When you must choose between two great bands—one from your past against one from your present—there is bound to be regret in your future.
I’m sure the line above is paraphrasing a famous quote from somewhere (even if Google is not showing me one), but it accurately describes my situation when I attend the 2008 Lollapalooza music festival. My wife and I will be making the journey from New York to Chicago to see the festival on August 1-3, in what would best be described as the culmination point of my favorite bands ever— Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Rage Against the Machine and Wilco.
The only problem is that Lollapalooza is three nights, not four. Thus, when the scheduling was released last week, I was distraught to discover that Wilco and Rage Against The Machine are playing on opposing stages at the same exact time.
Suddenly, my dream festival has hit a snag— I’m forced to choose between seeing only one of two of my favorite bands ever. I cannot stress enough what a terrible example this is of scheduling on the part of the Lollapalooza promoters. I mean, the following night has Nine Inch Nails playing at the same time as Kanye West, which makes sense since they have very different music.
But Wilco and Rage are both rock bands. Granted of course, they are totally different genres of rock, but rock nevertheless. I don’t think that they are polar opposites like Kanye and NIN are. I’m sure I am not the only person who is disappointed about this scheduling. Sure, the beauty of music festivals is that there is a plethora of music to see and experience, and much of it is going on at the same time. But to have two rock headliners on stage simultaneously seems to defy logic. Why can’t one of these bands be moved up to an earlier time slot in the day?
For me, the complications run deep, as both bands are known for their live performances: Wilco with their instrumentation and execution, and Rage with their sonic assault and raw energy. This likely will be a stellar performance by both bands as Rage is in the midst of a comeback, and Wilco will be playing in their hometown of Chicago, where the festival is being held this year.
A good tiebreaker would be to see the band I haven’t seen live before, but I have with both: Rage in 1997, Wilco in 2004. Both bands’ music served me well as the soundtrack at different junctures in my life, and it pains me to have to choose in what should be a momentous festival for me. So who do I go see?
Before I share my final decision below in the comments section, I want to see what all of you out there in the blogosphere think. If you were me on the evening of August 2, 2008, would you go see Rage Against The Machine or go see Wilco?
Thanks for reading and (hopefully) commenting. Cheers.
Josh Says:
June 28th, 2008 at 8:37 amVisit Josh
We’ve already had this discussion but I’ll go on record: Wilco.
Mark Saleski Says:
June 30th, 2008 at 9:50 amVisit Mark Saleski
man, i really hate to agree with josh but, like the busted clock on my kitchen wall, he’s occasionally right.
Wilco.
Mark Sahm Says:
June 30th, 2008 at 11:31 pmVisit Mark Sahm
If I went according to the comments over at mirror post at Blogcritics, I would choose Wilco by a margin of 9 to 5 over Rage (assuming Bicho meant to vote for Rage, and Guppus declined). Thanks to all for the commenters, it was fun to hear the opinions.
For once, I will agree with the masses and choose to see Wilco on August 2nd. Here’s why:
1. My teenage years would not have been even half as tolerable without Rage being there to cradle my angst into a nicely packaged “F-U, I won’t do whatcha told me” followed by a toxic Morello solo that sounded like a turntable on acid. Also, I discovered Allen Ginsberg’s poetry not because I took a class, but because Zack read ‘Hadda Be Playing On A Jukebox” on this bootleg Rage concert CD I owned.
That being said, I don’t identify much with that 19 year old lad anymore. To see Rage now would be more about nostalgia for my youth than being into the music. Worse yet, I confess that I haven’t listened to most of the Rage tracks in months, some even years.
2. I discovered Wilco in late 2002, about 6 months before I started dating my wife. Originally, she lived in Connecticut and I lived on Long Island. Every Wednesday, I would take a train into NYC for work, then another train up to CT after work to see her.
At 11pm, I would then take both trains consecutively back to LI. Along the way, Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot played endlessly. Thus, those early moments are forever linked. Since I’ll be at Lolla with her, Wilco just makes too much sense to not miss.
KICKER: Wilco’s only show this summer in the NYC area (on 8/13) is all sold out, and Rage is not coming around at all. However, should the unscrupulous bastards selling Wilco tickets for triple price be forced to sell at face value, then we would choose Rage and see Wilco in NYC instead.
S.Rod Says:
July 1st, 2008 at 7:42 amVisit S.Rod
I still can’t believe I listened to you and didn’t buy the Wilco tickets…$39.50 each. GGGGGrrrrrrrrrrr:!:
Mark Sahm Says:
July 1st, 2008 at 8:56 amVisit Mark Sahm
Right, because I knew three months ahead of time that Wilco and Rage would get scheduled at the same damn time.
No Monday morning quarterbacking please.