Kari pretty much ordered us a set of Riot Fest tickets as soon as she saw this year's line-up. There wasn't many current acts, but it was chock full of bands we would've gone to 10+ years ago if we had money... or knew that we liked going to shows. I'd barely seen any of these people play before, but was definitely into a ton of them at least one point in my life.

After watching Lollapalooza get a bigger and bigger, molly fueled, EDM crowd over the last 10 years, the crowd at Riot Fest was a much welcomed change. Almost everyone there knew how to go to a show and navigate crowds without being a huge dick. Everyone was still partying, dancing, and having a good time, but the vibe, older crowd and smaller fest was just super awesome.

Add …

This was one of the weaker lineups I've seen at Lollapalooza, but out of tradition, we of course still went. On top of a few great shows, we got to hang out with good family and friends, eat some good food, enjoy a few cocktails, and shop on Milwaukee Ave. Here's who we saw...

Friday

Kari's dad joined us so that he could see Paul McCartney, which was awesome.

• Father John Misty - I have no idea who this is, but we caught part of this set while waiting for Hot Chip. They were talented, but the lead singer talked a lot and was pretty weird.
• Hot Chip - super fun, live. I love their drummer and I want their lead singer's chrome shorts.
• DJ Snake - haha. Ridiculous. Perry's stage has gotten outta control. The college EDM scene is just taking over…

So when Kari was diagnosed with MS last fall, no joke, one of the first things she asked me (nearly in tears) from her hospital bed was, "what are we going to do about lollapalooza?" Not even lying, she wanted to know that if she wasn't able to walk anymore, I'd be able to get her to the front like the guy we saw at Kendrick Lamar last year. It sounds totally cheesy, but live music is just something we do and it's been a huge part of our relationship.

Well, fast forward 10 crazy months and aside from needing an arm through some rough terrain, Lollapalooza was absolutely no thang for Kari. No handicapped pass was needed, we had a blast, saw some amazing shows, walked ~60,000 steps, and hung out with some good friends.

As far as music …

Didn't have the best lineup ever, but it was definitely better than 2012… Add in not having a crazy job to pull me back to the office, a free place to stay, the beautiful weather, and the amount of butts hanging out of daisy duke mom jorts, this turned out to be one of the best lollapalooza experiences so far.

Here's how it went...

Friday

• Crystal Castles - This was my 3rd time seeing them. Their producer, Ethan is amazing and Alice is batshit crazy on stage… smoking, drinking jameson out of the bottle, and just putting on a great show. They sounded awesome.
• Theophilus London - was a nice surprise. He sounded great and sort of quick mixed his set which made things fun and let us hear a ton of songs. He actually moved a bit too fast and …

I'll start off by saying that the weirdest part about lollapalooza this year was the line-up. I wasn't really stoked about ANY of the headliners and kinda "meh" about most of the other shows. This has never really happened to me on any other year. However, I'm living in Chicago right now and couldn't pass up the ease of going to the festival.

Here's how things went...

Friday

I obviously had to work on getting that President re-elected, but was able to sneak out and catch some music in my downtime. Actually, The Head and The Heart came to perform IN our office, but I missed most of their performance for a meeting, which was a bummer.

The other shows I saw were...

• Anamanguchi - I took a lunch break to check out this 8-bit rock …

The 20 year anniversary of Lollapalooza, my 5th year at the festival, the 30th anniversary of my life, and the turning point of a pretty major change in my (and Kari's) life. We had some huge milestones going on this year... all of which sort of overshadowed each other, and moved too fast for me to fully appreciate them like I should have.

Either way, Lollapalooza was a giant, super expensive blast again this year. There's the standard eating of great foods, dealing with crowds, late night dinners and even later night partying, so I won't get into all that… but here's a breakdown of the shows we saw this year.

Friday

• Tinie Tempah sounded great. We only stayed for a few songs of his set, but I wish we would've stayed longer.
• Skrillex was …

Soooo, Lollapalooza is starting to make some really nice changes.

First of all, the space. They expanded the fest grounds across Columbus (adding 4 city blocks of space) and moved some of the small stages over there. It definitely, definitely opened things up and made the entire weekend much more comfortable. Everyone was gushing over the new grounds.

Secondly the water. They made a big effort this year to conserve bottles - so there was no more $3 smart water or wedging your water bottle into the crappy fountains. You could buy a little cardboard water bottle thing (or bring your own bottle) and get it filled for free at all these Event Water stations. We loved it.

