Category Archives: General

Lollapalooza 2008.

This past weekend I toughed it out at another Lollapalooza. Unlike last year I attempted to limit my time among the masses. I hung out most of Friday afternoon but I skipped Radiohead, Saturday I went down just to see Rage Against The Machine, and then on Sunday I attempted to get as close to the stage as possible for Nine Inch Nails.

Friday was by far the hottest day and I believe I paid the price the rest of the weekend for being there at noon. I managed to see Rogue Wave, Cat Power and a couple other bands from a distance before calling it a day.

On Saturday I didn’t head down until about 5pm where I I basically waited to see Rage Against the Machine. We took Barbone’s advice and stayed about halfway back in the massive crowd. About 10 minutes into the set Zack de la Rocha stopped playing and began asking the crowd to take 5-10 steps back. This happened two more times during the set which all the while people were walking past us to get closer to the stage.

Needless to say they were awesome and it was insane. The ground actually shook.

By Sunday I was nursing an infected/swollen knee from a Kickball injury so I decided to take my time getting down to the park, arriving at 1pm. When I got there I headed right for the NIN stage and got about 2 people back from the barrier. With the sun blaring I began to wait. Of course the other bands on this stage were nothing I cared to see and I was surrounded by 17-21 year girls who were ‘swooning’ over the John Butler and his trio. I made it through half of Iron and Wine when I came to the realization there was no way I was going to make it until 8pm with the amount of water I had on hand. Plus my knee was beginning to ooze.

I headed to the food stand to get the ever elusive lemonade and came up empty handed again. Taking my sweat tea, I headed to the First Aid tent to get a new set of bandages for my knee. After that I headed over to see Saul Williams for about 45 minutes. Saul Williams’ band was in costume, I think the keyboard was dressed as Blackula. After most of his set I worked my way back up to the NIN stage about 10 yards from where I was in the earlier. Love and Rockets came on and considering what I had already seen on that stage they were pretty good.

After they finished I followed the flow of humanity towards the stage. It was so packed you could hardly move. NIN came on at just after 8pm and the crowd rushed about 10 feet forward. I will believe until they day I die that at least 25 people spontaneously combusted. There is no other explanation for what happend. I spent the next 20 minutes trying to stay on my feet all the while I watched 17-22 year old girls with sheer horror in their eyes. They had neither the ability to push back nor to get out. They were at the mercy of the crowd. I began working my way to the back, via a steady but precise back pedaled. The whole time avoiding small mosh pits. The only thing I can compare it to is the scene at the train station in 28 Days Later where the rage virus breaks out in the crowd. Basically you could see it in peoples eyes.

This is what Nine Inch Nails felt like:

*Side Note:

The rest of my photographs from the shows are on flickr.

Rock Around the Block

Yesterday we headed over to Rock Around the Block on Lincoln Avenue for the evening where we got to see the Play Doctors and 16 Candles. For those who don’t know Play Doctors is a girl band with Wolf from American Gladiator’s on drums. Pretty amazing to see.

16 Candles’ eighties montage led to nothing but dancing. Lots of dancing.

*Side Note:

A ton more photographs are on Flickr.

The beer was accessible, the food was plentiful and the music was fascinating.

A good time was had by all.

East Cost Trip: Pearl Jam, Baseball, & Blondies.

This past weekend Julie and I headed to the East Coast to see Pearl Jam in Hartford and the Mets – Yankee’s game at Shea Stadium. Of course the temperature the entire weekend hovered around double-asshole so most of the time we were covered in sweat.

We managed to hit four airports (Midway, Bradley, LaGuardia, & O’Hare) with only one 2 hour delay, see Pearl Jam and then the Mets play the Yankee’s and then have wings at Blondie’s and lasagna at Dee’s. In other words it was a very successful weekend. Thanks to those who let us sleep on their pullout couches without you we’d been at the Belnord.

The Pearl Jam show in Hartford was especially hot and steamy. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists were the opener and were really good. Our seats were under the pavilion but towards the back. I wasn’t really that impressed with the show but I chalk that up to three things:

Pearl Jam had just completed back to back shows at Madison Square Garden.
I’m comparing this show to their Lollapalooza set last year.
It was Double-Asshole.

It wasn’t that it was a bad show, it just wasn’t nearly as good as the last three times I’ve seen them.

It was equally hot at Shea Stadium for the final Subway Series but there was a 45 minute torrential down pour that cooled the air. I must say I was highly impressed by the ground crew. The field was completely dry within 15 minutes of them rolling up the tarp. Now I do find it rather amusing that the entire team took 15 minutes to ‘warm up’ before coming out to play again but that’s another story.