@ZackTeibloom This doesn’t happen at every other festival. I don’t know why. It’s just a Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo thing from what I’ve seen. And it’s different at Bonnaroo. When the night ends, the crowd spills out right in the smack of downtown and there is a magical buzz. A whooping buzz. Sure the “Bonnna-rooo!” chants come out, but that’s in the middle of Tennessee in a muddy farm. This is Michigan Avenue. One of the classiest streets in the country. And it’s happened like this every night this fest has been in Chicago. A good, healthy festival energy.

@shiftywhiteguy:  In 2007, Zack was trying to talk me into going to Bonnaroo.  The Flaming Lips, The White Stripes, and many others seemed like pretty good draws, but I wasn’t 100% convinced until he mentioned the band that he knew would catch me hook, line, and sinker:  Ween.  Ween is a one of a kind band, to say the least.  Their music is technically proficient, rocks so incredibly hard, is hilarious, and is a lot of times, really biting commentary and satire on other genres.

As much as I liked Ween, I had not seen them live up to that point.  Ladies and gentlemen, you are simply a Ween fan trainee until you see a show.  There is no way of accurately appreciating this band until you’ve seen the living riot that is a group of Ween fans in the act of worshipping their band.  At that ’07 show, Ween was preceded by Fountains of Wayne.  Zack and I worked our way over to This Tent during FoW’s set to make sure we could get close for Gener and Deaner.  I remember standing right behind a girl who looked at the mass of people huddling around This Tent, then mentioned to her friend, “Wow, Fountains of Wayne really drew a crowd!”  Poor thing, she had no idea what was about to happen to her. Read the rest of this entry »

@shiftywhiteguy:  In 2007, prior to going to Bonnaroo, my good friend Phred made a really convincing case as to why I should make sure to see Michael Franti & Spearhead.  Phred has hardly ever steered me wrong,* so I gave them a shot.  In ’07, he played an afternoon set at Which stage in the height of the day’s sun.  I went in with neutral expectations, and it ended up being at least an entertaining enough show to sit through the entire set.  That is really saying something when you’re playing on one of the non-tent stages in the middle of the afternoon, and your audience is only slightly removed from being cooked like rotisserie chickens.  However, I wasn’t exactly blown away, and would have given that set a grade in the high sixes/low sevens. ** I was in no hurry to go out and buy his album, but I was definitely entertained.

So, when I saw Franti on the bill again this year, I had every intention on catching at least some of his set.  And, from the very first second of the show, it became very obvious that his later start time made all the difference.  He played on the same stage as ’07, but had a post-sundown start time this year.  Without the distraction of the heat, Franti’s set takes on an entirely different feel. Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom There are few times I wish I was still in Chicago. This last week is one of them. The weather was gorgeous, the hardest rocking supergroups in the world were in town and Conan came to Chicago with two  more legends. Thankfully, Brett was there to cover it all for us. Without further ado, the first of many posts for the newest member of Festival Crashers’ beta class.

@snoogans913 I knew going into this past week that it was going to be one to remember, but I still couldn’t fathom just how epic it ended up being. The week kicked off with a bang with the start of the conference finals between the Hawks and Sharks on Sunday, and as I gathered around my TV with my friends and Buffalo Joes in tow, I was already elated. I wait the entire year for playoff hockey, and here I was, in good company, watching my Hawks tear shit up on visiting ice. As you should know by now, the Hawks got the W that day, and the next game was set for Tuesday. I had a panic attack when I realized that was the very night that I’d be in the presence of rock G-ds at the Them Crooked Vultures show. So when Tuesday finally rolled around, I donned my Blackhawks skull cup and headed out to the Aragon. Read the rest of this entry »

It pains me to tell you that @AndyShore and I will not be attending Bonnaroo this year (as we discussed in a Podcrash) but we’re in good hands. Great friends of ours are going and luckily they both write quite well. They may not use Twitter much, but Laura and Bryn will be feeding us the previews as we get closer to the festival. When Bryn heard me and Andy’s first podcast where we went through our top 5 bands to see, he had ISIS quite high on his own list. Why? You’re about to find out.

@Shiftywhiteguy Gather ‘round, kids, I’m about to tell you a story.

The year was 2001, and I was a naive 16 year-old. At the time, I felt as though the local music scene in Indianapolis needed my support. Ok, so that wasn’t so naive…those guys needed all the help they could get. Read the rest of this entry »

@JordanLipshutz Little 500 2010 kicked off Thursday night with the Flaming Lips playing to a sold out crowd at IU Auditorium. Despite being confined to a small auditorium, the Lips brought all of their toys out to play. The band took the stage one by one, emerging from a giant strobe-lit vagina. Then lead singer, Wayne Coyne, appeared in his infamous transparent “space bubble” despite being advised not to by IU Auditorium staff. Wayne only walked to the edge of the stage in the space bubble, because the auditorium staff feared the crowd would not be able to support him. The crowd was less than thrilled at this, but still swelling with energy as the Lips launched into “Worm Mountain,” a song they recorded with MGMT on their latest album. Read the rest of this entry »

We’d like to welcome a guest post from Rosa (@rosiita) a longtime Twitter friend of Festival Crashers who we hope to meet up with at Coachella next weekend:

I’d heard about RX Bandits for several years.  But when I heard of them, it was the local Long Beach, OC ska-band with horns and things. Meh, not interested … but then came boyfriend after boyfriend after boyfriend trying to get me into them. CD’s at Christmas, tickets to shows, are you joking? Let me be!