And most importantly, the shows..

Friday

• Devo - The dudes a…

Let me start off on a negative note by saying that Lollapalooza 2009 was the worst Lollapalooza I've been to. I mean, it wasn't awful or anything, I just think we got spoiled in 2006 and 2007. The artists this year weren't as good, we missed a lot of acts due to traveling, we didn't go to any afterparties, we didn't get to see many friends, and the weather was rough. ...Aside from all that though - It was still pretty awesome and I'm really glad we went. We got to hang out with Jon and Liz quite a bit, had Sushi Wabi, heard a ton of good music, and of course, got to visit our favorite city - Chicago.

So everything started Friday morning when we (slowly) busted out of Cedar Rapids (late). By the time we got to Lollapalooza we'd …

I meant to blog about this year's 80/35 festival a lot sooner but never got around to it.

For those that don't know - Des Moines started a music festival last year called 80/35. It showcases both big names and local groups in an effort to listen to awesome music, party, and promote music culture in the Des Moines area.

Last year I was super impressed with the festival - We had the Flaming Lips, The Roots, and an amazing effort put on by the organizers. I don't want to discount the organizers this year, because it is obvious that they worked crazy hard again... but the festival seemed to progress far less than I expected.

The things I was disappointed in...

• The Weather - obviously out of everyone's hands, but rain definitely puts a …

I sorta feel like I could sue someone's pants off Napster style, but obviously I'm not going to try; because I like Harper and I like Metallica.

So let me explain.

I bought the new Metallica CD today - Death Magnetic. And once I got it, I immediately opened the CD up and started flipping through the coffin booklet... which sort of resembles a hairy vagina on the cover, but that's beside the point.

There's a die-cut coffin through the entire booklet of album art and with each page, the coffin gets smaller and smaller. All of the pages have fancy, professional photos along with lyrics to the songs. It's really a great booklet. The album art is really well done.

Once you get to the last page - the bottom of the coffin - there's a bright …

This event is ridiculous - and not necessarily in a good way. I remember the first year I went - in 03 I was pretty excited about such an "urban" music festival. But at that point, I was a bedroom DJ myself, fresh out of college, and had never been to a real music event like lollapalooza - or even 80/35. I know, bad comparison, but still. I'm comparing success to - not success.

How do you expect an event to be successful if you can't pay any of your acts? You scrape up enough cash to cover the cost of the event and fly in a headliner... but everyone else... how do you expect reputable, good DJs to come out and perform when you can't even throw them $100?

Everything at 515alive this year was unorganized. Did you see a map …

First of all, if you didn't buy tickets for the 80/35 Music festival, then you missed out on a great fest. And thanks for supporting the local live music scene, assholes. Des Moines' live music scene hasn't been successful because of you.

So now that that's out of the way. 80/35 was excellent for its first year. Des Moines made a huge effort to pull this thing off and it really showed. Thanks a ton to the organizers and everyone who supported it. I can't wait for next year.

The bands I saw...

• Andrew Bird - Not really my kind of music, but he was pretty good. He seemed to have a lot of fans, which is important.
• Flatform - A couple local DJ kids. Finally. This scene is creeping into Des Moines. I run with kids/DJs like this when …

I haven't blogged in a minute, but last night as I was sitting at Trans Siberian Orchestra, I decided to whip up a quick blog on my phone. So first, here's an update...

Nothing too big has happened. I've been hanging out, working, going out, and scraping ice/snow off everything.
If you haven't already seen, here are some pics from last weekend's randomness.
Oh, and I sold my car for not enough money... but whatever. It should finally be out of my garage next week.

So anyway, the real reason I'm blogging is to talk about my experience at the Trans Siberian Orchestra.

Last night, Kari and I met Nick and Nicole at Dos Rios for dinner, which was good, filling, and not cheap. Then, we all had tickets to go check out Trans …

My last 2 birthdays have been the most insanely awesome/draining weekends ever. My birthday, in Chicago, on Lollapalooza weekend. The best thing about this year was that I saw every band that I had written down to see, except for silverchair. I even saw some shows on conflicting schedules, yessss.

However, my feet always kill me during the entire weekend. I either need some better walking shoes or a better walking job. I sit way to much for walking 1.5 miles from the hotel to the park, which is 3/4 mile from end to end. I bet during lollapalooza weekend I walk 20-30 miles, which is about 1 mile for every pound of food I probably eat.

