oh yeah, i got some photos up on flickr, of lollapalooza, the house on the rock and the tom waits show.
check 'em out here.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
lollapawaitsa
ok, this is potentially going to be my biggest post yet, or ever. it's taken me a while just to formulate what i want to say and how, and i still dont even know, really, but it's a doozy. lollapalooza > house on the rock > tom waits. chicago > wisconsin > chicago. august 3rd - 10th. lets get to it...
lollapalooza - day 1
i figure i might as well do this in days, rather than a mash up of bands or one big meandering whatever. at least try to keep some sort of order. anyways, the festival itself, lollapalooza 2006, 130 bands, grant park in chicago, a dozen friends - the writing was on the wall for some serious magic, y'know. festie voodoo shit with chicago as your playground. too bad i lost 6 key ingredients before we left. no matter, i was going to be seeing bands i've been waiting upwards of 8 years to see - and some that i should have always wanted to see - and some that were just so new to me that i hadnt even yet had the chance... so it was to be a weekend of a great many great musical firsts. sounds great! alright, enough..... we stayed at the congress which was perfectly situated right in front of grant park, and miraculously right beside the auditorium theatre where we were to see tom waits on the following wednesday. gettin' lucky in chicago. so lolla overtakes massive downtown grant park for 8 stages worth of musical mayhem with enough sounds to satisfy anyone's tastebuds, really. i saw so much music and quite a bit of it sounded different. there was tons i missed that probably sounded even more different. diversity, kids. oh, and yeah, stuff for kids, too. first up was the eels, and although they didnt really do it for me this time, im gonna chalk it up to a time and place thing - the sound wasnt quite right to begin with, and i just wasnt feelin' all that distorted everything. i certainly didnt hate them, and im sure im in the minority, but it just wasnt where i was at. my mind was on ryan adams and the cardinals. over the last year ryan's dominated my stereo and his music's been fairly important to me, so no doubt he was one of my must-see sets for the weekend. he came out wearing a "love a nurse today" shirt and i think that's all it took for rachelle to jump on board. but i thought his set was incredible, and im really glad he didnt blow it, or get all pissy - he gave lollapalooza a fucking great set, and a little bit of ryan at the end extending it beyond the stage managers preference.. that was a funny scene to witness... ryan hammering out the outro repeatedly, looking right at the guy while he's giving the cut signal and on the walkie-talkie gettin' red faced and angry... looked like the drummer got a kick out of it, as well. he busted out 3 dead tunes (he's gone, wharf rat, and franklin's) and a gram parson's tune, hickory wind, as well. on one hand i wish he played some more of his stuff, but in a way i wonder if it was a bit of a homage to jerry who died that week 11 years ago, and played his last show not far away at soldier field. ryan does the dead well, and it was all it took to find the other 6 hippies in the crowd. the dude beside me who had brought his son along just about lost his mind when they hit the opening notes to franklin's - he turns to me and yells "IT'S OUR LUCKY DAY!!" - a glorious moment. but of his own stuff, dear chicago, peaceful valley, cold roses, shakedown on 9th st., i see monster's.... yeah, i could deal with that. he was awesome. as convicted as i hoped for and more controlled than i expected. after that i pretty much wandered around, got some food, cuz the pulled pork taco i had earlier just wasnt doin it for me - and by the way, thumbs down to pulled pork tacos at lollapalooza. sick. i opted for a big plate of rice, and mmmmm, was it good! sat under a tree and ate mostly, wandered on back to the stage area to listen to iron and wine close out his set while getting a decent spot for my morning jacket. one thing about having 8 stages is that when you have quieter acts, it kinda becomes a bit of a battle of the bands, as patti smith put it, so, iron and wine was more background music muddled with some other shit in it's background - and i didnt bother getting close enough to pay attention. so, rachelle and i got a decent spot for my morning jacket and waited for jim james to come tear our faces off. at dawn > off the record to start and it was on. and i mean, SO on. he was a madman, all over the stage, owning it, throwing out so much energy - the whole band was really. the crowd was giving it right back, it was such an energetic show to be a part of - i'll admit when he slowed it down a bit, we wussed out and took a spot in the grass. but it was fucking sweet to lay there and listen to the man pour his soul out in golden. magheetah was a great closer and satisfied the 3 big ones i wanted to hear. i wasnt really surprised at how much i dug that show, but in a way, i kinda am - i mean, i really thought they played a great set as well. lollapalooza was totally spoiling us already. the trek over to the main stage where Ween was closing the night could easily take 20 mins - to a half hour, with traffic, maybe a pit stop, you know - maybe longer. ween was up in an hour and no fucking way did i wanna miss ween in chicago. so we made the trek did our business, stuck together and actually got to check out maybe 15 minutes of the violent femmes from one of the softball pitches in grant park. beauty. once they were done and ween were a-go we surged up, lost some members of the team, and after not being able to find them in the crowd, took our spot and took in a fantastic ween set to close the night. death cab for cutie were on the other main stage, and apparently had a massive crowd, which probably helped ween feel so comfortable, regardless of the fact there were probably still 60/70 thousand people there. we found our spot up near the front left side under the monitors to be great sounding and spacious enough to move around - it was perfect. i really thought the band took off in the 2nd half of their set.. there seemed to be a point, maybe around mr. would you please help my pony, that they just kinda hit turbo and went off. it was like it took 'em to that point to go 0 - 60, then from 60 - 120 in about 3 seconds. and they didnt let up after that - voodoo lady, baby bitch, buckingham green, captain, hiv song, piss up a rope, the mollusk, i'll be your jonny on the spot, waving my dick in the wind, ocean man, dr rock, you fucked up, someday - good lord, it got rockin'! ocean man had the crowd in a frenzy, voodoo lady was big, you fucked up was just as abrasive as it needs to be, dr. rock rocked, and piss up a rope had me goin like crazy. what a way to end day 1 at lollapalooza in chicago. after realizing i was locked out of my hotel room i went to wander downstairs, and when the elevator opens 2 more friends from guelph are staring right back at me. that was one of those great reunion type moments, haha. they were on their way to secret machines with some friends, and im not really sure what i was doing. i did end up seeing bill perry in buddy guy's legends blues club, after running into the rest of our crew from london on the street, en route back to their hotel from gettin' some food. it's weird how you find your friends.
