Lollapalooza

[thebruce44]

Anyone else going?

 

I am for sure seeing Manchester Orchestra, The Black Keys, Ranconteurs, and Radiohead on Friday.

 

Saturday is a bunch of bands I am not too excited about, but ending with Rage Against the Machine (who I saw at Alpine last year) should be awesome.

 

Sunday is the best day of the bunch with Newton Faulkner, Black Kids, G. Love, Flogging Molly, Gnarls Barkley, The National, and Kanye if I am still awake.

 

I am most excited about the Black Keys, Rage, and The National, who I think would be worth the price of a scalped ticket (hopefully around $100) alone.

[JoeHova]

Huh, I didn't realize that was still around. Sounds like a good lineup though, too bad Kanye is there.

 

edit: I just looked at the lineup and I see Okkervil River is playing on Saturday (followed by Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, who are also pretty good). I wish I felt like driving to Chicago this weekend.

[homer]

Black Keys rule. They are playing the Metro in Chicago tonight. I am still in awe that it's just two dudes putting out that full of a sound.

[thebruce44]

The drummer is so awesome live. They both work damn hard phyically to put out that sound. I would go to the Metro (saw them at the Vic 3 months ago) but can't afford that in addition to Lolla.

 

I may have to check out Okkervil River...I have heard good things about them, just haven't had a chance to listen to them yet.

[homer]

I saw the Keys at the Riviera a few months ago - crappy seats but they were awesome. They play Chicago quite a bit.

[Oldcity]

Not going to Lollapalooza, but am going to an after-show with Brand New and Manchester Orchestra at the Chicago House of Blues. Lollapalooza is also preventing us from finding a hotel room anywhere near the HOB.

[jhart05]

Yes! Another "Sunny in Philly" fan. I think my favorite is when they try out for the Eagles, and Charlie and Frank tailgate the tryouts. "I'm gonna trip balls!! Woodstock baby!!"

 

 

No, not going to Lollapalooza.

 

But, anyone going to see Beck with MGMT, October 2nd or 3rd, at the Aragon? I really want to see that show.

[RyDogg66]

The Black Keys are worth the price of admission by themselves, the rest is gravy.

 

I am pretty sure they are playing Milwaukee on September 5.

[sgtcluels]

I'm jealous.. I'd kill to see Radiohead, RATM again. I'd suggest Saul Williams on Sunday.

[thebruce44]

Well the whole buying a scalped bracelet thing kinda backfired on me. 3 Day Passes were sold out by Friday and very few people were selling tickets. The ones they were selling were going for around $300. I managed to get a guy down to $180 so me and my two friends got them, went in and had a great time on Friday. Saturday we got down there early to see Dr. Dog, only to have our bracelets taken off at the gate and security escort us out because they were fake. This happened to a bunch of other people I know too...all of whom payed around $250. Next year I will just be buying one well ahead of time.

 

On the plus side, I did get to see the Black Keys, Rancontours, and Radiohead, but of course not worth the $180 I payed for it.

[SenatorShriv]

Wow. I'm still kind of shell-shocked from so much great music. I had to drive back to Madison after the festival so I didn't get home until almost 4:00 am. I've kind of been a zombie at work but there are a ton of great tunes dancing through my head!

[ttsather]

Like Senator Shriv, I had to head back to Madison after the festival (train out of the city to the car, drive home) and didn't get to bed til about 4:30.

 

Ended up seeing a lot of great shows, favorites were (in no order):

 

- Chromeo

- Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings

- Margot and the Nuclear So-and-Sos

- Louis XIV

- Girl Talk

- Okkervil River

- Flogging Molly

- CSS

- The Octopus Project

- Lupe Fiasco

 

I had more fun at the midday shows than at the headliners. There were too many evening sets that I wanted to see that the only big performance I was close for was Kanye, and ended up really annoyed with all the coasties and high-schoolers. I had to watch Rage and Radiohead from a fair distance because of Sharon Jones and the Raconteurs playing at the North end right beforehand, but they were good nonetheless.

[blatzlight]

i am really upset i didnt get to see gogol bordello. one of my best friends said it was his favorite show from all them all weekend. don't know if anyone else on here got to see them.

