lollapalooza 2008

this year was the fourth year that lollapalooza took over grant park in chicago. and dave and i have been lucky enough to attend all four. we once again were blessed enough to have mom and dad watch the boys and a free place to stay at matt, amy and elias hader's.
the weather was close to perfect being in the mid 80's and sunny all weekend long. it got a little warm standing in the middle of the field watching bands, but it just helped with my tan, so i'm not going to complain!
we started the long weekend by going to a car dealership to fill out the paperwork for our new car (a dodge mini van....yes, i said dodge. and i also said mini van. it's called cheap payments....give me a call when you get the explorers down a bit, ford.)
because it was the last day of the month AND the last day that chrysler was leasing vehicles there was a LONG processing wait. how long? you ask. well, we arrived around 5:30pm. we waited about 45 minutes and were told to go get something to eat (we also had the boys with us thinking it wouldn't take too long). we went to eat, came back to the dealership, filled out paper work and a little after 8pm were told to go downstairs to wait for the final processing. nobody really explained anything after that. after waiting another 45 minutes and with the kids getting restless and still needing to be dropped off to mom and dads i finally left to meet my mom at my house.
when my mom got there i loaded up the boys stuff, their car seats, scooters, clothes, and them. i then cleaned out the fusion so that would be ready to go. i quickly headed to the gas station where i texted dave thinking he most certainly had to be done and waiting for me as it was after 10pm now. nope....still hadn't even gotten the paperwork.
so i get to the dealership where i wait it out with him. we eventually find out chrysler must ok every loan and because of the volume they were doing, that meant hours of waiting. we finally got the final papers, signed then and left the dealership (without our car, mind you) at 11:15pm. we still had to get home and pack, plus dave had some work stuff he had to take care of.
weekend off to a great start.
we end up leaving the house friday morning at about 6:45am and headed to ann arbor to pick up jim who is an intern at dave's work. from there we drove awhile before stopping for breakfast at what was jim's first encounter with a cracker barrel. he loved it. and so did we.
the trip seemed to go pretty smoothly and we made it to chicago and into grant park just after 12:15.
jim and dave headed to the south side of the park to check out holy fudge as we will refer to them in this family oriented blog and i headed to the north side to check out the black lips. dave had the backpack which housed my camera so i didn't get any shots of their set, but it was really tight. dave and jim also highly recommend holy fudge.
as i was passing by the citi stage trying to meet back up with dave and jim for the rogue wave set i caught some of manchester orchestra who sounded phenomenal and i'm bummed i didn't get to hear more than one song. they are definitely a band i'll be using my itunes gift card on though.
as soon as i came down the steps to the myspace page i could see this year was going to be far more crowded than years past. in fact, i do believe i heard that all three days sold out this year. that's insane. what's even more insane is that i was in the middle of it and really only had 1 panic attack and it wasn't even a horrible one. i mean, i didn't even punch anybody the whole weekend!

DAY 1-FRIDAY, AUGUST 1, 2008

after some failed text messages and screaming into the phone i finally was able to track dave down and we all found a seat a ways from the rogue wave stage. they have quite a few songs i dig, but the set wasn't very inspiring and i'd most definitely miss it the next time around.
this is where we sat for most of rogue wave. apparently at one point jim asked dave if he ever felt old at a place like this. i asked dave if he punched him.
before rogue wave came on we met up with rachel greene for just a few minutes for what was the first time but not the last:
we also spotted this guy. the first to make it in my lolla cast of characters:
after rogue wave we saw a little bit of yeasayer, but not enough to give a review on. we then headed to the other end of the park to get our first helping of guacamole and chips from adobo grill which i wrote about last year as well. they are so good i have no problem giving them free advertising on this here blog that 4.2 readers enjoy. so readers, if you are ever in chicago, be sure to go to adobo grill and get their guac. even if you don't like guacamole you will like this. just ask dave.
after our order of guac we headed back over to the south side to watch the kills. another decent show, but after a bit we headed to the at&t blue room to cool down for a bit.





at this point, jim wasn't feeling very good so dave went to get him something to eat and drink. after awhile he told us to go over and watch the gogol bordello show and that he'd be ok. so we left him half passed out on the picnic table outside the blue room. what can i say...we left our kids/responsibilities at home.
gogol boredllo was quite the entertaining show that all who know of them would imagine. just a good fun show.