lollapalooza - day 2
if day 1 was the day of seeing newer bands that are important to me (ryan, mmj), then day 2 was the day i finally got to see the bands that have been important to me for quite some time - built to spill, flaming lips - and one that i should have had on my radar, but mysteriously havent - sonic youth. actually, it started with the upbeat british outfit, the go! team - and it was a great way to shake out friday and get loose for saturday.. at the time i thought they would be a great band to play later in the night to get people partying, but in retrospect, a little exercise in the early afternoon could probably do us all some good. on the way to the go! team, we actually stopped and checked out a bit of the cold war kids, and i thought they were pretty fun, too. reminded me of apollo sunshine, and i'd love ot check 'em out again sometime. so anyways, after about of the go! team's set, we bolted over the other stage to listen to the last bit of feist while setting up for built to spill. i had the same problems for feist as i did for iron and wine. but i was ready for built to spill. i've been ready for a long time. this is one of those bands that is pretty huge on my list of musical favourites and inspirations. and they never come to ontario. so, after about 8 years of being a fan, since i was introduced to them by a friend, here i am, giddy with anticipation. and they came out and delivered with a great goin' against your mind opener. i was really disappointed that the crowd wasnt into most of their set, or at least they didnt show much of a response to it at all. doug had to play off, or ignore some comments other band members make about the corporations not needing them, and perry not needing them, etc... i think overhearing people in the crowd say they "didnt get it" was the true disheartening thing about that. i mean, have an opinion one way or the other, fine, but to not get it? c'mon, pay attention. i think the set could have been better, but they didnt seem to really care to be there, anyhow - conventional wisdom was a highlight, the rearrange cover was brilliant, and carry the zero was as great as i'd expect it to be. after that it was just a little bit of wandering and a little bit of listening to calexico from the grass... it was a set worthy of taking in from the grass. the day was basically just getting started here, sonic youth was up next and i'd never really cared about sonic youth, and i dont why, considering so many of my favourite bands and bands that i've gone to see have been influenced by these guys. i mean, as far as "that sound" goes, they're it, man. and you know, i found myself thinking at the show that i've seen so many bands do it wrong, and here i was, finally, seeing these guys do it so right, and rightly so. its theirs. sonic youth was definitely a surprise highlight of the weekend for me. took another wander around to get some food, recharge the batteries because up next was going to be a party: the flaming lips. another band i've been needing to see for a helluva long time, and now im finally getting my opportunity on a stage like that. wayne coyne came out and got into a space bubble to surf over the crowd, there were tons of giant balloons being tossed out into the crowd, confetti bazookas, streamers, giant characters on stage consisting of a santa claus, aliens, astronauts - like brahm said, it was like a birthday party. incredible. i met a dude who flew up from atlanta that day basically just to see the lips, and he said it was so worth it - i'd have to agree. they were doin their part to speak out against the war in lebanon, as well - trying to stop it with loud sing-a-longs, as they said... we tried hard on free radicals.. fanatical - FUCK!... we tried hard on the yeah yeah yeah song, and when they closed with do you realize. i, unfortunately, had to pee when they werent using jelly. it was a completely fun set, full of insane energy and so much youthful bliss from guys with grey wings. and why not, when you're signing asses and throwing parties like that, it must be a damn good time. after the lips we caught a little bit of the theivery corporation, again made a drink re-fill stop, and caught a little bit of the new pornographers towards the end of their set, which sounded pretty good, and then we were headed back the other way to the main stage where manu chao was playing, opting out of the craziness and crowdedness that was to be for kanye west on the opposite main stage. i know kanye's important to a lot of people right now, and im sure for good reason, but i didnt need to be there, and manu chao is an international artist with a fiesta flavour, and after the flaming lips party, thats kinda the mood i was in - so rachelle and i headed over there and had a great time dancing it up in a totally uncrowded area, to some great world beats - and i got to see a great world artist that i might not have otherwise, i love introductions like that. and so ended day 2, we jumped out of manu a little early to grab some egg rolls and get a game plan for the rest of the night - unfortunately we had heard that the brain damaged eggmen was sold out, so our afterparty plans needed a re-adjustment. team hotel essex decided to pack it in for the night in hopes of having a solid finish on sunday, and a good plan indeed. team congress decided to venture out for a walk and find something to eat. we ended up mostly just walking and not getting anything of substance - came back to the hotel, watched some latino tv and passed out.