[ttsather]

i am really upset i didnt get to see gogol bordello. one of my best friends said it was his favorite show from all them all weekend. don't know if anyone else on here got to see them.

I saw them and they were entertaining, though I thought they had a lot of very similar songs. I was also quite drained with the heat even by that point on Friday and was basically taking a breather on a blanket when I saw them, so I wasn't in a position to really be "in it". I must've been right by a woofer too because the bass was just rattling my ribcage.

 

[Bikeage77]

so more importantly, how much was a bottle of water? 4? 5? 10?

 

180 for a pass? fer crying out loud, in my opinion no band or fest is worth that much, not 6 bands are worth that much. although i can only take a show of about 5 or 6 bands playing 30 minute sets to begin with, i dont care how good they are. that's just me, but I went to early Lollapaloozas and can't stand crowds at shows, especially since about 65 percent of them don't even know why they're there.

 

for what it's worth, you prolly didn't miss much with rage, even in their hey day, you prolly wouldn't have missed much with rage.

"F you I won't do what you tell me! I'm so anarchist and anti establishment that we can make someone pay 180 dollars for a wristband!!! now pass the Grey Poupon!!!! Fight the power, gimme yer money!!!!!" rage is a joke, i've made this is a hijack of sorts, but if they really wanted to get their silly message across they woulda done things ala Fugazi. I bet much cooler kids woulda paid attention. No pun.

[ttsather]

Food and beverage was reasonably priced all around, I thought. $2 got you a 20oz. SmartWater. $5 or $6 got you something pretty good to eat. It was more reasonable than Summerfest, overall, though fewer options/great deals to seek out. But the admission price was high enough that . . . well, they've already got my money. They also allowed two sealed carry-ins of water each up to 1-liter.

 

My group also stopped by the grocery store and got some sandwich stuff and whatnot. With a hotel right off Grant Park and re-entry privileges we did pretty well.

 

I saw probably 8-9 shows per day, and even the early and midday acts were good names. I'd do it again.

[SenatorShriv]

so more importantly, how much was a bottle of water? 4? 5? 10?

We carried in our own booze, food, water and ice every day so that kept the cost down.

 

180 for a pass? fer crying out loud, in my opinion no band or fest is worth that much, not 6 bands are worth that much.

 

I would disagree. I'm apparently joined by the 75,000 + other people who attended Lollapalooza this year and the tens of thousands who payed more than that for the Rothbury festival, Bonnaroo, the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and any number of major festivals taking place across the country this summer. It is an expensive industry and festivals like this require a HUGE amount of production to coordinate, promote and set up. For the record I only payed 160 for my three day pass.

 

for what it's worth, you prolly didn't miss much with rage, even in their hey day, you prolly wouldn't have missed much with rage.

"F you I won't do what you tell me! I'm so anarchist and anti establishment that we can make someone pay 180 dollars for a wristband!!! now pass the Grey Poupon!!!! Fight the power, gimme yer money!!!!!" rage is a joke

 

Zack de la Rocha is an awesome lyricist, Tom Morello is a fantastic guitar player and they created a completly original sound. I guess a band can only suffer away in obscurity or they get labeled as sellouts and their music is cliche. I have been waiting to see them for years now and I had a blast at their show. Excuse me whilst I go chug a bottle of Grey Poupon!

[Bikeage77]

as time as yer money spent and whatever, that's yer business. i wasn't aware you could bring in food, but when touring festivals first started, they weren't that way.

 

bruce springsteen or the foo fighters or motley crue can charge whatever they want for shows.

 

as far as rage though i'll reiterate. who's opinions are they gonna convert at some huge fest or a 50 dollar show? college kids who briefly think about protesting? high school kids that are looking forward to college so they can briefly think about protesting? they're playing for crowds of people that no one cares about whatever message they have. if they are really going to try to do something to start some kinda revolution, or swing people's attention to real world problems, they'd play day shows at block parties in the ghetto and night shows for minimal costs to cover gas and food. you think the people that can afford those shows are in any type of situation where they're concerned about anything going on anywhere? sure they complain about gas prices they're not goin out of their way to ride their bikes. they aren't volunteering at homeless shelters or picketing outside of mcdonalds. so rage's message is never really worth anything, so while there is important lyrics in there, who cares what they change? no matter what they say people are gonna put up devil horns and scream along with agreement.

