Who: Lollapalooza Day 2
When: August 3, 2013
Where: Grant Park/ Chicago, IL
With: Drunk Frat Boys from Iowa & Medical Assistants from Illinois
Of Note: Jennifer, you are not 22 any more but you can totally still hang!
Want to skip around?
Emotional Horseshit
Day 1
Day 3
Day 2
Ben Howard, GRiZ, a hot minute of Matt & Kim, Ellie Goulding, The National, Mumford & Sons
So, after a bit of a rough start to Day 1, I started Day 2 in more comfortable shoes, a belly full of screwdrivers (more effective than mimosas!), and a much more positive outlook. It paid off.
Ben Howard is still the dreamiest dreamboat ever to dreamboat. I'd seen him in April in SF (which I haven't written about yet, oops) and the Lolla set was an abbreviated version of that. It didn't really matter - he's one of those guys who I would listen to sing a microwave oven manual. I adore the contrast of his voice - soft and storytelling, as compared with louder and more forceful. 'Keep Your Head Up' was a highlight - I like the upbeat, almost dance-y chorus. I also loved how the crowd played along with the 'Only Love' sing along portion. I could just continue to gush, but I'll cut myself off. He's just always a delight.
For the early afternoon time slot, there was nothing that was a must-see so I sat down in the shade way at the back of Perry's and checked out one of the DJ acts (I am so uncool; is that what they're called?) - GRiZ. The set was good - not something that's ever going to be my favorite, but the visuals were awesome, even in the blaze of a sunny afternoon. What was most memorable, though, was the guys I hung out with...essentially an entire college lacrosse team from Iowa. We sat in the shade and shot the shit and drank a fair amount of contra-ban liquor (sorry Mom!). They were hilarious and charming despite their youth (either that or I was drunk [again, sorry Mom!]) and I was pleasantly surprised that I could totally hang out with college kids and not be super awkward. I feel like this means that I've retained some of my youthful glow. Then, when one of them asked if I wanted to meet them out that night, it took everything in my power not to say, "Oh, sweetie, that's adorable. But, I'm an old lady and by the end of this day all I'm going to want is fro-yo and to lay down." Instead, I played it cool, said, "Maybe," gave them my number and responded to his text with a breezy, "Sorry, not tonight!" Then I walked back to the hotel, got fro yo and laid down. Best of both worlds!
After GRiZ, it was off to see Ellie Goulding. First, Ellie Goulding is gorgeous, all bottle blonde and weird see-through shirt and drum playing. Second, her logo looks kind of like the Deathly Hallows logo. She did a beautiful cover of 'Your Song'about halfway through that was slow, sultry, and had the whole crowd singing along. She did that really cool thing where she bent the notes on key phrases, making it sound like not a straight cover. A lot of what she played, I wasn't super familiar with; I'd only listened to her album a couple of times. But then, she ended with a triple whammy of 'Anything Could Happen', 'I Need Your Love', and 'Lights'. It was a super cool moment to be in a mass of that many people chanting 'anything can happen'; it was like being filled to the brim with optimism and life affirmation. At some point during the set, a very drunk old man asked where I'd gotten my sneakers; he wanted to get a pair because he thought they matched his eyes. Okay then. In any event, this was a fun, poppy, upbeat mid-afternoon set. Girl can sang.
Then it was back to the main stage to get in place for Mumford. Poor me, that meant seeing The Nationals! They were... intense. Like, brooding intense. Like, I'm pretty sure I could feel the waves of the cogs in their brains turning as they did their best to transfer all that brooding to the crowd. It was not unenjoyable, just very heavy. 'Sea of Love' was a highlight.
While waiting for Mumford, a guy near me wondered aloud if "the guy with the brain thing" would be able to perform. The girl standing next to me noted, "I had the same surgery on the same day and I'm here; he should be fine." She and I got to chatting - what an interesting girl. She & her friend were medical assistants at some sort of doctor's office, full of stories about brain surgery, pharmaceutical dinners gone awry, and other concerts they'd seen. She told me how pumped she was when they figured out a way to do her surgery without shaving part of her head. She also talked about how much she loved San Francisco. Super interesting girl.
And then, Mumford. Much of what I said about Mumford the first time I saw them holds true, with the added bonus that now all the tracks from 'Babel' have become old favorites. They're phenomenal musicians. I was not 100% sure that this was going to be a great venue for them - nervous that the sense of intimacy they brought to the smaller amphitheater and beauty of the quieter moments weren't going to play well to the enormous crowd. My fears were unfounded. They killed it. Playing a set with a lot of their more barn-burning, stomp-along tracks -ie. 'Babel', 'Little Lion Man', 'I Will Wait', 'Lover of the Light' - they captivated the crowd. Their musicianship is insane. How do you keep so many fickle, string instruments in tune at that decibel level? It's kind of amazing. I was glad to see that the banjo player was still highly sexually charged. They spent a lot of time saying, "Thank you Lollapalooza!"
There was a cool moment in the encore. They prompted the crowd to shut up and told us this was the quietest thing we'd hear all weekend. Then, all of them gathered around one old-timey microphone and sang a cover of 'I'm On Fire'. It was beautiful. I'm not sure how far back in the crowd the impact of the performance went, but from where I was standing, it was captivating - all tight harmonies, plucky banjo punctuation and the feeling of being drawn into the story of this guy "on fire". Seriously, just such a special thing to witness. The, in sharp contrast, they busted out 'The Cave' cranked up to 11 to end the encore and sent everyone on their way.
(And then fro yo. Sweet, sweet fro yo. Don't worry, I found more frat boys on Day 3...)