lollapalooza - day 3
i dont know why, but i didnt have much interest when rachelle wanted to go so early to check out perry farrell on the kids stage. instead, ren, crystal and myself went for breakfast at our favourite diner before making our way into the park. turns out, however, that perry went on a little late, so we got to see some of the end of his set, as well - maybe the last 2 or 3 songs, he was singing while peter distefani was playing acoustic guitar. tahitian moon is really all i remember, but it was cool to see him sing a few songs like that. when he was done he surprised everyone by calling patti smith out onto the stage. patti smith on the kids stage with an acoustic guitar! she comes out and proceeds to tell the kids that "any asshole can play guitar", and then does a 3 song acoustic set consisting of a newly written protest song about the war in lebanon with some very graphic lyrics about the dismemberment of little limbs, and the disfigurement of bodies - referring to the children that died in a recent bombing - all on the kids stage. rock on patti! met up with rachelle there and after that we checked out a bit of the frames, and to me they sounded like most of a lot of other bands around these days, typical indie sound, but they had a couple tunes that really stood out at the end, and you know, if they played my town i'd probably go check 'em out and they'd probably blow the roof off the bar. again we ran into pete and tash en route to nickel creek, so we went with them and got a good spot for my surprise act of the weekend, hands down. nickel creek blew me away. they were so good on each of their instruments, all string band, fiddle, upright bass, mandolin, and acoustic guitar. so slick. and their voices, good lord! they could all sing, too! i didnt know any of their originals, it was a first time hearing kinda thing for me, but i thought they were great, and the cover choices were fantastic: a radiohead song off the bends whose name escapes me right now, toxic by britney, and the weight by the band. toxic really got the crowd's attention, but my favourite moment, and a candidate for favourite musical moment of the week, was when they brought their guitar tech on stage to sing rick danko's verse in the weight, and he did bang on with all the emotion you'd expect from danko! man, it was so awesome! the rest of the afternoon consisted of gettin' some grub, wandering around, getting re-fills of lemonade, and checking out the last half of andrew bird who's sweet voice kept pulling us in closer. we stayed till the end of his set and were glad we did - another great new artist find on the weekend. after andrew we trekked over to the far mainstage again to catch the beginning of matisyahu, and although i wasnt diggin' it too much, he definitely had a good crowd and had people moving. i just really didnt think he was that good, is all. i left with enough time to go catch the last bit of the shins and stake out a spot for us all for wilco. the shins were pretty cool from what i heard - maybe 4 or 5 songs. they played the only tunes i know, which was great for me, haha. but to be honest, they really didnt sound much different than i expected them to be, and didnt grab me enough to make me love 'em. when they were done it was an hour till showtime for wilco, and there really wasnt anything else on schedule that i wanted to see, so, i moved to a nice spot on a manhole cover by the fence under the monitors, stage left, and held down ground for the team. it was the one show we had all agreed we wanted to be together for to see so we had a makeshift plan that started as a bit of a running joke - lemons up. you're lost in the crowd, you got this giant cup of lemonade with a lemon on top, raise it up. your friends will find you. so thats what i did. i stood on this manhole cover with my lemon in the air for an hour, and sure as shit, they all rolled in. first it was ren and crystal that spotted. then rachelle. then scottie and team essex from way back! i could hear people on cell phones within listening radius telling their friends just to look for the guy with the lemon. it obviously worked. we all got together and took in a most kickass wilco show. they were pleasantly surprised at the vast crowd and massive response for their return to chicago, and treated us to 4 new tunes, and went back only as far as summerteeth in the catalogue, but hammered us with tunes like shot in the arm, via chicago, i am trying to break your heart, handshake drugs, jesus etc... and a dedication from jeff to his wife of 11 years, i am the man who loves you and hummingbird to close the show. this band owns chicago. they have really come into their own, and it was a great affirmation that the show we got here in london was the real deal - that these guys are the real deal. such power and conviction in their playing, they throw themselves at you on stage. wilco is in a great place right now and they're writing some great great songs to back it up. the new one, what light, was probably the highlight for me again. we stayed right till the end while some other forged ahead of the crowd across grant park to broken social scene - maybe the better plan. when we got there, there wasnt a whole lot left, maybe half the set or less, because it was a short one right before the chili peppers - probably the shortest set for a bigger name band, they only got like 45 minutes - but they were given the biggest respect and one hell of a long encore call out, that name came to fruition. they did come out for a couple curtain calls and jump down to crowd level to meet some fans, though, which i thought was really cool. they surprised everyone by bringing out emily haines for anthems, and closed with a most rockin' ibi dreams of pavement. another candidate for song of the weekend. it had so much raw energy and power, the band brought it so hard. it was a dedication to their touring soundman who was doing his last show with them. what a great way to go out. we should have taken those words with us. instead, we checked out a little bit of the chili peppers and i was least impressed. shoulda gone out on the BSS high note, but oh well. i just found the chili's to be mostly lame and almost having become a parody of themselves. i dunno, i wasnt into it much, so it didnt take much convincing when rachelle wanted to take off to the merch booth at the end of the night. not much was left, so we regrouped back at the hotel for a journey on up to the abbey pub for our sunday latenight fix, bustle in your hedgegrow.
bustle in your hedgegrow - abbey pub
this might be the story of the weekend. we go up to the abbey pub to check out bustle in your hedgegrow, and team A arrives 4 strong, waits in line, gets our wristbands, goes to pay and finds out unless you got tickets or are on the list, you aint gettin' in. shit. we go to the pub next door to regroup and figure out what to do. in the meantime, team B arrives 6 strong, and 2 of them buy extras outside to go find us inside, assuming we had gotten in. after a drink, i notice scottie out on the street through the pub window - we were just about on our way out anyhow, so i go meet him and he gives me the scoop. the key to this exchange is that when we came in first and got carded and whatnot we struck up conversation with the id guy who was wearing a very touristy canada t-shirt. turns out this guy loves canada. i mean, LOVES CANADA, to the tune of having a bootleg bell express vue sattelite dish - bootleg canadian tv!! he loves canadian idol, peter mansbridge and corner gas. he carries lucky loonies and twoonies. he's an avid blue jays fan. the man lives in the home of the world series champions and he cheers for a canadian baseball team!! so, as team A and 2/3 of team B are devising plans to grab cabs and head back downtown, figuring brahm and angie will eventually realize we didnt get in and just enjoy the show, our honourary canadian, Leroy, comes over and with his stamp held high ever so subtly begins to go around our circle and stamp each of our hands. he then tells us to go in through the pub, wait a few moments and then start to come in, and smaller groups. when its our turn to go through we get up to the front and start to go in and he changes into a beast and starts yelling "i told you guys to stay in here! no more ins and outs! you here me?! you're in here the rest of the night!" - totally played it off for us to the doorman and away we were. 10 strong for bustle in your hedgegrow. amazing to get hooked up for what was destined to be an amazing show. a band which consists of benevento/russo on keys and drums, dave dreiwitz on bass (from ween!), and brendan bayliss on guitar, from umphrey's, filling in for scott metzger who couldnt be there. they do all instrumental led zeppelin, unless of course the crowd picks up the vocals, which certainly happened a few times. brendan also sang on fool in the rain - a highlight of the night which also included marco jumping off stage to play the crazy piano breakdown on the actual house piano behind these black curtains that just happened to be RIGHT BESIDE where we were taking in the show - ren got a great photo, mine is shit. slow reaction time, and the crowd really surged. that show was a totally balls to the walls rock extravaganza. it was so hot, so sweaty, people were rockin' extremely hard, and i think we all lost a good 10 lbs.... which is probably a good thing, bowling season is coming and i need to get in shape. they played some awesome zeppelin, and totally had us beaten into submission by the end of it. the band looked like they were having more fun than the crowd, too, which no doubt kept everything moving like a freight train. we left puddles of ourselves, said our goodbyes, and waited for the cabs to drag our asses back home. it seemed like forever.
