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First order of business: Chicago weather, freaking warm up! That awful cold drizzle on my way home actually made me glad I was too tired and chilly to stay for all of Built to Spill. I don't like being glad I didn't stay for an entire set!
As for the music... for once, I am going to observe the "if you don't have anything nice to say..." rule. Basically, I went today to get a sense of the place, and because it made sense at the time to get a 3-day pass (and I hoped that maybe Yo La Tengo or Built to Spill would be interesting beyond the one song each I'd heard). Jesus Lizard was one of the most bizarre things I have ever seen on stage, mostly because it was raucous and noisy in an early 90s grunge sort of way, and everyone on stage was greying or grey and the lead singer crowd-surfed and whipped off his shirt to reveal his slight old-man pudge. IT WAS WEIRD. Totally freaking hilarious, to me, standing around squished between all kinds of (slightly less greying) people, some of whom looked like they'd wandered in from a truck stop. You'd think that at a show in the middle of a park, where people basically wander back and forth between stages, you wouldn't be able to tell the demographic shift, but apparently all the plaid, tight-jeaned hipsters hid from Jesus Lizard, and black t-shirt wearing old guys pumping their fists in the air replaced them. (In the end I hung out by the port-a-potties for most of their set, so come to think of it, they scared me away too. But in a totally bemused, I should really call someone and tell them to watch the webcast of these shenanigans sort of way.)
I was glad to see that our little free subset of the Tribune told people they needed to see pretty much everyone I don't care about. (And, given the fact that they gave Torchwood: Children of Earth four out of four stars, I think it's safe to say it's pretty much always an advantage to disagree with the Red Eye.) Mostly I'm just happy that maybe there won't be an unmanageably huge crowd for Beirut if everyone else has been told to see Matt & Kim.
And finally, I know I'm going to want to say this at least fifty more times this weekend, but you have no idea how weird it is to turn around and constantly be running into guys who look just like my father. 1) The 70s are over for a reason, you silly hipsters! 2) Please stop, it freaks me out. 3) That photo was actually in an issue of Easy Rider, which makes me laugh every time I see it. After I finish laughing at how incredibly dorky it is, and how every goshdarn 20-something male in the indie subculture has somehow gravitated to a style my now-retirement-age father sported decades ago. (There's also a photo I've seen at home of him in tight jeans and red converse high-tops, with a worn-out, faded t-shirt. Whyyyyyy, hipsters, whyyy! (Alternately: I was apparently raised by a hipster and a hippie! Whyyy!))
As for the music... for once, I am going to observe the "if you don't have anything nice to say..." rule. Basically, I went today to get a sense of the place, and because it made sense at the time to get a 3-day pass (and I hoped that maybe Yo La Tengo or Built to Spill would be interesting beyond the one song each I'd heard). Jesus Lizard was one of the most bizarre things I have ever seen on stage, mostly because it was raucous and noisy in an early 90s grunge sort of way, and everyone on stage was greying or grey and the lead singer crowd-surfed and whipped off his shirt to reveal his slight old-man pudge. IT WAS WEIRD. Totally freaking hilarious, to me, standing around squished between all kinds of (slightly less greying) people, some of whom looked like they'd wandered in from a truck stop. You'd think that at a show in the middle of a park, where people basically wander back and forth between stages, you wouldn't be able to tell the demographic shift, but apparently all the plaid, tight-jeaned hipsters hid from Jesus Lizard, and black t-shirt wearing old guys pumping their fists in the air replaced them. (In the end I hung out by the port-a-potties for most of their set, so come to think of it, they scared me away too. But in a totally bemused, I should really call someone and tell them to watch the webcast of these shenanigans sort of way.)
I was glad to see that our little free subset of the Tribune told people they needed to see pretty much everyone I don't care about. (And, given the fact that they gave Torchwood: Children of Earth four out of four stars, I think it's safe to say it's pretty much always an advantage to disagree with the Red Eye.) Mostly I'm just happy that maybe there won't be an unmanageably huge crowd for Beirut if everyone else has been told to see Matt & Kim.
And finally, I know I'm going to want to say this at least fifty more times this weekend, but you have no idea how weird it is to turn around and constantly be running into guys who look just like my father. 1) The 70s are over for a reason, you silly hipsters! 2) Please stop, it freaks me out. 3) That photo was actually in an issue of Easy Rider, which makes me laugh every time I see it. After I finish laughing at how incredibly dorky it is, and how every goshdarn 20-something male in the indie subculture has somehow gravitated to a style my now-retirement-age father sported decades ago. (There's also a photo I've seen at home of him in tight jeans and red converse high-tops, with a worn-out, faded t-shirt. Whyyyyyy, hipsters, whyyy! (Alternately: I was apparently raised by a hipster and a hippie! Whyyy!))
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