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When: August 3, 2013
Where: Grant Park/ Chicago, IL
With: Drunk Frat Boys from Iowa & Medical Assistants from Illinois
Of Note: Jennifer, you are not 22 any more but you can totally still hang!
Want to skip around?
Emotional Horseshit
Day 1
Day 3
Day 2
Ben Howard, GRiZ, a hot minute of Matt & Kim, Ellie Goulding, The National, Mumford & Sons
So, after a bit of a rough start to Day 1, I started Day 2 in more comfortable shoes, a belly full of screwdrivers (more effective than mimosas!), and a much more positive outlook. It paid off.
Ben Howard is still the dreamiest dreamboat ever to dreamboat. I'd seen him in April in SF (which I haven't written about yet, oops) and the Lolla set was an abbreviated version of that. It didn't really matter - he's one of those guys who I would listen to sing a microwave oven manual. I adore the contrast of his voice - soft and storytelling, as compared with louder and more forceful. 'Keep Your Head Up' was a highlight - I like the upbeat, almost dance-y chorus. I also loved how the crowd played along with the 'Only Love' sing along portion. I could just continue to gush, but I'll cut myself off. He's just always a delight.
For the early afternoon time slot, there was nothing that was a must-see so I sat down in the shade way at the back of Perry's and checked out one of the DJ acts (I am so uncool; is that what they're called?) - GRiZ. The set was good - not something that's ever going to be my favorite, but the visuals were awesome, even in the blaze of a sunny afternoon. What was most memorable, though, was the guys I hung out with...essentially an entire college lacrosse team from Iowa. We sat in the shade and shot the shit and drank a fair amount of contra-ban liquor (sorry Mom!). They were hilarious and charming despite their youth (either that or I was drunk [again, sorry Mom!]) and I was pleasantly surprised that I could totally hang out with college kids and not be super awkward. I feel like this means that I've retained some of my youthful glow. Then, when one of them asked if I wanted to meet them out that night, it took everything in my power not to say, "Oh, sweetie, that's adorable. But, I'm an old lady and by the end of this day all I'm going to want is fro-yo and to lay down." Instead, I played it cool, said, "Maybe," gave them my number and responded to his text with a breezy, "Sorry, not tonight!" Then I walked back to the hotel, got fro yo and laid down. Best of both worlds!
After GRiZ, it was off to see Ellie Goulding. First, Ellie Goulding is gorgeous, all bottle blonde and weird see-through shirt and drum playing. Second, her logo looks kind of like the Deathly Hallows logo. She did a beautiful cover of 'Your Song'about halfway through that was slow, sultry, and had the whole crowd singing along. She did that really cool thing where she bent the notes on key phrases, making it sound like not a straight cover. A lot of what she played, I wasn't super familiar with; I'd only listened to her album a couple of times. But then, she ended with a triple whammy of 'Anything Could Happen', 'I Need Your Love', and 'Lights'. It was a super cool moment to be in a mass of that many people chanting 'anything can happen'; it was like being filled to the brim with optimism and life affirmation. At some point during the set, a very drunk old man asked where I'd gotten my sneakers; he wanted to get a pair because he thought they matched his eyes. Okay then. In any event, this was a fun, poppy, upbeat mid-afternoon set. Girl can sang.
Then it was back to the main stage to get in place for Mumford. Poor me, that meant seeing The Nationals! They were... intense. Like, brooding intense. Like, I'm pretty sure I could feel the waves of the cogs in their brains turning as they did their best to transfer all that brooding to the crowd. It was not unenjoyable, just very heavy. 'Sea of Love' was a highlight.
While waiting for Mumford, a guy near me wondered aloud if "the guy with the brain thing" would be able to perform. The girl standing next to me noted, "I had the same surgery on the same day and I'm here; he should be fine." She and I got to chatting - what an interesting girl. She & her friend were medical assistants at some sort of doctor's office, full of stories about brain surgery, pharmaceutical dinners gone awry, and other concerts they'd seen. She told me how pumped she was when they figured out a way to do her surgery without shaving part of her head. She also talked about how much she loved San Francisco. Super interesting girl.
And then, Mumford. Much of what I said about Mumford the first time I saw them holds true, with the added bonus that now all the tracks from 'Babel' have become old favorites. They're phenomenal musicians. I was not 100% sure that this was going to be a great venue for them - nervous that the sense of intimacy they brought to the smaller amphitheater and beauty of the quieter moments weren't going to play well to the enormous crowd. My fears were unfounded. They killed it. Playing a set with a lot of their more barn-burning, stomp-along tracks -ie. 'Babel', 'Little Lion Man', 'I Will Wait', 'Lover of the Light' - they captivated the crowd. Their musicianship is insane. How do you keep so many fickle, string instruments in tune at that decibel level? It's kind of amazing. I was glad to see that the banjo player was still highly sexually charged. They spent a lot of time saying, "Thank you Lollapalooza!"
There was a cool moment in the encore. They prompted the crowd to shut up and told us this was the quietest thing we'd hear all weekend. Then, all of them gathered around one old-timey microphone and sang a cover of 'I'm On Fire'. It was beautiful. I'm not sure how far back in the crowd the impact of the performance went, but from where I was standing, it was captivating - all tight harmonies, plucky banjo punctuation and the feeling of being drawn into the story of this guy "on fire". Seriously, just such a special thing to witness. The, in sharp contrast, they busted out 'The Cave' cranked up to 11 to end the encore and sent everyone on their way.
(And then fro yo. Sweet, sweet fro yo. Don't worry, I found more frat boys on Day 3...)
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