house on the rock
on monday we ventured up into wisconsin so we could hit this crazy "museum" called the house on the rock. we stayed at a wicked inn and hit the pool/hot tub late night for some kickass relaxin' after the 3 day fest. we saw the museum tuesday morning before heading back to chicago. this was quite literally a house built on/in the rock in rural wisconsin. and modified, expanded into a pyschadelic walk through kitchy creepiness. room after room of weirdness. a carousel with 300 "things" and not one horse head. crazy flying mannequins with one breast showing. dolls. lots of dolls. miniatures. history of aviation stuff, old town walks, old cars, a giant whale tangled up in a squid. lots and lots of musical stuff - set up puppet orchestras. and everything was so very very grande. it was truly a spectacle, took us 3 hours to walk through and get our creep on, before we came out and had no idea what we should even be reflecting on. hit the road back to chicago, checked into a hostel, grabbed a bite and went back to grant park for their tuesday night free movie in the park - this night it was american graffiti, and we didnt stay till the end. back to the hostel where rachelle tried to sneak me into her dorm room and "hide" me under a single sheet in a single bed when we got busted. you cant even imagine the ridiculousness. like it was a cartoon or something, i could just tiptoe out when their backs were turned... uh huh.... anyways, eventually the morning came and it was wednesday. merry waitsmas.
tom waits
august 9th, 2006. rachelle and i spent the afternoon doing some touristy stuff... started the day at the sears tower, going up to the observation deck to get a wicked glimpse of the city. i personally think i enjoyed the veiw from the hancock last time, but only because you could see more shoreline from it's location. the sears gives you a better overall view of the city. i had a bit of a moment when i caught soldier field and remembered that today was the day jerry garcia had died 11 years ago and that was the place of his final show. i stared a little longer and said a little something for jerry... my eyes might have watered a little, too. after some lunch at portillo's we got on a gangster tour and it was really awesome. saw so much more of the city than i figured we would, got entertained and learned some of the mobster history from chicago while seeing the great historical sights. that took us to our hotel check in time where we met up again with ren and crystal, then i went on a crazy t-shirt mission, and eventually we got some dinner, not all of our dinners, but some of them, didnt pay for any of them, and then got in line and waited for waits. and when it was time, when the man hit the stage and the band struck up, when the anticipation was over and it had become a reality, this is what happened...
Tom Waits
Auditorium Theatre, Roosevelt University
Chicago, Il.
08.09.06.
Make it Rain(1)
Hoist That Rag
Shore Leave
God's Away on Business
All the World is Green
Falling Down
Tango Till They're Sore(2)
Tom Traubert's Blues(2)
Eyeball Kid(3)
Down in the Hole
Don't Go Into that Barn
Shake It
Trampled Rose
What's He Building in There?(4)
'Till the Money Runs Out(5)
Murder in the Red Barn
Lie to Me
Get Behind the Mule(6)
encore 1:
The Day After Tomorrow(7)
Singapore(8)
encore 2:
Whistling Past the Graveyard
Time Time Time(9)
(1) - it finally happens. tom hits the stage and chicago nearly blows up.
(2) - exit band, enter piano. just tom and larry taylor on the upright bass playing super soft. great banter about local streets and how they change, with a little tip of the hat to "9th and hennepin", a mention of being shot, and a bit about the Weiner Circle and its, umm, hospitality. crownd loses their fuÇking minds for tom traubert's blues.
(3) - casey waits beatboxing, larry taylor using his mouth as an instrument, too... strange arrangement.
(4) - my heart nearly stops.
(5) - another great arrangement, took me a while to figure out what it was.
(6) - i love you, tom.
(7) - tom on the acoustic, and if you werent listening closely, that's all you'd hear.. the band was playing ever so softly behind him, it was incredible.. such controlled touch... just... barely... enough. 2nd time that day i had a tear in my eye.
(8) - raging.
(9) - one last time on the acoustic. thank you. goodnight.
incredible incredible incredible - my mind was blown from start to finish. the band sounds like the way marrionette's dance, and tom totally plays to that role, as well - its such a beautiful way for music to exist in a space like that. he's such a commander of the stage and the crowd, but shows no sign of ego on stage. the bands knows their spots and tom gives way accordingly. and i really cant emphasize enough how controlled the show was, on each and every one of their parts. it was just really well constructed and put together, the sound was amazing, the set choice was fine by me, and tom waits is just tom waits and thats all there is to that.
