After The Go! Team, Rob went back to the condo and I made the trek back south for Gogol Bordello. Did I mention it was hot? The high temperature for the day was 87F, which doesn't seem that hot, but there was no breeze and it was really humid. And crowded. Freaking crowded. Last year peaked on Sunday with 60K people for Pearl Jam. Radiohead had sold out this first day, with 75K people, which was way too many for the venue. Already at 3:30, crossing the park was miserable.
I don't know much about Gogol Bordello - I remember seeing them on The Henry Rollins Show one week and they were pretty good. Definitely better than Duffy, who I had originally planned on seeing, but the more I listened to in the weeks leading up to Lollapalooza, the more I got real tired of her. Gypsy punks for the win! Sort of.
That's me hiding from the sun. I stood and watched Gogol Bordello, and it was good, but four days later, I can't remember a thing about their set. All I remember is that around 5PM the sun went behind a cloud for the first time all day, for about 15 seconds, and people cheered that.
Gogol Bordello
The plan from there was to meet up with Bob for Grizzly Bear, but there was some mis-communication and he wound up at Bloc Party. I had chicken on a stick (the food was excellent again this year - I know, excellent festival food?) and made it to Grizzly Bear and had the same experience as Gogol Bordello. I was there, I know I enjoyed it, but couldn't tell you why.
Grizzly Bear (nice shorts, Ed!)
Bloc Party bled through for most of the set, and that sounded good too. Unfortunately, there was a LOT of sound bleed between stages this year, more than I remember from last year.
Rob and I had arranged to meet for CSS, and while the sun had finally started to fall behind the skyline, I was still wiped out from the day. CSS are a party band and I couldn't move. After 4 or 5 songs we decided to just sit down in the shade. What I saw was pretty good, it's too bad the circumstances were so awful.
CSS
Off to the big event, Radiohead. My first regret of the weekend was that I missed Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks. I caught the last 10 minutes and it sounded great.
Rob and I were able to get, well, not very close at all for Radiohead (Scott's review is pretty dead on - I love his account of the kids across the street from the festival). For the past 9 hours people had been pouring into the field, staking out their claim.
The show was pretty much exactly what you would expect. There were fancy, arts lights, they played In Rainbows and some other songs, and a good time was had by all. About the only thing that surprised me was as The Bends came to a close, fireworks began off to the left, over the Art Institute of Chicago. Through Everything In It's Right Place, and damn near choreographed through Fake Plastic Trees.
Radiohead (the bright green light off in the distance)
I had to pee, so we pretty much left to beat the crowds and go have real food during Dollars and Cents, missing the last four songs, including Optimistic, but that's OK. Before Radiohead went on I went to put contact lens re-wetting drops in my eyes, and it burned because I had actually packed ear medicine by mistake and dropped that in instead. 11 hours without running water and a contact lens in desperate need of a rinsing meant that missing some of an average Radiohead performance from a mile away wasn't that awful, actually.
Rob, Andy, Jen and I went to the big Scarce reunion show last Saturday night and they were pretty good! I took pictures.
Someone was wearing body glitter
The set was almost entirely old material - I thought there were 2 new songs, but I ran into Drew who cleared it up that one of them was one of Chick's solo tracks. There was no high or low moment that I can think of today.
I bought the Radiohead record for 10 pence. "Buy 5 of our records and get one free" is how I feel about that.
I was all excited for I Love New York 2 and it was slightly disappointing. Although "Sexier than a 10 piece dinner" is totally my new line to get Rob revved up.
Ugh - I can't believe how badly I need a template overhaul. I know I know I know, it's all my own fault for moving back to Blogger and thinking things would be easier but uglier [they are!]
So today's indie-rock make-out song is There There. Actually technically it should be Providence by Godspeed You! Black Emperor, but that's 30 minutes long with carefully crafted passages of silence, which were actually quite nice.
Yeah yeah yeah, too much information. Lollapalooza plans are still go, almost T minus 2 weeks. - they released a map of the place, which resolved some of my "what do I see" dilemmas [I see what's closest to where I will be!], and created a new Sophie's Choice, as I don't think I'll be able to catch both Modest Mouse and TV on the Radio as previously planned as they are playing opposite ends of the venue. TV on the Radio actually wins that match up, now that I've missed seeing them 4 times.
There was a flurry of text messaging last night trying to determine the following:
So last Friday was the big comedy show down at the South Shore Music Circus where Kathy Griffin played.
First of all, have you ever been to the South Shore Music Circus? It really is a circus tent! There was an opening act that was offensive and racist, and the people kind of liked it. See, the SSMC is kind of fucked up because a lot of people seem to have season tickets. The crowd was split evenly - loud suburbanites in loud clothing eating nachos, and gay guys pounding down frozen coctails in Capri Sun like packaging, cruising the bushes and the bathrooms. Downright surreal.
The show? It was OK. The SSMC is theater in the round, so the stage spun (I know, right?) and so half the time we were looking at her ass. Kathy Griffin is wonderful on a small screen in one hour chunks with commercial breaks. Really, I love it. However, having her scream at me for two uninterrupted hours was a bit much. Plus, everything - EVERYTHING - was just very very very VERY VERY GAY GAY GAY. I was completely gayed out by the end of it. It gave me a headache. Would I go see Kathy Griffin again? THE ANSWER IS PROBABLY NOT, BUT I STILL ENJOY HER TELEVISION PROGRAMMING!
In other news, the indie-rock make-out song for this past weekend was No Surprises by Marissa Nadler [feat. Black Hole Infinity]. Have I told you that the Stereogum OK Computer tribute record is fierce? Amazing? I won't say every track gets it [looking askance towards "Exit Music [for a film]"], but almost all of the interpretations are downright delicate and beautiful. David Bazan's "Let Down" - better that the original? Of course not, that would be heresy - damn close though.
I assure you it is one of the best records this year. I haven't even spun the new Interpol yet, I'm too busy wearing the grooves out on this one. AND IT'S FREE.
My mind changed me so much I cant even trust myself
0 comments Published by keith on 7.11.2007 at 15:14I usually don't jump onto things like this, but Stereogum has assembled? arranged? compiled? what looks to be a pretty amazing tribute to Radiohead's OK Computer featuring some of my favorite bands - The Twilight Sad [Climbing Up The Walls], David Bazan [Let Down], Doveman [Airbag]. Some bands I know about - My Brightest Diamond [Lucky], Cold War Kids [Electioneering], John Vanderslice [Karma Police]. Some bands that will be new to me - as I type this up I'm getting a little chubby - I'd pay for this, and it's free and legal.
Found, oddly enough, via. I don't even read Stereogum, are you shocked?
In other news, The Twilight Sad are playing in Somerville next week. And as it turns out, independently both Rob and I had planned on going. Rob is the 'missed connection' from the Psychic TV show a month or so ago, also inspiring the latest batch of .mp3s in the, uh, "indie rock make-out song" series. Today's? Beetlebum [live] from Blur. Indie rock make-out party, indeed.
In other news, *sigh*. Dog fucks baby. In the Ass. I can't even begin, however I do recommend reading the comments with the story.
I'm pretty busy this week, all night and day. The song for yesterday? Radiohead's Everything In It's Right Place. Today's song is Lori Carson's Something's Got Me.
I was thinking maybe someday I might like to write about myself here.