Lolla Recap

Grant Park today is covered in crushed beer cans, old cigarettes (legal and not), and sweat from hundreds of dirty hippies. Yes, Lollapalooza once again returned to the city as formal send off to summer vacation. I missed the rainy opening on Friday and lackluster lineup on Saturday, choosing to attend the finale on Sunday. Walking over to Grant Park with Matt and Becca Druker, and the largest man in the world, yes, Daniel Dorfman revealed that the weather was going to make the day a long struggle. I think I had sweat through my shirt before arriving at the park. With temperatures in the high 90's, we sought out some air conditioning first since we had missed Cage the Elephant. We walked over to the PlayStation Tent, where Matt was quick to point out that people had paid money to do what they could have done at home for free in better air conditioning. It also smelled like vinegar. The tent was pretty lame but it was right next to the bar and bathrooms. Kudos to the promoters for giving out free water bottles. I choose to hydrate with Bud Lights, and after 5 or 6 I didn't feel any of the effects of the alcohol due to the heat.

The first band we saw was Dan Deacon, an electric funk band with like 10 members. The first song sounded like shit and Deacon said so. They returned and went on to sound like crap. It only took one song to find out I was next to the hippie dancer guy. He throws his arms around and looks stupid. Fucking PFs were everywhere, outnumbering the hot hippie girls. Deacon kept telling people to dance in certain ways, which I found annoying. They formed the a long hippie conga line. Fucking morons.

Afterwards, I took a trip to the bar and wonderful line of port-a-potties. Not exciting normally, but this time it was. A beautiful blonde child of the flower people was in front of me and accidentally ran into me. She apologized and we had idle talk about the heat. She offered an extra shirt to wipe off the sweat she got on me. I declined (want more of her sweat). She then said I should take advantage of being a guy and take my shirt off. I told her I didn't look as good as she (I am very smooth) but did it anyways (not sure if she got what she expected). We went to our separate toilets and never saw each other again, maybe in another life though.

My rock and roll roots are founded in more aggressive bands such as Foo Fighters, Metallica, Nirvana, and Rage Against the Machine, so my life has come full circle when I say that Vampire Weekend and Passion Pit, two more pop like bands, were amazing. VW sounded just like their CD and were great to chill on the lawn and listen to. We caught the last 20 minutes of Passion Pit. They played on a small stage surrounded by trees and it was packed. The crowd was really into the poppish sounding band. I enjoyed what I saw and have now downloaded their songs. Best surprise of the day.


Snoop Dog was next and I had no expectations for him. He was a lot of fun constantly engaging the audience telling us to lite joints and fuck the police. His hour long set was awesome and led by his band. Very high energy and the most crowded set to play the big stage that day. We also enjoyed his rotating set of body guards who were wearing suits in the high heat. Another problem arose, as word spread of heavy rains up north. We got lucky when the rain missed us but we got the comforting cloud cover.

Finally the Killers closed out the weekend. It was the least crowded finale I had seen at the festival compared to last year. Becca established a radius of empty space and almost killed a hippie dancer who ran into her. They performed all of the hits and few other songs. Brandon Flowers, the lead singer, told some boring stories in between and that got a little annoying (partly because I think he is an arrogant ass who once said Sam's Town was the greatest album ever). I enjoyed "Spaceman", "All Things I've Done", and "Mr. Brightside". "When We were Young" was the last song and rocked very hard. I am still singing it today. They had a great light show and some pyro stuff in the background. I am glad I saw them and can cross another band off of my list. Amazing ending to a great day. Hopefully, I will be there all three days next year.

Thoughts:

• Senior Year Preview later. Not enough stamina to finish...that's what she said.
• Jaco was a nice addition. Good job, but critics are rough kid.
• Warm beer after 4 at Lollapalooza...sucks.
• Look out for Them Crooked Vultures, the super group feautring Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters), Jonh Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), and John Homme (Queens of the Stone Age). They appeared to the world last night after Lolla at the Metro in Chicago. Album is rumored to come out in October.