 

this is a band that's all about change, but how much can you accomplish through music. especially going this route? do they really think them and their fans are gonna even make a dent in political history through their lyrics?

 

the best chance at getting whatever political message they had across was at the tibet freedom shows. however, i'd guess 90 percent of the people that showed up there didn't know anything about tibet and probably 85 percent left without knowing anything about tibet. but hey, at least they brought in free food and booze and caught the beastie boys!

 

ps: obscurity does not make or break a band. see my rant about green day vs nickelback in the nickelback thread. did they play lollapalooza? did they play that song about bein a rockstar which is very clever because they already are rockstars? i bet they were a real blast too!

 

edit: i'm not trying to single you out or come of like a total jerk senetor. i just can't understand how people go so ape over rage. which reminds me, i have a signed Rage show poster, framed that i'm trying to get rid of. signed baseballs/bobbles will work just fine.

[gypcasino]

"F you I won't do what you tell me!

I mean except for you Zack. When I'm at the show and that part of the song comes I'll chant "FU I won't do what you tell me!" in unison with the other 20,000 people in attendance. It sounds ironic. But I actually won't be talking about "you" I'll be talking about "them." And also when you say "And then you're under control!" I'll again be singing along with everyone else but we won't actually be under control now. It means that "they" try to have us under control. "Some of those that burn crosses are the same that hold office!" YEAH! Like Robert Byrd! Oh wait, wasn't he a Democrat? I'm so confused.

[thebruce44]

I was at an Atmosphere concert in college where he got the entire crowd to chant along with that song...then made fun of everyone for listening to him when he told them to chant along.

 

Regardless, I love Rage and think that them at least having a message is far superior to the other 98% of bands out there. Even without a message, I would still listen to them (hell, I even like Audioslave) because of how amaizing Morrello is. If its not your thing, its not your thing, but you should acknowledge that they are an increadably large draw and have done pulled some pretty amaizing stunts in the past to get their point across.

 

In regard to bringing in food and drinks, you could only bring in sealed water bottles, but everyone snuck stuff in.

 

I thought the price was pretty reasonable frankly. $60 per day? I worked it out to something like $7 a concert for all the bands I wanted to see. If that isn't a good deal to you, I don't know what to tell you.

 

I realise your not trying to be rude bikage, but it seems like you had a pretty negative opinion of Lolla before your first post in this thread. Maybe it isn't for you, and thats fine, but for a lot of people it was a really great experience at a reasonable price. I can't wait for next year.

[SenatorShriv]

i'm not trying to single you out or come of like a total jerk senetor

I understand that you're not trying to single me out. You're trying to say that everyone who listens to Rage Against The Machine is a misguided frat boy, and my point is that I think that is a gross generalization that detracts from some of the great musicianship in the band.

 

he best chance at getting whatever political message they had across was at the tibet freedom shows.

I'm pretty sure they also played a protest show outside the Democratic National Convention (one of the reason's I don't understand the Senator Byrd comment) and the WTO protest in Seattle.

 

I personally learned a lot from Rage. I started reading the books that were on the inside cover of the Evil Empire album and researching song references when I was in my early years of high school. Many of those books were certainly influential in my ideological evolution. While I don't continue to believe everything those books or songs lyrics stand for, they helped to guide me towards the career I currently have and the causes I get involved with. I like to think that I make a difference in the world every day when I go to work or participate in activities to support other causes. Perhaps I'm the only one, but I wouldn't be familiar with a lot of those issues without being introduced to them by Rage.

 

This argument aside, there is only one band I saw that I was disappointed with and that was because I had such high expectations going into it. I was super pumped about The National and I didn't leave impressed. I was also disappointed that I missed Sharon Jones... she is fun as heck to shake booty to.

[homer]

I like Rage because they friggin' rock. I could care less about the politics....or the lyrics for that matter.