(i had already written that elsewhere, but i see no reason to say it any different - it says it all. the show was amazing.)
so, in the end, another great trip to chicago. we got lucky when we needed it, saw more of the city than i could have imagined, took in an amazing music festival, a crazy museum, we also made time for touristy stuff, like the art institute where i totally got re-inspired by a guy named harry callahan, a bus tour, and just walking around and taking in the city. i'd say we really packed it in. and we finished it all with a legend in a glorious music theatre. a trip i'll never forget.
same time same place next year, right?
lollapalooza - day 1
i figure i might as well do this in days, rather than a mash up of bands or one big meandering whatever. at least try to keep some sort of order. anyways, the festival itself, lollapalooza 2006, 130 bands, grant park in chicago, a dozen friends - the writing was on the wall for some serious magic, y'know. festie voodoo shit with chicago as your playground. too bad i lost 6 key ingredients before we left. no matter, i was going to be seeing bands i've been waiting upwards of 8 years to see - and some that i should have always wanted to see - and some that were just so new to me that i hadnt even yet had the chance... so it was to be a weekend of a great many great musical firsts. sounds great! alright, enough..... we stayed at the congress which was perfectly situated right in front of grant park, and miraculously right beside the auditorium theatre where we were to see tom waits on the following wednesday. gettin' lucky in chicago. so lolla overtakes massive downtown grant park for 8 stages worth of musical mayhem with enough sounds to satisfy anyone's tastebuds, really. i saw so much music and quite a bit of it sounded different. there was tons i missed that probably sounded even more different. diversity, kids. oh, and yeah, stuff for kids, too. first up was the eels, and although they didnt really do it for me this time, im gonna chalk it up to a time and place thing - the sound wasnt quite right to begin with, and i just wasnt feelin' all that distorted everything. i certainly didnt hate them, and im sure im in the minority, but it just wasnt where i was at. my mind was on ryan adams and the cardinals. over the last year ryan's dominated my stereo and his music's been fairly important to me, so no doubt he was one of my must-see sets for the weekend. he came out wearing a "love a nurse today" shirt and i think that's all it took for rachelle to jump on board. but i thought his set was incredible, and im really glad he didnt blow it, or get all pissy - he gave lollapalooza a fucking great set, and a little bit of ryan at the end extending it beyond the stage managers preference.. that was a funny scene to witness... ryan hammering out the outro repeatedly, looking right at the guy while he's giving the cut signal and on the walkie-talkie gettin' red faced and angry... looked like the drummer got a kick out of it, as well. he busted out 3 dead tunes (he's gone, wharf rat, and franklin's) and a gram parson's tune, hickory wind, as well. on one hand i wish he played some more of his stuff, but in a way i wonder if it was a bit of a homage to jerry who died that week 11 years ago, and played his last show not far away at soldier field. ryan does the dead well, and it was all it took to find the other 6 hippies in the crowd. the dude beside me who had brought his son along just about lost his mind when they hit the opening notes to franklin's - he turns to me and yells "IT'S OUR LUCKY DAY!!" - a glorious moment. but of his own stuff, dear chicago, peaceful valley, cold roses, shakedown on 9th st., i see monster's.... yeah, i could deal with that. he was awesome. as convicted as i hoped for and more controlled than i expected. after that i pretty much wandered around, got some food, cuz the pulled pork taco i had earlier just wasnt doin it for me - and by the way, thumbs down to pulled pork tacos at lollapalooza. sick. i opted for a big plate of rice, and mmmmm, was it good! sat under a tree and ate mostly, wandered on back to the stage area to listen to iron and wine close out his set while getting a decent spot for my morning jacket. one thing about having 8 stages is that when you have quieter acts, it kinda becomes a bit of a battle of the bands, as patti smith put it, so, iron and wine was more background music muddled with some other shit in it's background - and i didnt bother getting close enough to pay attention. so, rachelle and i got a decent spot for my morning jacket and waited for jim james to come tear our faces off. at dawn > off the record to start and it was on. and i mean, SO on. he was a madman, all over the stage, owning it, throwing out so much energy - the whole band was really. the crowd was giving it right back, it was such an energetic show to be a part of - i'll admit when he slowed it down a bit, we wussed out and took a spot in the grass. but it was fucking sweet to lay there and listen to the man pour his soul out in golden. magheetah was a great closer and satisfied the 3 big ones i wanted to hear. i wasnt really surprised at how much i dug that show, but in a way, i kinda am - i mean, i really thought they played a great set as well. lollapalooza was totally spoiling us already. the trek over to the main stage where Ween was closing the night could easily take 20 mins - to a half hour, with traffic, maybe a pit stop, you know - maybe longer. ween was up in an hour and no fucking way did i wanna miss ween in chicago. so we made the trek did our business, stuck together and actually got to check out maybe 15 minutes of the violent femmes from one of the softball pitches in grant park. beauty. once they were done and ween were a-go we surged up, lost some members of the team, and after not being able to find them in the crowd, took our spot and took in a fantastic ween set to close the night. death cab for cutie were on the other main stage, and apparently had a massive crowd, which probably helped ween feel so comfortable, regardless of the fact there were probably still 60/70 thousand people there. we found our spot up near the front left side under the monitors to be great sounding and spacious enough to move around - it was perfect. i really thought the band took off in the 2nd half of their set.. there seemed to be a point, maybe around mr. would you please help my pony, that they just kinda hit turbo and went off. it was like it took 'em to that point to go 0 - 60, then from 60 - 120 in about 3 seconds. and they didnt let up after that - voodoo lady, baby bitch, buckingham green, captain, hiv song, piss up a rope, the mollusk, i'll be your jonny on the spot, waving my dick in the wind, ocean man, dr rock, you fucked up, someday - good lord, it got rockin'! ocean man had the crowd in a frenzy, voodoo lady was big, you fucked up was just as abrasive as it needs to be, dr. rock rocked, and piss up a rope had me goin like crazy. what a way to end day 1 at lollapalooza in chicago. after realizing i was locked out of my hotel room i went to wander downstairs, and when the elevator opens 2 more friends from guelph are staring right back at me. that was one of those great reunion type moments, haha. they were on their way to secret machines with some friends, and im not really sure what i was doing. i did end up seeing bill perry in buddy guy's legends blues club, after running into the rest of our crew from london on the street, en route back to their hotel from gettin' some food. it's weird how you find your friends.