Anyway... here's how the weekend went.

Thursday

We got into town and went to visit Harper …

So last week seemed super not productive. I really can't think of anything good that I got done aside from entertainment and such so I'm currently checking my Twitter just to figure out wtf I've done lately, hahaha.

OK...

Last Wednesday, I picked up Minnis and met Nick for a hip hop show at Vaudeville. It was a good time as always. I think Minnis had fun too. We saw some pretty amazing homemade lights for this instrumental band.

Then Friday, Zach and I got invited to this last minute Yakuza party. Yakuza is basically a Japanese mafia. They wear fancy suits and have ridiculous tattoos all over their upper bodies. Try to imagine the Crazy 88s from Kill Bill - except real and without masks. So the plan was to meet at Vertigo …

What an insane birthday. Seriously. And now that my life is 1/3 over, my insurance should go down now, ha. W00t.

Ok. Thursday, kari and I went to my parents' house for pizza, hanging out, etc.

Friday morning, we met my grandparents for breakfast, then headed into chicago for lollapalooza - my birthday present from kari. First we got the hotel - on the 37th floor of the grand Marriott on Michigan ave - my birthday present from jeff. Then we headed to lollapalooza, checked out the grounds, met up with the DSM peeps, and ended friday's fest with Ween. What a live show - incredible.

Later, we all met up @ Sushi Wabi for my bday dinner, which was amazing as usual.

After dinner we went to Sonotheque to see lady sovereign play. …

My shelves are (mostly) done (again)!!! Haha.

So yeah... Thursday, Rico and I finished spraying the shelves in my office - well, Rico did anyway. I just built the big ol tent and let the pro finish the work. Then I took half of Friday off to finsh sanding, assembling, and stocking them. I'm super happy with how they turned out. ...Now, I just need to make doors for the cabinets. Here are pics of all the construction so far.

Later Friday, Zach and I installed a new intake in his focus then Soaped a bit with Nathan. At Midnight, Nathan and I headed downtown to meet the Heelys guys and go out for a couple drinks, which ended up being a mini-party at my house, playing ping pong and soaping til 4:30am.

Saturday was also really …

Oh man. I have successfully eaten 18 pounds of food again. I am about to pop. I hope that I fit into my tux for Zach's wedding, haha. I think I gained 10 pounds since I gave him my measurements... whoops.

Anyway, this weekend was pretty decent. I went to cky with Kevi at the House of Bricks on Friday. It was a fairly laid back show - maybe due to Kevi's gf being there. Maybe due to us not having enough money to have drinks, ha. ... But overall, a good time. The 2nd band was straight up METAL. I mean, metal. It was nice, but hurt my ears a bit - speaking of which, Dillinger Escape Plan is here soon too, hmmm. So yeah, we met Jess Margera which was kinda rad.

Saturday, my parents showed up and brought me a trampoline which …

Oh man, the past couple weeks have been insane. Work has been pretty stressful - a lot of weird things are happening, but they're panning out to be not so bad. Regardless though, it's prompted me to start updating my portfolio. Here's what I've got so far... yeah there's still a lot to do. I think it's probably important to always keep your portfolio and resume up to date, I'm gonna try to stay on top of that more.

Besides that, Soul Position and Kill Hannah were awesome last week. It was nice to hang out with Greg a bit. Jeff and I also got the homebrew kegged, w00t! I'm pretty excited for that. I got co2 yesterday... and we're still trying to figure out good refrigeration. Our current cooler sucks - it's either freezing or …

The last week was pretty nice with a couple sort of crazy things. To start out, Kevi and Stacy split up on Monday which was like, "WHOA." Everyone's still sort of in shock it. So Kevi came over to hang out for a bit/get out of the house. Then I went out to play pool with Nathan/Chuck. Tuesday, Kari and I went out to 43 for "V-Day." It ruled - I ate a deer. Later we met up with some friends @ Star Bar.

Thursday, Zach and I went to NIN @ Wells Fargo Arena. Moving Units opened, which was this band that sounded like a mix between Kill Hannah and the Cure. I liked them. Then NIN came on - it was a flat out rock show. I mean, the first hour or so was all old, fast stuff, all loud. Toward the end they did stuff from their new CD. …