2007 Summer Trip Day #4 & 5 - St. Louis, Amtrak, Chicago, Lollapalooza Day #1
Not much to report on Day #4 which was a rest day since I would be taking the 6 hour Amtrak from St. Louis to Chicago. I took 4 NyQuil LiquidGels so I could pass out but ugh, I couldn't! The train was full but thankfully they put us in business class seats. Due to waiting for a freight train going 0.000000000001 mph to pass, I didn't get into Chicago until 1.5 hours later than scheduled. BLAH. Met up with
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billy_ and Alex. We ate at some nearby 24 hour diner that serves a banana with every meal. For some reason I was the only one who got the banana. Also got stuff from Walgreens.
Why Lollapalooza Kicks Coachella's Ass* Better viewing spots. Lotsa elevated spots where you can see the stage above people's head.
* One hour sets vs. 45 minute sets
* Set in a real city with a great public transit system (i.e. no parking nightmares)
* In-and-out privileges
* Free crap!!! A lot of it helpful like the free knapsacks with breath drops, sunscreen, ponchos, Kleenex. Yay to corporate sponsorships!
Why It Doesn't* Humidity!! But wanting to take a shower is normal at festivals
* Muse vs. Interpol, My Morning Jacket vs. Modest Mouse, walking to other end vs. staying put. But conflicts are a part of festivals.
* No
10-for-1 recycling :(
2007 Lollapalooza Day 1The Fratellis. We took the bus to downtown Chicago which turned out to be a baaad idea. Due to the frequent stops to load up too many passengers and heavy traffic, we got to Grant Park way later than scheduled. Wish we took the Red Line train instead!! It took us forever to pick up our passes because they were at the Media Check-In Tent which was ALL THE WAY on the southend of Grant Park. On our way, we did hear The Fratellis do what I suspect was their last song Chelsea's Dagger. Not too heartbroken I missed them. Already seen them three times this year and I'm pretty maxed out. Next album?
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists.
The Polyphonic Spree. We walked around picking up free crap along the way. Decided what the heck, we'll check out Ted Leo. Poor dude fell on his ass on the first or second song! After he finished, he said "Thanks guys!" We were getting hungry so we decided to utilize the in-and-out privileges to eat at a nearby Thai place knowing we'd miss The Polyphonic Spree. Stopped by the nearby hostel to buy a visitors CTA pass, which they were out of. Walked to the
Chicago Cultural Center, enjoyed the A/C and exhibits (sadly no photos allowed) and bought a visitor's pass. Stopped by Walgreens to pick up more stuff.
Against Me! Don't even dare talk shit about this band.
Or else! I was listening to
New Wave on my iPod and gosh darnit I really liked it. The crowd wasn't as spirited
as Coachella. Surprisingly hardly any moshing or crowd surfing. Alex conjectured being on concrete maybe had something to do with it--which is strange since this is Grant
Park. Looking forward to seeing them again at LA Invasion at Home Depot Center where I saw them
two years ago!
The Rapture. While waiting for the The Rapture underneath some trees on some elevated spot (woot!), we could hear M.I.A. on the Bud Stage. It didn't sound too good where we were. Unfortunately don't recall too much about The Rapture's set. It didn't seem as fun as
their Coachella set to me but maybe daylight had something to do with it. There was a green crane behind us. Some stupid kids thought it'd be cool to get on it and jump up and down shaking the whole thing.
Blonde Redhead. The Black Keys. We decided to utilize our in-and-out privileges for dinner. Unfortunately so did a lot of the people at
the place we ended up. The chicken ceasar salad wasn't very good and service was slow. Line at the bathroom was way long. There were two girls there who changed into their robot-inspired get-ups for Daft Punk.
LCD Soundsystem. Came back and caught, I guess, two songs. At the end, James Murphy says "go over there" pointing to the Daft Punk stage. So we did.
Daft Punk. Decided to break from routine and tried to get closer to the stage. Bad mistake, bad mistake! It got super crowded not too far from the soundboard so we backtracked and ended
way in the back somewhere. Seems like everyone has raved about Daft Punk at Coachella and the LA Sports Arena; but me...meh, wasn't feeling it. Neither was Alex. I really wanted to see a real band that singed and played instruments. So we decided to catch the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!/Cold War Kids/Elvis Perkins in Dearland
after-fest show at
the Metro. Off to the Red Line station...