lollapalooza - day 2
if day 1 was the day of seeing newer bands that are important to me (ryan, mmj), then day 2 was the day i finally got to see the bands that have been important to me for quite some time - built to spill, flaming lips - and one that i should have had on my radar, but mysteriously havent - sonic youth. actually, it started with the upbeat british outfit, the go! team - and it was a great way to shake out friday and get loose for saturday.. at the time i thought they would be a great band to play later in the night to get people partying, but in retrospect, a little exercise in the early afternoon could probably do us all some good. on the way to the go! team, we actually stopped and checked out a bit of the cold war kids, and i thought they were pretty fun, too. reminded me of apollo sunshine, and i'd love ot check 'em out again sometime. so anyways, after about of the go! team's set, we bolted over the other stage to listen to the last bit of feist while setting up for built to spill. i had the same problems for feist as i did for iron and wine. but i was ready for built to spill. i've been ready for a long time. this is one of those bands that is pretty huge on my list of musical favourites and inspirations. and they never come to ontario. so, after about 8 years of being a fan, since i was introduced to them by a friend, here i am, giddy with anticipation. and they came out and delivered with a great goin' against your mind opener. i was really disappointed that the crowd wasnt into most of their set, or at least they didnt show much of a response to it at all. doug had to play off, or ignore some comments other band members make about the corporations not needing them, and perry not needing them, etc... i think overhearing people in the crowd say they "didnt get it" was the true disheartening thing about that. i mean, have an opinion one way or the other, fine, but to not get it? c'mon, pay attention. i think the set could have been better, but they didnt seem to really care to be there, anyhow - conventional wisdom was a highlight, the rearrange cover was brilliant, and carry the zero was as great as i'd expect it to be. after that it was just a little bit of wandering and a little bit of listening to calexico from the grass... it was a set worthy of taking in from the grass. the day was basically just getting started here, sonic youth was up next and i'd never really cared about sonic youth, and i dont why, considering so many of my favourite bands and bands that i've gone to see have been influenced by these guys. i mean, as far as "that sound" goes, they're it, man. and you know, i found myself thinking at the show that i've seen so many bands do it wrong, and here i was, finally, seeing these guys do it so right, and rightly so. its theirs. sonic youth was definitely a surprise highlight of the weekend for me. took another wander around to get some food, recharge the batteries because up next was going to be a party: the flaming lips. another band i've been needing to see for a helluva long time, and now im finally getting my opportunity on a stage like that. wayne coyne came out and got into a space bubble to surf over the crowd, there were tons of giant balloons being tossed out into the crowd, confetti bazookas, streamers, giant characters on stage consisting of a santa claus, aliens, astronauts - like brahm said, it was like a birthday party. incredible. i met a dude who flew up from atlanta that day basically just to see the lips, and he said it was so worth it - i'd have to agree. they were doin their part to speak out against the war in lebanon, as well - trying to stop it with loud sing-a-longs, as they said... we tried hard on free radicals.. fanatical - FUCK!... we tried hard on the yeah yeah yeah song, and when they closed with do you realize. i, unfortunately, had to pee when they werent using jelly. it was a completely fun set, full of insane energy and so much youthful bliss from guys with grey wings. and why not, when you're signing asses and throwing parties like that, it must be a damn good time. after the lips we caught a little bit of the theivery corporation, again made a drink re-fill stop, and caught a little bit of the new pornographers towards the end of their set, which sounded pretty good, and then we were headed back the other way to the main stage where manu chao was playing, opting out of the craziness and crowdedness that was to be for kanye west on the opposite main stage. i know kanye's important to a lot of people right now, and im sure for good reason, but i didnt need to be there, and manu chao is an international artist with a fiesta flavour, and after the flaming lips party, thats kinda the mood i was in - so rachelle and i headed over there and had a great time dancing it up in a totally uncrowded area, to some great world beats - and i got to see a great world artist that i might not have otherwise, i love introductions like that. and so ended day 2, we jumped out of manu a little early to grab some egg rolls and get a game plan for the rest of the night - unfortunately we had heard that the brain damaged eggmen was sold out, so our afterparty plans needed a re-adjustment. team hotel essex decided to pack it in for the night in hopes of having a solid finish on sunday, and a good plan indeed. team congress decided to venture out for a walk and find something to eat. we ended up mostly just walking and not getting anything of substance - came back to the hotel, watched some latino tv and passed out.