gogol bordello is where we found our 2nd character of the weekend. a character that looked, dressed, walked, and did everything else EXACTLY like our friend jacob varty:
after leaving that stage we went to check on jim before going to check out mates of state. jim was no longer at the picnic table which then led to about 5 unreturned text messages to jim and plans to go check out the medic tent if he didn't surface in a bit.
so dave and i camp out right behind the wheelchair ramp which turned out to be our favorite spot for most all of the shows (if we could get there in time). nobody standing directly in front of you which meant you could actually see and get some decent pictures.
before mates of state came on dave suddenly yells "dude, that's the jorts guy!" no way. "yeah, it is" and he went running after him.
for those of you that read my blog last year you know of the snow patrol jort dancers. probably the greatest part of the entire weekend. because they were so amazing i'm posting the video yet again so you don't need to hunt for it.



so it turns out it WAS one of the jort guys. that's who i'm married to. the guy that can pick anyone out of a crowd of 50,000. we talked to him a bit and it appears that he finally was able to get onto my blog to check out how great they really were. he said he and the other jorts guy would be there the next day, possibly in jorts, but we never caught up with them again. maybe next year.
after that excitement we settled down to watch the mates of state set. i tried to video "get better" for hayden as that is his new favorite song, but apparently i didn't know what i was doing and i didn't get it.




we didn't have to do a ton of walking on day one as most of the shows we wanted to see were on the south side. so when mates of state were finished we simply turned to the nearest stage to watch the bloc party set.


at this point, we still hadn't heard from jim. so dave, being the responsible one, headed out to find him while i walked over to the myspace stage to watch stephen malkmus and the jicks. a guy standing next to me turned to me and told me how much he loved stephen malkmus after hearing probably 2 minutes worth of his music. he had never heard of him before but at one point he told me he sounded just like santana (no he didn't). then a song later he told me he sounded just like led zepplin (no once again).
dave eventually found jim safe and sound after checking in the medic tent where jim never did actually go. turns out there was a major block on text messages during the afternoon and jim didn't get any of the ones we sent. thankfully he was feeling much better, as were we, seeing as though we didn't just leave him to die all alone.






after stephen malkmus was the show everyone came for. radiohead. we're not a middle of the crowd kind of people so we stayed towards the back and just enjoyed the music. after a bit when people started leaving we were able to move up enough that when i took pictures you could actually see that there was someone on the stage.
i don't know why you hate detroit so much, thom, but please come here sometime soon. please.

this is called "way too many people":
and even more:
radiohead was totally playing behind us:
no zoom on. that's how far back we originally were:

moved forward a bit and could saw that they actually were on stage:










DAY 2-SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 2008

we woke up saturday morning and were able to finally meet elias hader, who just turned 11 weeks old. most babies don't like me, but elias couldn't keep his eyes off of me. we once again didn't manage to get a picture of the hader family before we left as we don't see them but a couple of hours before heading out the door for another day of shows. but we are so grateful for their hospitality.
we all headed out for our annual skiver/hader breakfast to a restaurant where one of the "top chefs" from the tv show works at. it was a delicious breakfast and as always, it was great to spend some time with matt and amy.
we were then off again to grant park where the first show of the day would be the gutter twins. but first we stopped off at the kids stage and watched about 10 minutes of the brickheadz break dance for a bit. we saw them 4 years ago at the first chicago lollapalooza and they are still as amazing as they were then. we're thinking of signing hayden up for the detroit crew.






this was the mass of people for the dr. dog set which we caught a bit of and weren't into much at all. but we did find jimmy morski (jim as apparently everybody else now calls him but me) so that made it all worthwhile:

and from there it was the show we had been waiting for. the gutter twins. we were able to get there plenty early and ended up standing about 5 rows behind the stage so we got a TON of great pictures.
before the gutter twins came on stage i received a text message from jessica stating my mom had just taken my dad to urgent care as he had hopped on hayden's brand new scooter, hit a crack and fell over the handle bars busting open his chin and having jaw and neck pains. apparently he needed some stitches (or maybe they just glued it) on his chin but other than that it was just some scrapes and soreness.



