The Dead Part of You

I'm in this weird "buyers remorse" over the car this week - did I buy too much car for me to handle? I'm trying to cut down on expenses, so I dumped premium cable channels, which didn't really make a difference since I then picked up a World of Warcraft account again. I'm trying not to buy records, but this week there were 3[!] iTunes exclusives I just had to own. Lollapalooza live sets were finally released, and in a way I got lucky - most of what I wanted wasn't released, and the two things I did were pretty cheap EPs - The Polyphonic Spree [4 tracks] and Sparklehorse [3 tracks]. Even if you didn't go there may be stuff there you want.

And this past Tuesday, New Order did an exclusive in the studio thing, re-recording old songs and interviews or whatever - I bought it [duh] but haven't listened to it yet. Ooh, bonus! The trailer for Control, in English finally.

If I was buying more records, I would have bought the new Akron/Family disc - I still might, since I'm going to their show tonight. Greg Davis is playing with them and doing an opening set, which sealed the deal for my attendance. I'm guessing I'll leave there with something.

Also today, Jimmy Eat World pre-sale tickets. I'm in row A of the mezzanine at the Orpheum. That means front row up top, bitches. It's the same week as The Decemberists and Bob Mould - actually they all take place in the space of 4 days. So all the complaining I do about being all kinds of busy with life ain't nothing yet.

ALSO, I won an eBay auction for a copy of Park and Shop. Isn't eBay's new ad campaign freaking brilliant? It IS better when you win it!

I'm all caught up so I was playing me some Tip Top when I realized WAIT! I went to a music festival 2 weeks ago and have not written down the experience in my web log yet!

Lollapalooza Friday started out with a long line in direct sunlight. It was not too humid, however I did crack into my water before even entering the gates. Upon entering, I went right over to Elvis Perkins in Dearland. I'd heard a few songs I liked, and his live show was good too. A cross between American Music Club and The Decemberists maybe. He also gets props for standing up to the asshole stage manager who tried to throw them off at 12:15 instead of 12:30.

While You Were Sleeping is definitely my favorite track.

From there I went over to Colour Revolt, and also received my first introduction to Beatle Bob, who I seriously thought was Mike Myers as Austin Powers. He gave them a real goofy introduction.

Colour Revolt were - OK. I was pretty psyched to see them - I still adore the EP. Live, I wound up just sitting back in the shade - there really wasn't enough there for me to even stand up to watch them. It sounded fine I suppose, I think I just had my hopes set way too high, thinking they were the second coming of Slint or something.

I went back over to one of the big ["Bud Light"] stages to see The Polyphonic Spree. Remember how much I loved them when I saw them a few weeks ago? This time, I think I loved them even more.

In some ways it was "Polyphonic Lite", as they only had an hour to play. They came out in their Fragile Army uniforms and ran through about 30 minutes of hits. Since there weren't enough people on stage, Beatle Bob showed up for a song, and another had 12 members of the Chicago Tap Theater. At 3PM, Tim announced "This is our last song", and couldn't keep a straight face, following up with "Well, we need time to go get changed!" They got into their robes and actually did a run-through the crowd before taking the stage again. I hadn't been expecting a costume change in such a short set, and if they were going to run through, I figured they'd just stay behind the barriers.



POLYPHONIC SPREE! You were the BEST thing I saw all day Friday! You were the THIRD BEST thing I saw all weekend! Congratulations to you!

The sun hadn't faded at all yet on Friday, [I was rockin' the sunscreen]. Polyphonic Spree playing on a main stage with no shade, and with all the dancing, singing and arm waving amongst 5000 other people, I was starting to get that 'festival' feeling, which is actually just a fancy way of saying 'fatigue' or 'dehydration' but NO TIME TO REST because as soon as the Spree ended, Sparklehorse started up across the field...

[to be continued]

Confetti!

So Tuesday night was the big cult-rock show at Avalon. Polyphonic Spree played, and someone named Jesca Hoop opened [she was a bit much].

Polyphonic Spree started around 9ish - there was a pretty dramatic entrance to a lot of pre-recorded music that went on for like 15 minutes. And then.

If you are at a concert that opens with confetti guns, you are only at the best concert ever.

So I'm not all familiar with Polyphonic Spree - I know there are like a million members in the band [actual number in Boston: I counted 23]. I know they play simple anthemic chant-like sing along pop songs. I know they like uniforms.



About 5 seconds into their set I was totally ready to drink the Kool-Aid. Sign me up. If these cats are all just high on sun and air, uniforms and choreography SIGN ME UP. For the next 2 hours I clapped, I waved my hands, I sang along. I thought about joining a cult - but you know? I'd be that cult member - the one all the others talked about. "She don't want to get out of bed and do choreography, AGAIN". Or - "Her uniform all wrinkled, don't she know how to iron?" In my head, it was a cult of drag queens, which is why they called me "she".


Tim DeLaughter, our leader. Or leadr, in Web 2.0 speak

But you know what the best part of the show was? Even better than confetti guns? All my friends. For whatever reason, the planets and stars aligned and I wound up at this show in the middle of seven good friends. We staked our claim on space and a good time was had by all.

For the encore, almost as long as the main set, the robes came out:



And the high point of the encore, the show? Lithium. For reals - and I'm so not a Nirvana fan, but how can you not jump up and down sing along to this with the people in robes?

I'm so lonely but thats okay, I shaved my head ...
And I'm not sad

It made me so happy. If I don't come back from Chicago this August, it's because I'm in a robe selling flowers at O'Hare. Bring hoverbikes.

Did I mention that I read that OJ book last Saturday. My snark title [and there's enough material in there to create a snark title generator] is "If I Did It - It's Because She Deserved It".

I wasn't all up in the OJ trial - too busy being above such things - however, now I completely understand why people thought he was such an arrogant prick.

The Polyphonic Spree were absolutely amazing last night - pics and details tomorrow. Did I mention my missed connection from a few weeks ago - connected? I have to go find some kind of "First Date" wiki for tonight...