lollapalooza - day 3
i dont know why, but i didnt have much interest when rachelle wanted to go so early to check out perry farrell on the kids stage. instead, ren, crystal and myself went for breakfast at our favourite diner before making our way into the park. turns out, however, that perry went on a little late, so we got to see some of the end of his set, as well - maybe the last 2 or 3 songs, he was singing while peter distefani was playing acoustic guitar. tahitian moon is really all i remember, but it was cool to see him sing a few songs like that. when he was done he surprised everyone by calling patti smith out onto the stage. patti smith on the kids stage with an acoustic guitar! she comes out and proceeds to tell the kids that "any asshole can play guitar", and then does a 3 song acoustic set consisting of a newly written protest song about the war in lebanon with some very graphic lyrics about the dismemberment of little limbs, and the disfigurement of bodies - referring to the children that died in a recent bombing - all on the kids stage. rock on patti! met up with rachelle there and after that we checked out a bit of the frames, and to me they sounded like most of a lot of other bands around these days, typical indie sound, but they had a couple tunes that really stood out at the end, and you know, if they played my town i'd probably go check 'em out and they'd probably blow the roof off the bar. again we ran into pete and tash en route to nickel creek, so we went with them and got a good spot for my surprise act of the weekend, hands down. nickel creek blew me away. they were so good on each of their instruments, all string band, fiddle, upright bass, mandolin, and acoustic guitar. so slick. and their voices, good lord! they could all sing, too! i didnt know any of their originals, it was a first time hearing kinda thing for me, but i thought they were great, and the cover choices were fantastic: a radiohead song off the bends whose name escapes me right now, toxic by britney, and the weight by the band. toxic really got the crowd's attention, but my favourite moment, and a candidate for favourite musical moment of the week, was when they brought their guitar tech on stage to sing rick danko's verse in the weight, and he did bang on with all the emotion you'd expect from danko! man, it was so awesome! the rest of the afternoon consisted of gettin' some grub, wandering around, getting re-fills of lemonade, and checking out the last half of andrew bird who's sweet voice kept pulling us in closer. we stayed till the end of his set and were glad we did - another great new artist find on the weekend. after andrew we trekked over to the far mainstage again to catch the beginning of matisyahu, and although i wasnt diggin' it too much, he definitely had a good crowd and had people moving. i just really didnt think he was that good, is all. i left with enough time to go catch the last bit of the shins and stake out a spot for us all for wilco. the shins were pretty cool from what i heard - maybe 4 or 5 songs. they played the only tunes i know, which was great for me, haha. but to be honest, they really didnt sound much different than i expected them to be, and didnt grab me enough to make me love 'em. when they were done it was an hour till showtime for wilco, and there really wasnt anything else on schedule that i wanted to see, so, i moved to a nice spot on a manhole cover by the fence under the monitors, stage left, and held down ground for the team. it was the one show we had all agreed we wanted to be together for to see so we had a makeshift plan that started as a bit of a running joke - lemons up. you're lost in the crowd, you got this giant cup of lemonade with a lemon on top, raise it up. your friends will find you. so thats what i did. i stood on this manhole cover with my lemon in the air for an hour, and sure as shit, they all rolled in. first it was ren and crystal that spotted. then rachelle. then scottie and team essex from way back! i could hear people on cell phones within listening radius telling their friends just to look for the guy with the lemon. it obviously worked. we all got together and took in a most kickass wilco show. they were pleasantly surprised at the vast crowd and massive response for their return to chicago, and treated us to 4 new tunes, and went back only as far as summerteeth in the catalogue, but hammered us with tunes like shot in the arm, via chicago, i am trying to break your heart, handshake drugs, jesus etc... and a dedication from jeff to his wife of 11 years, i am the man who loves you and hummingbird to close the show. this band owns chicago. they have really come into their own, and it was a great affirmation that the show we got here in london was the real deal - that these guys are the real deal. such power and conviction in their playing, they throw themselves at you on stage. wilco is in a great place right now and they're writing some great great songs to back it up. the new one, what light, was probably the highlight for me again. we stayed right till the end while some other forged ahead of the crowd across grant park to broken social scene - maybe the better plan. when we got there, there wasnt a whole lot left, maybe half the set or less, because it was a short one right before the chili peppers - probably the shortest set for a bigger name band, they only got like 45 minutes - but they were given the biggest respect and one hell of a long encore call out, that name came to fruition. they did come out for a couple curtain calls and jump down to crowd level to meet some fans, though, which i thought was really cool. they surprised everyone by bringing out emily haines for anthems, and closed with a most rockin' ibi dreams of pavement. another candidate for song of the weekend. it had so much raw energy and power, the band brought it so hard. it was a dedication to their touring soundman who was doing his last show with them. what a great way to go out. we should have taken those words with us. instead, we checked out a little bit of the chili peppers and i was least impressed. shoulda gone out on the BSS high note, but oh well. i just found the chili's to be mostly lame and almost having become a parody of themselves. i dunno, i wasnt into it much, so it didnt take much convincing when rachelle wanted to take off to the merch booth at the end of the night. not much was left, so we regrouped back at the hotel for a journey on up to the abbey pub for our sunday latenight fix, bustle in your hedgegrow.
bustle in your hedgegrow - abbey pub
this might be the story of the weekend. we go up to the abbey pub to check out bustle in your hedgegrow, and team A arrives 4 strong, waits in line, gets our wristbands, goes to pay and finds out unless you got tickets or are on the list, you aint gettin' in. shit. we go to the pub next door to regroup and figure out what to do. in the meantime, team B arrives 6 strong, and 2 of them buy extras outside to go find us inside, assuming we had gotten in. after a drink, i notice scottie out on the street through the pub window - we were just about on our way out anyhow, so i go meet him and he gives me the scoop. the key to this exchange is that when we came in first and got carded and whatnot we struck up conversation with the id guy who was wearing a very touristy canada t-shirt. turns out this guy loves canada. i mean, LOVES CANADA, to the tune of having a bootleg bell express vue sattelite dish - bootleg canadian tv!! he loves canadian idol, peter mansbridge and corner gas. he carries lucky loonies and twoonies. he's an avid blue jays fan. the man lives in the home of the world series champions and he cheers for a canadian baseball team!! so, as team A and 2/3 of team B are devising plans to grab cabs and head back downtown, figuring brahm and angie will eventually realize we didnt get in and just enjoy the show, our honourary canadian, Leroy, comes over and with his stamp held high ever so subtly begins to go around our circle and stamp each of our hands. he then tells us to go in through the pub, wait a few moments and then start to come in, and smaller groups. when its our turn to go through we get up to the front and start to go in and he changes into a beast and starts yelling "i told you guys to stay in here! no more ins and outs! you here me?! you're in here the rest of the night!" - totally played it off for us to the doorman and away we were. 10 strong for bustle in your hedgegrow. amazing to get hooked up for what was destined to be an amazing show. a band which consists of benevento/russo on keys and drums, dave dreiwitz on bass (from ween!), and brendan bayliss on guitar, from umphrey's, filling in for scott metzger who couldnt be there. they do all instrumental led zeppelin, unless of course the crowd picks up the vocals, which certainly happened a few times. brendan also sang on fool in the rain - a highlight of the night which also included marco jumping off stage to play the crazy piano breakdown on the actual house piano behind these black curtains that just happened to be RIGHT BESIDE where we were taking in the show - ren got a great photo, mine is shit. slow reaction time, and the crowd really surged. that show was a totally balls to the walls rock extravaganza. it was so hot, so sweaty, people were rockin' extremely hard, and i think we all lost a good 10 lbs.... which is probably a good thing, bowling season is coming and i need to get in shape. they played some awesome zeppelin, and totally had us beaten into submission by the end of it. the band looked like they were having more fun than the crowd, too, which no doubt kept everything moving like a freight train. we left puddles of ourselves, said our goodbyes, and waited for the cabs to drag our asses back home. it seemed like forever.
