Lolla for the full afternoon line-up.

First up, Dr. Dog. The live show was pretty good, but I definitely will say that Fate is in my Top 10 this year.


Next up I ended up catching The Foals, who I need to investigate a little more. They were noveaou-Brit-punk. Always good. I caught the tail end of The Gutter Twins too, but sort of wandered at this point to go find other folks I was meeting up with. I ended up seeing some of DeVotchKa, and then some of the Perry Farrell All Star show, which featured Slash and Samantha Ronson DJing. Apparently Lohan was there, of course. Heard a bit of Booka Shade also who I NEED to checkout. Dancealicious.

My wanderings wrapped up in time for me to bust it over to get front and center for Jamie Lidell. Jim will likely end up in my Top 5 and Jamie Lidell himself is definitely a new music crush for sure.

After getting worked up at the above show, I grabbed some grub, overheard some of Broken Social Scene, but again, got front and center for the always delightful Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings (I bought a really cool Sharon Jones t-shirt too! But don't worry I didn't wear it until the next day and I wasn't "that guy"):


After SJ, we found a nice patch of grass and watched one of the better Wilco shows I've seen in years. The band is finally at the point where they can play greatest hits versus promoting whatever is new. Unfortunately though we did have to sit through Spiders/Kidsmoke. Ugh.

Oh and the band had matching suits. Awesome.


The next day we took a tour of Rogers Park (photos in another post) and headed down later to the concerts.

The last day of Lolla, it was really hot and humid. My friend went to go watch Brazilian Girls, but the crowd was a bit much for me, so I caught Nicole Atkins & the Sea. Another one I need to check out a bit more.


I did muster up energy to go sweat it out at Chromeo next. Seriously fun show. If you ever get the chance to see these guys live, do it.


It was nice to go sit on the grass again for Iron & Wine next:



I was REALLY looking to the next show, Girl Talk, especially since he is playing in Milwaukee on Election Night and there's no effin way I'm going to skip being glued to MSNBC/CNN that night. The show started off just great:



Unfortunately we were distracted by the WORLD'S GROSSEST COUPLE in front of us. They were total methfaces and in addition to molesting each other (he kept pulling her shorts down until her panties were falling out in front), they blew smoke from their cheap cigar in our faces, and constantly hocked up a river of loogies. The entire section around us were revolted by these two:
Yeah, that is some sort of effed up carving on that guys back. That guy who truly is:


Anyway, I digress. At this point, we were just frustrated and tired. I really wish I could've climbed a tree to see the show:


At any rate we kind of just rode out the rest of the day before we had to head back. We sat on the grass and saw none of The National, but heard part of it. We watched the opening sequence for Kanye, but honestly it wasn't that great so we headed home.

Overall, I am grateful that Chicago is the home of this fine festival and is so close to Milwaukee. I wish it was only two days, I wish there was better public transportation options (aka late night service) between the two cities, and I wish sucky people didn't go to shows. However, the positives were bonding with old friends and new friends, FINALLY seeing Radiohead sober and checking out some bands with whom I wasn't super familiar.

I'm sure I'll go again in the future.