these pictures are the best when you click on them...you can see half of the crowd in his guitar:

jack white?!:












after the gutter twins was another show i had been really excited to see, mgmt. unfortunately, it was a show everyone else wanted to see as well. oh yeah, remember when i said i had 1 panic attack? i must have blocked this one out. we ended up getting stuck in the middle of the madness and couldn't get out. there were people EVERYWHERE. i swear that everyone in the park went to see mgmt. we finally made our way out and headed all the way to the back. we only stuck around for about 2 songs because we were so far back that the other stage noise started to bleed over. bummer, cuz i really did want to see them. i got a couple shots before we bailed.

saturday was a slow day as there weren't a ton of bands that we HAD to see. so after the mgmt debacle we decided to head to the north end where we found a nice bench in the shade and we sat there while we ate lunch and listened to explosions in the sky, okkervil river and broken social scene. while sitting on our bench we had several visitors coming and going. jimmy morski joined us for a bit, jim (feeling much better on day 2), and my high school friend damien thompson met up with us here before heading off to do more press photos.


after a couple of hours of sitting we decided to head over to perry's stage (named after perry farrell, the founder of lollapalooza and front man in janes addicition) where we danced to the mixin's of dj am most commonly known for being nichole richies ex-boyfriend. but he is also quite the fun dj. unfortunately we had to miss dj momjeans aka danny masterson because he was spinning the same time as rage.




and this is where we ran into character number 3. he had some hot dance moves that once again i thought i got on video, but turns out i was doing it all wrong. total bummer because you really would have enjoyed it, but the pictures aren't too shabby either:

from perry's stage we headed over to watch a tiny bit of sharon jones and the dap-kings whom dave LOVED and was so bummed that he didn't get to watch more of. he said he'll definitely be checking them out if them come around these parts any time soon. super tight and funky set.
while at sharon jones we found character number 4 and i felt like calling up stacy and clinton from what not to wear:
so we end up leaving sharon jones early so that we can actually find the seats that were being saved for us by another high school friend, sarah rittner for the rage set. sarah and i used to walk through the halls of novi high school shouting rage lyrics to each other so it was nice to be each other's dates to that set. the set was good, although far too quiet, as was radiohead the nite before. if you're at a show, you shouldn't be able to hold a conversation at a normal volume...especially a rage show, but we could. so that was the one major bummer of the weekend. the headliners were far too quiet.









in the middle of the rage set dave yelled at me to "go take a picture of the guy in the garbage can" it was pitch dark so i couldn't even see anything and then there was a group of people around which made it even tougher. this is the only picture i got but he was pretty much character number 5 as he put himself in the garbage can at the end of the day on PURPOSE:
damien was up front taking press shots of rage and at the end of the show he just randomly bumped into us again. so we stood and talked for a bit while we let the place clear out a bit to help prevent another panic attack. it's like novi high school all over again. me, damien and sarah:
despite the hundreds of garbage and recycle bins throughout the park this is what it looked like at the end of the nite:
after a large majority of the crowd had cleared out, it was still this crowded:
DAY 3-SUNDAY, AUGUST 3, 2008

we woke up early on sunday morning in order to meet rachel for breakfast before the shows started. rachel wasn't that familiar with places in the area but knew where "the bean" was which is something we have been told we just had to go see. so we decided there wasn't a more perfect spot to meet up at than the bean. we were told for "a real treat" we needed to stand directly in the middle of said bean. let me tell you, it was a real treat. after the photo op at the bean we then headed to a little italian cafe where we had a delicious breakfast. it was great to hang out with rachel outside of the lolla environment.




all weekend long we were pumped to see the whigs so we headed over to the stage early enough to get some great standing spots well in front of the wheelchair ramp. they put on a terrific rock and roll show. the bass player (although now i'm noticing i only have a couple shots of him playing bass, most are of him playing guitar) was total rock and seemed like someone you just wanted to hug. i now have a crush on him. oh, and they're from athens georgia. of course they are:














after the whigs set we headed back to the kids stage to check out the brickheadz one last time since they are so great. we totally got rachel hooked and i believe she'll be checking out these videos every day:












a bit after the brickheadz were through, the black kids were going to be playing. someone we really wanted to check out. but perry farrell and "special guest" were going to be playing a short 15 minute set on the kids stage. so since we had a good spot and we were there we decided to stick around for a few. that was the best decision we made all weekend.
when perry was getting ready to come out some dude comes out to introduce them. i am totally forgetting there is a "special guest" and am going into my bag to get my camera out when he introduces "perry farrell and slash" i think he's saying perry farrell (/) slash until dave looks at me and says..."dude, it's SLASH". that was a priceless set.
they only played 4 songs. superstition, knockin' on heaven's door, mountain song and jane says. but before each song perry offers up a little explanation for each song to the children. before superstition he explained to the kids about "voodoo and black magic" but after the song said "see kids, superstition is just supersticious."
and apparently before knockin' on heaven's door he was telling the kids how they are just learning about life and how great it is but that one day you die. he then told all the boys to look around, that there were lots of pretty ladies around them. that they are rock stars and there are always pretty girls around. oh perry.
so here are shots of the once in a lifetime show. i taped the entire knockin' on heaven's door which i think was about 5 minutes and 40 seconds. that means my arms were up in the air that long. so if you want to complain about a crappy video job, come a little closer so i can stab you in the eye.









after that set we were pretty late for the black kids. we did head over to the stage for a few since it was right next door but the sound was pretty bad so we just stuck around for a song or two. and let's be honest, they're no slash.

where are we at now? character number 6? i don't feel like going back through as i have been working on this blog all day now. so let's call it 6. after the black kids we headed back to the south side to get some more adobo guacamole (1 a day you know...we're healthy like that) there was a table with just one guy sitting there. that should have immediately tipped us off. but we sat anyway. he was special, to say the least. other people would come sit for a bit and would leave relatively quickly. the first thing he said? when we were sitting down i said "next year i need to bring baby wipes to clean the tables down" the kid asked me what i said i needed to bring next year and to that he replied "i haven't worried about personal hygene all weekend" "really? is that why you're sitting alone?" dave asked. we stayed for far too long.
we made our way back to the south side to check out gnarls barkley for a bit before heading BACK to the north side to see the national and then nine inch nails. dave saw gnarls barkley 2 years ago while i passed and went to see sonic youth. dave swore that the gnarls show was one of the best that he'd seen. so since nothing else was really playing at the same time as them i decided to go. it was fine. just not my thing. nothing horribly special in my opinion. so after a few songs i left to make the long journey back to the north end and get some decent standing spots for the national.



on my way over to see the national i got stuck in a MAJOR jam (oops, guess i forgot about this panic attack as well...that would make 3...although they were relativley small) at the small side stage where girl talk was about to go on. apparently they had the mgmt following and everyone was there and there was NO way around them. i pushed my way through and finally got to the stage and took the spot behind the wheelchair ramp (surprise!) it was a good spot, although there were some stupid flags that got in the way of quite a few pictures. once again, i had another great national experience:




the national ended and nine inch nails came on the stage behind us. we decided to stay where we were for a bit which meant we couldn't really see anything. we also decided to stay there because the day before we had randomly found out (through text message bragging about the slash show) that our friend phil was there and he was going to meet us that nite. after awhile they turned some lights on behind us that were loud, drew bugs and blew hot air on us. i was tired of not seeing or hearing anything so i decided to tough it out and move forward. surprisingly there was quite a bit of room and i ended up having a really decent spot where i could get some pictures and the sound was great. even though trent was sick, he sounded amazing. the show was great and i actually would consider paying to see another nin show, although i hate the palace and that's where they play.











about 3 songs before the end of the show dave started texting asking for directions on how to get to me. when the last song was over dave, phil and his friend finally made it over to me.
we once again had an amazing time and are already looking forward to next year (although i'm not sure that mom and dad are quite yet).
at the beginning of the weekend we took a bet on if we'd see more or less than 7 fanny packs while at the show. we ended up seeing 12...so i won.
we also had a debate on weather or not tom morello was half black. turns out his mother is irish and his father is from kenya....so i lost.
we ended up going back to the haders' to take a shower and pack up and then we left. we figured we'd be running on little sleep anyway, so we'd rather drive all nite and sleep awhile when we got home than to sleep a couple of hours and wake up early. so we ended up getting home around 6am and slept until about 11:30 before we picked up the boys and then dropped the explorer off. after a couple days of naps i think i've caught up on my sleep only to head to a festival tomorrow in muskegon and drive home late that nite.
thanks again to mom and dad for watching the boys; we'd never be able to go if you didn't do that for us. also, sorry about the scooter accident dad, and thanks for not suing.
thanks again to the hader family for letting us crash at your place for the 4th year in a row and for the cookies you gave us for the trip home! you guys are the greatest, and again...not sure we'd be able to make the trip without the free lodging! one of these years you can say no and we won't be offended!
until next year, chicago....because lord knows we only get out once a year.