house on the rock
on monday we ventured up into wisconsin so we could hit this crazy "museum" called the house on the rock. we stayed at a wicked inn and hit the pool/hot tub late night for some kickass relaxin' after the 3 day fest. we saw the museum tuesday morning before heading back to chicago. this was quite literally a house built on/in the rock in rural wisconsin. and modified, expanded into a pyschadelic walk through kitchy creepiness. room after room of weirdness. a carousel with 300 "things" and not one horse head. crazy flying mannequins with one breast showing. dolls. lots of dolls. miniatures. history of aviation stuff, old town walks, old cars, a giant whale tangled up in a squid. lots and lots of musical stuff - set up puppet orchestras. and everything was so very very grande. it was truly a spectacle, took us 3 hours to walk through and get our creep on, before we came out and had no idea what we should even be reflecting on. hit the road back to chicago, checked into a hostel, grabbed a bite and went back to grant park for their tuesday night free movie in the park - this night it was american graffiti, and we didnt stay till the end. back to the hostel where rachelle tried to sneak me into her dorm room and "hide" me under a single sheet in a single bed when we got busted. you cant even imagine the ridiculousness. like it was a cartoon or something, i could just tiptoe out when their backs were turned... uh huh.... anyways, eventually the morning came and it was wednesday. merry waitsmas.
tom waits
august 9th, 2006. rachelle and i spent the afternoon doing some touristy stuff... started the day at the sears tower, going up to the observation deck to get a wicked glimpse of the city. i personally think i enjoyed the veiw from the hancock last time, but only because you could see more shoreline from it's location. the sears gives you a better overall view of the city. i had a bit of a moment when i caught soldier field and remembered that today was the day jerry garcia had died 11 years ago and that was the place of his final show. i stared a little longer and said a little something for jerry... my eyes might have watered a little, too. after some lunch at portillo's we got on a gangster tour and it was really awesome. saw so much more of the city than i figured we would, got entertained and learned some of the mobster history from chicago while seeing the great historical sights. that took us to our hotel check in time where we met up again with ren and crystal, then i went on a crazy t-shirt mission, and eventually we got some dinner, not all of our dinners, but some of them, didnt pay for any of them, and then got in line and waited for waits. and when it was time, when the man hit the stage and the band struck up, when the anticipation was over and it had become a reality, this is what happened...
Tom Waits
Auditorium Theatre, Roosevelt University
Chicago, Il.
08.09.06.
Make it Rain(1)
Hoist That Rag
Shore Leave
God's Away on Business
All the World is Green
Falling Down
Tango Till They're Sore(2)
Tom Traubert's Blues(2)
Eyeball Kid(3)
Down in the Hole
Don't Go Into that Barn
Shake It
Trampled Rose
What's He Building in There?(4)
'Till the Money Runs Out(5)
Murder in the Red Barn
Lie to Me
Get Behind the Mule(6)
encore 1:
The Day After Tomorrow(7)
Singapore(8)
encore 2:
Whistling Past the Graveyard
Time Time Time(9)
(1) - it finally happens. tom hits the stage and chicago nearly blows up.
(2) - exit band, enter piano. just tom and larry taylor on the upright bass playing super soft. great banter about local streets and how they change, with a little tip of the hat to "9th and hennepin", a mention of being shot, and a bit about the Weiner Circle and its, umm, hospitality. crownd loses their fuÇking minds for tom traubert's blues.
(3) - casey waits beatboxing, larry taylor using his mouth as an instrument, too... strange arrangement.
(4) - my heart nearly stops.
(5) - another great arrangement, took me a while to figure out what it was.
(6) - i love you, tom.
(7) - tom on the acoustic, and if you werent listening closely, that's all you'd hear.. the band was playing ever so softly behind him, it was incredible.. such controlled touch... just... barely... enough. 2nd time that day i had a tear in my eye.
(8) - raging.
(9) - one last time on the acoustic. thank you. goodnight.
incredible incredible incredible - my mind was blown from start to finish. the band sounds like the way marrionette's dance, and tom totally plays to that role, as well - its such a beautiful way for music to exist in a space like that. he's such a commander of the stage and the crowd, but shows no sign of ego on stage. the bands knows their spots and tom gives way accordingly. and i really cant emphasize enough how controlled the show was, on each and every one of their parts. it was just really well constructed and put together, the sound was amazing, the set choice was fine by me, and tom waits is just tom waits and thats all there is to that.
(i had already written that elsewhere, but i see no reason to say it any different - it says it all. the show was amazing.)
so, in the end, another great trip to chicago. we got lucky when we needed it, saw more of the city than i could have imagined, took in an amazing music festival, a crazy museum, we also made time for touristy stuff, like the art institute where i totally got re-inspired by a guy named harry callahan, a bus tour, and just walking around and taking in the city. i'd say we really packed it in. and we finished it all with a legend in a glorious music theatre. a trip i'll never forget.
same time same place next year, right?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)