Its important to note that by this point we were all exhausted. 12 hours of music two days previous had taken its toll, and we did not make it to the park until 2 or so. Anyways, onwards to day 3:

The Cribs – I know we saw these guys. But for the life of me I can’t remember anything about them.Weird.

Minus the Bear – Sadly, Minus the Bear played at the same time as Mumford and Sons. Yet another difficult choice. Oh, and it was hot. The show was very good, but once again, it was hot.

X Japan – While the rest of the gang went to go find Yeasayer, and they were foiled by a particularly comfortable looking bench in the shade, I went to go find X Japan. Arguably the most heavy metal of any band at Lollapalooza this year, it was their first time in America. Imagine an 80s metal band, that all know what they’re doing, and aren’t high on coke. CRAZY I KNOW. Anyways, they only attracted a small crowed (by small I mean about 1k), with 1/3-1/2 being very hard core fans. The rest just curious, and I for one, was super impressed!

MGMT – I like MGMT. But their live set fell flat for me. It had no pull and I just didn’t care. I could have been sitting outside of a coffee shop and had the same effect.

Cypress Hill – They had the stage next to were Soundgarden was going to perform on after. Holy crap they make alot of weed references, its like their entire show. I should have known this, I guess I had never really thought about it. I wish I could have teleported past these guys and seen The National without having to miss any Soundgarden.

Soundgarden – The reason we looked into going to Lollapalooza was when we heard that Soundgarden was coming out of retirement for a tour. I must preface this saying they are the sole reason we went in the first place. And holy crap! I wasn’t disappointed at all! We went early, got super close, and I had ears that rang for days after I got home. I was sad to see they played at the same time as Arcade Fire, but it was no contest were I was going to stand that night. An amazing end to a great extended weekend of music.

- I haven’t forgotten pictures, they just all need re-sized to be posted. They’ll come soon.

On to day 2! Once again pictures to follow later.

Acts seen for Day 2:

The Morning Benders – I dragged my cohorts to a side stage to see this show early in the day. They had first come to my attention due to a certain cover I found to be amazing (apologies for the poor sound quality, its all I can find). Their sound is very unique, and almost reminds me of 1960s era soft rock. Needless to say, I’m a fan.

The Soft Pack - Very fun band, I have nothing bad to say about them. They put on a great show. A nice change of pace from the Morning Benders.

Dragonette - Their description in the blurb program book sounded promising… but I wasn’t hooked after the first song and we moseyed on to Blues Traveler. A great example of why music festivals are amazing. Haven’t heard of the bands that are playing right now? Pick one, if its not your cup of tea, you can move on!

Blues Traveler – A mainstay of Lollapalooza. I hear they play there almost every year.  Anyone who had a radio in the late 1990s and early 2000s should know this band. Their live set was fun, and a nice rest before the beginning of the punk fest that nearly killed Brion.

Against Me! – Old school Against Me! fans will swear up and down that their new singer isn’t as good as the old one. That may be, but they still put on a good show. This was the first band of the Saturday of Punk that nearly killed Brion.

Gogol Bordello – We’re going to see who? Their what kind of band? Gypsy punk? I’m game….. and holy shit were they amazing! So amazing I’m going to go see them again in October if possible. High energy, amazing band, die hard fans, and a song about purple. What more can you ask for!

AFI – Here is where we abandoned Brion to go get food and then look at some other bands. I only caught the start of their set. They sounded good, but I can’t comment too much. Brion also saw Social Distortion and Slightly Stoopid and reported great things. Plus he didn’t die in a mosh pit! Complete success!

Metric – Metric is a solid band as it caters to my liking of strong female vocals. That said, their set was kind of flat. Still good, and no where near as dull as a band I saw on Sunday.

Spoon – I think half of the women at this show would do anything to sleep with this man. Some men probably feel the same way. Kick ass show for sure. A very solid show, and one with an interesting photo that I’ll post later. I hadn’t heard much from Spoon before this show, and I was very impressed. I can see why this is one of Chandler’s favorite artists.

Green Day – Headliner #2 >>>>>>>> Headliner from day #1. Everyone has heard of Green Day, hell they’re almost 40. I must admit, Green Day is far from my favorite band and before the show I couldn’t decide if I would rather see them or Phoenix. In this case, I feel I made the right choice. Their show was electric. Stage dives, the best god damn rockstar fan to sing the lyrics to a song pulled out of the crowd (Billie Joe Armstrong gave him his guitar after the song), fireworks, new stuff, old stuff, fire hoses and a classic rock sing along were all crammed into a 2 1/2 hour set. These guys pulled the energy out of the audience in a way that I can’t describe. Everyone felt involved. It was pretty damn impressive, and I asked myself is this a natural talent, or a product of the band touring and being together for almost 25 years. Some professional music critics out there thought it was all overdone and too much posturing for who they are.  Well, screw that. I was entertained, and thats all that really matters.

Ok, so its been 3 weeks. I’ve been lazy, but here goes! Basics first:

Lollapalooza is a massive 3 day outdoor music festival held in Grant Park, in downtown Chicago, IL. It boasts a daily attendance of 80k people (plus fence jumpers), for a total attendance of around a quarter of a million people. With over 50 bands on 8 stages over 3 days, theres no way you can see them all. I saw 25 or 26 acts, and still had a half a dozen shows that I really wanted to see. There just wasn’t time or a way to be in two places at once.

