Lollapalooza 2013

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 blew through his set with about 10 minutes to spare… so he just "went block party on us" and had his DJ play his 2 favorite tracks: Migos - Versace and Jay Z – FuckWithMeYouKnowIGotIt while everyone just danced around and acted ridiculous. It was awesome.
• Queens of the Stone Age - Again, this was my 3rd time seeing these dudes. They sound great as always and put on a good show - just nonstop rocking. Josh Homme is ridiculously talented.
• Hot Chip - sounded amazing and looked like they were having a blast on stage which made this an all around fun show. I love the lead singer's voice, even if it doesn't fit his rap star look. I also love that they had a girl drummer that didn't have the cliché grungy drummer look. Just a normal, pretty girl with pretty, long brown hair… and she was awesome.
• NIN - This was my 2nd time seeing NIN and to be honest I was a little let down. I mean, they sounded great… like, so good that the show barely felt like a show… it was almost like listening to an album. I was disappointed in the visuals. 1. They didn't have the jumbotron screens on, which sucked because you could barely see the stage or the show from anywhere we stood. 2. The stage effects weren't as good as I was expecting and nowhere near the With Teeth tour I saw them at.
• Lana Del Ray - I love her voice and when I could hear it, she sounded amazing… but, I had to leave after about 3 songs because I couldn't deal with the folk girls with flowers in their hair all around me singing their hearts out. I hate sing-a-longs. I want to hear the damn artist.
• Steve Aoki - was awesome and hilarious. Just straight raging while being completely full of himself. The last time I saw him was at a tiny Martini bar in 2006. It was fun to watch him rock the big stage.

After the show, Kari and I went out for some beer and pizza then called it a night.

Saturday

We sorta spent the day celebrating my birthday. Started off with lunch and drinks with Jamie and Drea, then Kari took me shopping for jeans and a new bag. After that, we popped into the fest to see…

• Kendrick Lamar - got a little slow a few times during the show but overall, it was awesome and super fun. The highlight for me was when a dude in a wheelchair crowd surfed all the way to the front. Kendrick just sorta stopped the show for a minute, made sure the audience kept him up, then went right back to rocking. When the dude got to the front, security of course got him down and started to escort him off, like they do… but Kendrick made security leave him up front to party. It was awesome.
• Dada Life - made us dance. It was fun as shit
• Steve Angelo - kept us dancing. Still fun as shit

Afterwards we went out to meet a bunch of friends at Rainbo club then continued partying at Debonair til 3am. Saturday was a good day.

Sunday

Started off with some brunch in Wrigleyville with Iowa friends. Then, we made our way back to the fest for...

• Two Door Cinema Club - isn't really my style, but listening to them for a bit didn't suck
• Jillionaire of Major Lazer - was randomly just DJing off of one of the paths in some small tent with like 10 people in it. We popped in for a bit and it was awesome
• Alt-J - was chill and sounded good, but wasn't really my mood.
• Dog Blood - Boys Noize and Skrillex? Yes, please. I expected this show to be a lot better than it was, but since they weren't quick mixing their tracks, it was easy to get bored
• Beach House - Whoa. I had no idea the lead singer was a girl until this show, hahaha. She sounded absolutely amazing live. This was a great show.
• 2 Chainz - was hilarious, but just sounded absolutely terrible. I could only deal with a few songs after leaving the amazing Beach House show.
• Major Lazer - was bonkers. Girls twerkin on stage to bubble butt and release yourself... Nonstop party.
• The Cure - I don't know much about these dudes but they played some hits and sounded awesome. I'm definitely glad I can say that I've seen them live.
• Phoenix - sounded good but we mistakenly bolted early after feeling a couple rain drops and had no rain gear…

Then, we hopped back to the condo for a bit and I shipped Kari back to Des Moines via Megabus while I get to hang out in Chicago and work for a few more days.

<3 Lollapalooza weekend. Such a whirlwind of awesomeness.

Photos coming soon, hopefully.