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 …

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 …

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. …