Quick List of the Acts seen for Day 1:

B.o.B – Heard from afar while we negotiated the massive wristband queues. Pretty meh, not my style at all.

Balkan Beat Box - Surprise band of the day! These are guys I had never heard of before and rocked my socks off. Super high energy, great stage presence, and amazing sounds from two saxophones, 1 bass guitar, drums, and bongos of some sort.

Drive by Truckers – Not mind blowing, but still good times. Great music to stand outside and get a sunburn to.

The New Pornographers – Amazing show. They talked some shit on Lady Gaga, which I appreciated. I sort of wish I had gone to see DEVO instead as I hear their set was amazing.

F**k Buttons – I really, really, really like this band. Live its not terribly exciting though, a couple of guys messing around with synthesizers and mixing boards. Still, the bass at the show was enough to make your lungs try to escape through your armpits, so still totally worth the hearing damage.

The Black Keys – Hoooooooooooly fucking shit these guys are amazing. Best show of the day hands down, top 3 for the entire festival. I was a minor Black Keys fan before, now I am fucking converted. I don’t know how two white guys from Akron can have this much soul, and pump this much feeling into their music, but they do. And they did it amazingly well live.

Lady Gaga – Biggest mistake of the entire weekend. We went there to see what the hullabaloo was all about, and were greatly disappointed in the worst live show I have ever seen. I’m not even going to link a sample, everyone knows who she is, and I have to wonder why. Out of a two hour set she spent most of it rolling on the floor, screaming about monster ball, complaining about how bad she was 3 years ago and how shes a star now, and changing costumes. I think she maybe did 45 minutes of music. Even a cthulu tentacle monster and a costume that shot sparks out of her tits and crotch couldn’t save her show. God damn, look at all that I wrote about her too. Should have gone to see The Strokes.

That’s day 1, I’ll do the rest of the shows by the end of the weekend and try and get more pictures up Sunday when I get back from a wedding.

As a teaser, I’ve posted my new desktop background. Its a photo I took myself during Green Day’s show. Enjoy.

July was a rather dull month overall. The weather was far too hot, but a late release in the month of Starcraft 2 helped make the month even out.

Expect a bit more activity this month though as we are heading to Lollapalooza! Very exciting indeed. The sheer number of high quality bands is nigh overwhelming. I’ll do my best to throw up thoughts and pictures after and possibly during the actual event.

-We are riders on the storm.

I have no idea how long this is going to keep working. But you should all go check it out.

The exciting news is that Bush is back with a new album later this fall. To be honest this first peek at it is a little disappointing. The song has potential, but all the copies I’ve heard are pretty flat and stale sounding. I’m hoping it will be juiced up for release and that the rest of their work will be exciting.

For the record I loved Golden State, its an amazing album. And I can say that the should have kept the original CD art over the gold dullness they rushed into place after Sept. 11. Imagine this, but with a golden coloring to it instead of green puke. Ah well.

- Speed Kills. The People That We Love.

Contrary to what Charlie Daniels may believe, the devil does not play a fiddle. At least he wouldn’t in my own personal hell.

Instead he would play this: The Pedal Steel Guitar

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Zumsteel.jpg

Commonly featured in twangy country western music, this instrument has the capability of destroying my enjoyment of nearly any piece of music. I would try and find an example, but I scour them from my mind as best I can. I’m sure if you browse youtube for song titles involving rednecks, pickup trucks, and/or tequila you may find something close to what I am describing. I like most music, but I reserve a special kind of hatred for what this instrument can do to a normally acceptable song. Thats why I know, that should I end up in a Lake of Fire, the shores will be surrounded by Pedal Steel Guitars.

I closing, I leave you with this view of Iceland.

- Normal steel guitars work very well for Blues and Hawaiian music.

Credits to Jasneko and their shirt featured on http://shirt.woot.com/

The past two weeks have been full of preparations to move, as I’m sure the next week or so will be as well as I try to unpack my belongings and buy new things in an attempt to purchase a more comforting living environment.

In other news, in two weeks I will be 26. Is that old? No, not at all! I already know what I’m getting too. Hopefully it won’t turn out to be a waste. As it is, I rarely play my guitar. I just don’t enjoy having to plug it all in. SO! I’m going to find a decent acoustic guitar and proceed to spend my days damaging my fingers more than they currently are from being repeatedly stabbed. I also might get a chair and some speakers, but really, all 3 of these things I’ve been putting of getting for months until I move.

This is mostly just a rambling post, as I work faster than others in the information chain (or that’s what I tell myself). But, here I am waiting on a teleconference to be set up with people in a country that I desperately want to be in 15 time zones away. All my attempts to go to other time zones have failed it seems. Too important to send away, too young to be given responsibility, too inexperienced to be given more, too unlucky to be hired in a good year, too good for your own damn good.

BAH.

~fin

I’ll be super busy the next week or so as I move and have a pile of stuff to do at work. If any content shows up in the interim I’ll be mildly surprised. You have been warned!

P.S. RSS FEED ATTACKS With Nothing Worth Reading! Is it Super-Effective?