It became a joke with the first two and finally with the third I had to fold. One show won’t kill me, right? Might as well just go, have a beer or two and check it out… Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom Guest post by Sam, a freshman at IU with dreams of the Festival Crasher lifestyle and Gonzo Journalism. We welcome him and hope he finds Lipshutz, takes a ton of Gass and Hollinden classes and keeps the spirit alive in Bloomington. This is his first Phish show. Remember- we were all Noobz once and most of us couldn’t write half this well.

@Sam Last night, I went to see Phish for the first time and I can say with near certainty that it changed me forever.  My first big festival-type concert. It felt like home. Throngs of Phish heads flooded Miami, growing more and more as we passed one phan after another until we finally reached the venue, American Airlines Arena. Read the rest of this entry »

Festival Crashers welcomes @DoctorCollins steps back for his second guest post to cover three shows at Stubbs Friday night. @ZackTeibloom considered a crash and made it as far as the door, but wasn’t feeling it and @chrisinaustin had another adventure in mind. Thanks to @doctorcollins for letting us know we missed a lot. They even took @supercooleric’s 16-year-old brother’s concert V-card*.

@DoctorCollins Take a moment to think about the first concert you ever went to**. Mine was Jimmy Buffet at Fiddler’s Green in Denver. One friend’s first was Sugar Ray, featuring a before-their-prime Smash Mouth as the opening act. Other answers to that question included New Kids on the Block, Weird Al, and a Swedish death metal band (I didn’t even know that was possible). So the fact that a @supercooleric’s little brother got to experience a smattering of up-and-coming local bands as his first concert ever, I’d say he is off to a pretty good start. Sure he tripped over some stairs and poured half of his Coke on a guy’s crotch but he was also instinctually moving closer to the stage every time he saw an opening in the crowd. It was fun to glance over and witness him taking everything in for the first time – made me appreciate all the shows I’ve been spoiled rotten with by living in Austin. Read the rest of this entry »

@JordanLipshutz Last night was a spectacle to be seen. Yes, Ludacris played a frat party. After a day of horrible tests and constant running around, I could NOT think of a better way to start my first “World’s Greatest College Weekend.”

My boys and I showed up at the ATΩ/ACACIA parking lot really early about 45 minutes after the gates opened at 6. The crowd was already starting to gather and I got my first festival conditioning of the year by staking out our spot 50 feet from the stage. When I got a chance to look around I noticed “EJ,” Eric Gordon himself, just hangin’ out shootin’ J’s.

Next, my brother, DJ Zeke took the stage with a rapper that I think called himself Fresh Soul so we’re just gonna go with that. He kinda had the whole Pharrel/Lupe look going on and he was way better than the first guys. He also had live drums on stage, which added a great extra punch.

Fresh Soul played about 3 songs and then we waited and danced a good while until Nappyville came on.  Straight out of Indy, these guys were pretty good too. They were way more southern sounding and played about 5 songs. OK now on to the real deal.

We waited maybe an hour after Nappyville and around 9:00 Luda’s boys took the stage. “Southern Fried Intro” started playing and Rap’s MVP finally hopped up on stage. Working the crowd right off the bat, Ludacris got everyone’s hands in the air as he blasted into “Number One Spot.” I think I should mention at this point that the buzz around campus was that he would play three songs. Within two songs, Luda proved he was here for the crowd all night. Hit after hit, the show continued until the 10:30 noise curfew.

Some songs he played a few verses of, others he played straight through. Pretty much you name it he played it. Highlights for me included “Pimpin’ All Over The World,” a remix of Jim Jones’ “Pop Champagne,” and of course “Move Bitch.” The best by far though was when Luda invited everyone to put their lighters in the air and light up and then dropped into “Blueberry Yum Yum.”

I should also mention Shawnna came out with him toward the end of the set to do a great version of “What’s Your Fantasy.” After, Shawnna got a few songs to herself and was absolutely killing it. I really don’t know if they were written rhymes or she was free styling, but her flow was unbelievable and she was spitting incredibly fast. Around this point we left to start the after-party, but I’m just gonna take a wild guess and say he closed with “Rollout.”

I don’t make it out to many rap shows, but Ludacris is one of those humble rappers that totally cares about his audience and putting on a great show. I doubt you’ll get the chance to see him play a frat party again, but anywhere you can catch him, go for it.

Photo credits: Top photo by Sarah Achler, bottom photo and thumbnail to Meredith Alexander.