If ever there were a five day vacation that defined extreme highs and lows, we just lived it at Lollapalooza 2008 in Grant Park, Chicago. In the end, we came out ahead, because we are back home with our positive memories.
That being said, there was a lot of frustration in dealing with the crowds, the heat, the waiting, and all of the various forms of traveling it took just to get there. At times, it almost seemed like the whole trip could have been a huge mistake.
Yet when the evening headliners took the stage and played their sets, not only did I get my money’s worth, I got something greater than that. You see, all around us were several thousand teenagers and twentysomethings drinking crappy beers and smoking handrolled joints— all trying to mimic me, basking in the sensation in my head known as being naturally high. It was untouchable, my natural high was a sphere of solid metal charged with the electricity of a thunderstorm. It was something I had not felt in some time.
Sharing the natural high (since she was directly in front of me at every show) was the lovely Ms. S.Rod. Without her, the trip would have been incredibly lonely and not even a shred as fun. When asked for a comment about Lolla ‘08, she said simply, “It was fricking awesome.”
As for all of the bands and what we saw them perform, there’s simply too much content for me to write about right now. Equally, there are several thousand other fans out there seeing the same shows who wrote reviews hours after everything that happened. Thus, let’s just list it as we saw it (in chronological order with the evening headliners bolded):
The Black Keys
Bloc Party
Radiohead
The Ting Tings
The Gutter Twins
Explosions In The Sky
Broken Social Scene
Wilco
The Octopus Project (partial set)
Wild Sweet Orange (partial set)
White Lies (partial set)
Office (partial set)
Tally Hall (partial set)
Newton Faulkner
Iron & Wine
Love & Rockets
Nine Inch Nails
While seeing seventeen bands over the span of two and a half days (because we played Chicago tourists on Friday AM), figure this: there were another thirteen bands or performers that we wanted to see, but could not because of conflicts. On each day, we tried different tactics of seeing bands, hence three bands on Friday, and nine on Sunday. But you have to accept at music festivals, there is just no way to have it all.
Ultimately, we scheduled our days around getting the spots we wanted for each of the headliners. It worked to our advantage because each of them played phenomenal shows. For NIN and Wilco, it was the best that we’d ever seen them play live.
If everything had worked perfectly this weekend with all of the lows I listed, perhaps we would not have appreciated the musical gifts we were graced with as much. So I will just smile, close my eyes, think of the music, cheering with S.Rod, and enjoying every moment of those natural highs. Cheers.
P.S. Photos and videos coming soon… but we’re very bad photographers, so I won’t promise much.