@AndyShore How do you let everyone know that you know you’re bigger than every other artist at ACL 2011? Make the entrance that Kanye West made on Friday night. First a giant curtain dropped to reveal what looked like ruins of Roman sculptures. Then the music and ballet/Runaway dancers started. At the first “can we get much higher?” from “Dark Fantasy” Kanye began to rise from a platform near the soundboard in the middle of the massive crowd. After performing the opener from above the audience,  he then took a long stroll back up to the stage, reveling in the cheers from the crowd. Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom Good times abounded at Lollapalooza 2011. We’ll say some things that may surprise you, like why we’re anti some crashing methods and how the rain was the best thing that could have happened at Lollapalooza 2011. Coldplay a top-3 show? Eminem vs. MMJ? Cee-Lo sucks. It was a lively discussion. We went almost 40 minutes. Hope you enjoy hanging with me, Andy and Caitlin.

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@ZackTeibloom On the final day of the festival, the festival gods said, (1:3) ”Let there be pass backs and there were pass backs.” There’s no festival bible yet,* but this will certainly be a proclamation when one is written. I couldn’t get my best friend or my girlfriend to give me their wristband on Saturday, but Sunday? Even my girl who puts her emergency brake on when parking on completely flat land and asks, “Is it legal to park next to street lamps?” was happy to assist in a pass back. After meeting up with Jess “always has a sport bottle of wine at a fest,” for lunch, I paid for our cab to Grant Park, knowing she’d be hooking me up shortly.

We found ourselves on the side entrance, and decided to try our luck there. Jess and Caitlin walked in, while I stood outside tweeting and holding onto two umbrellas.** They played it coy and hung around for a few minutes inside the fest, which was a tad unnecessary, but I appreciated their stealthiness. As I got to the point of … OK where are they already … Caitlin walked out as I had picked up my phone to call her.  Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom After one album, Young the Giant has one headline-ready hit, three stronger songs and then a bunch of filler. It was enough to string together a great early afternoon set on the main stage, which they filled admirably. Lead singer Sameer Gadhia is a star in the making. He has the swagger needed to pull off the daunting task of a main stage gig, with his two vocal mics bolstering his explosive singing.

They started the set with the slower, “I Got” which Gadhia crooned before yelling, “Are you ready for a festival?” into two microphones. He announced that they were just back from Australia before getting into “My Apartment.” The Lolla crowd waved their arms back and forth for “Cough Syrup,” and not just up front. The love stretched dozens of rows back, as the young band found tons of new fans at their 1 p.m. Friday set.

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@ZackTeibloom “We just saw the striped sweatshirt go bounce, bounce, bounce, back.” That’s Jeff describing watching me try to use an already-scanned 3-day pass on Saturday. On the third bounce, the guy scanned the ticket, said “This was first scanned Friday” and ripped it in half. I then retreated back to Jeff and Jordan and we started the trek to the media entrance. We had to walk all the way around the park, and decided to check out the Volunteer entrance, but even that had a gate with wristbands we didn’t have.

20 minutes later, we came to an impass. We were at the far end of the field at a bridge that connected to the media entrance, but they weren’t letting anyone in there, since media check-in was closed. Never mind the fact that there were three of us and none of us had media credentials. I had slipped on a green SXSW ’11 wristband and a blue Rock ‘n Roll hall of fame wristband in addition to my commemorative Lollapalooza laminate that said “Not valid for entry to the park” written plainly on it. Why? It never hurts to have extra passes. Someone could just assume it’s the right one. Security wasn’t buying it. They made us go even farther around. Every 15 feet, there was a guard waiting behind the fence, with this sign, clearly posted everywhere. Not a great start. Read the rest of this entry »

@AndyShore Eminem often gets put in the GOAT (greatest of all time) conversation. I never saw it. No, not because he was white. The Beastie Boys belong in that conversation too. It’s because my first impression of Eminem was goofy, juvenile songs that my friends loved in junior high. The truth is, his content got deeper as he grew as an artist. He resonates with my generation. The cameras even caught one girl on the screen in tears. As I turned to my friend last night during the show to confirm just how awesome Eminem was, a stranger turned around and added: “We grew up with him. He is ours. This IS fucking awesome.” Read the rest of this entry »

@AndyShore If there is one thing I learned from seeing Coldplay at Lollapalooza, it’s never underestimate the power of a simple melody that a large crowd can sing along to. Coldplay has made a career of it. Their fans love them for it. At many points during the evening the band sat back and enjoyed the chorus of fans. Being so close to the stage, we could hear just how loud the singing was. We all sounded great, if I do say so myself. For me, Coldplay is one of those bands that has more hits than you ever remember them having. Part of it is because it’s easy to forget how long they’ve been doing for. I guess I’m just old enough now that I remember these bands coming onto the scene. My body agrees right now with how old that makes me feel. Read the rest of this entry »

@AndyShore Female singers make me melt. It’s why we made sure we had a great vantage point for Grace Potter & the Nocturnals…and didn’t leave it for the Kills. I’m fairly certain at some point yesterday Potter and Mosshart had a make out session on stage. Or maybe I was daydreaming or hallucinating from dehydration. Fantasies aside, I was quite excited to see the Kills at Lollapalooza this year. I have seen Allison with the Dead Weather a few times. Watching the live stream of their Bonnaroo made me realize she’s even better when I like the music more (sorry Zack–you know TDW aren’t my jam). Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom Andy and I couldn’t be more excited to be back in Chicago for Lollapalooza this weekend. We hope to see as many friends as possible and see some shows and share a sandwich and catch up and all that jazz. Having said that, we’re gonna have to go over some things to make this as easy for all of us as possible. First off, we’re here to see music and we know what we want to see. We’ve made our schedules and we’re sticking to them. If you want to go to Eminem, talk to Andy. If you want to see Coldplay, I’m your guy. (Wow, never thought I’d say that.) And you better get to the Coldplay stage early, because I’m likely staying there from Bright Eyes on, unless I decide to make a dash for OK Go. Our schedules are below. Here’s a few things to consider and we’ll see you out there. Let’s get our festival on.  Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom It’s quite possible that this is the 20th Lollapalooza, girl, but for Chicagoans who saw it become a destination festival, it’s a fact that it’s the #7 one. It’s quite possible that it’s the best collection of rock, hip-hop and electronica from top to bottom. But it’s a fact that it’s Grant Park’s seventh one. It’s quite possible that Michigan Avenue will erupt with whoops, but it’s a fact that it’ll be ridiculous amounts of fun. Right now you could care less about this, but soon enough you will care by the time I’m done. I’ll find a soapbox where I can shout it. Let’s have a ball and a biscuit, sugar*.

Alright, let’s get down to business. This is part one of a two-part Lollapalooza 2011 preview from me, with this half covering the 12 bands I’ve seen live and love enough to see again this weekend. If you notice Girl Talk, Muse and Ratatat missing, it comes down to scheduling. I’m buying into the Coldplay experience to give up two favorites and one flashy, overrated show. Girl Talk is a pantheon festival show for me, but I’ve blown the moon up there already. Ratatat is one of the most exciting instrumental acts around and “Loud Pipes” may be my most played track on Turntable FM,** but they don’t have the capacity to put on the show of the festival. Muse does, but … twice was enough for me on this tour. I started this list with 12 names, kicked off these three, Damian Marley and Nas (All I had to say was that Damian’s solo stuff is far better than their collaboration), cut off Arctic Monkeys (who could easily outperform Explosions in the Sky) and now we’re at 7 and my “Ball and a Biscuit” analogy makes slightly more sense. Let’s get into the top 7. Read the rest of this entry »