And now what did you do TODAY?

[Aura]

Lolla day 1 was great considering how many god damn people are here this year. Wye Oak had some initial hiccups with gear but they recovered and had a good set. Young the Giant had a really large crowd for such an early set, and while they're a lot of fun they weren't getting great sound. Vocals were being masked. Grace Potter was way better than I expected, she has a ton of energy and sang her ass off for over an hour.

After those first three bands we rested, grabbed food, and sat kinda far back from Kids These Days. They sounded good but I hated their crowd, mostly consisting of bitchass high school kids hitting pipes and generally acting like fucksticks. After that we checked out The Bloody Beatroots at the only stage under a tent called Perry's. It. Was. Insane. A completed rave at 4:30 pm and I loved every minute of it.

After the techno bash we walked to A Perfect Circle for the complete set. Maynard was fantastic and they sounded as good as I could have hoped. So very happy I can check them off my list now, but it just makes me want to see Tool even more. We had some schedule conflicts by staying at APC and missed all of Tinie Tempah and just about all of Ok Go, the latter of which kinda sucked because Allison really wanted to see them so I'll have to get her some tickets to one of their shows soon.

We ended with Coldplay. Say what you will about their music, they are fantastic live. Zero regrets about skipping Muse to see them.

Day 2 plans: L1ght, Walk the Moon, DJ Neil Armstrong, Phantogram, Super Mash Bros, Local Natives, Cee Lo Green, Lykki Li, and Eminem. Like half of these groups will be at the Perry's stage, so hooray for raving all day long!

[tyrion]

Grace Potter is great live. Your description of her performance is spot on. I caught her once at a fest. I had tickets for another show and ended up giving them to my daughter who now is a huge fan and saw up at the DMB Caravan in NJ this summer.

Drove 10 hours yesterday rt to get my son, move him out of his summer dorm and bring him home just to do it all over again in 2 weeks. Now nursing what hopefully is the end of a migraine.

[jvlgato]

Nice review, thanks, Bryan! Sounds like a great time!

Been wanting to explore more Grace Potter. Also, I like Coldplay. Just not crazy for them, and don't know why they have the cult like following that they do.

Mike sorry about the migraine, hope you feel better! Parenthood sounds like being a chaffeur when the kids are that age! I'll have to prepare for that!

Edited August 6, 2011 by jvlgato

[Grahame]

Was that 10 hours without speeding Mike? I expect your son now thinks his father drives like an old man.

EDIT: Sorry about the migraine, maybe others can recommend the ideal cocktail. I'd say ice-cream, bacon and chocolate are all indicated

Edited August 6, 2011 by Grahame

[tyrion]

I had a radar detector, which maybe the best investment I've made in a long time. Imitrex is dealing with the migraine.

[Salt Peanuts]

Had the new gas dryer delivered. They were supposed to hook it up as well, but they didn't (well, couldn't since they were only the delivery folks). Now I'm hoping to find a plumber who would be willing to come out and connect it for us. I've been told it's fairly easy to connect it yourself, but I decided not to chance it since I've never connected a gas appliance before and the particular gas line hadn't been used in at least 3 years.

Also trimmed brushes and cleaned gutters - this was not fun.

[Dreadhead]

^ let me know how it goes as I am going to be going through the same process (barring the f'ing mortgage company doing something stupid) in a few weeks.

I rode my bike for 4.5 hours and had a great time just riding solo even set a personal best for average speed and power for that time. Now I can eat whatever I want as I've burned 3000+ calories for the day.

[grawk]

spent the first part of the day at a cookout, then from 5:30-12 working on an engine swap on my lawn mower. We got it running. Now I just need to get a battery, find a place to mount it, and I should be good.

[shellylh]

went and looked at a condo complex. it's in a part of town that Emily doesn't like, but i don't know why, as it's close to downtown, close to where both of us work, has the Cincinnati Art Museum and one of Cinci's major parks in it, and has a really nice slow food market/restaurant around the corner. the neighborhood used to be kinda crap, but it hasn't been in a long, long time. great time to lease condos in Cincinnati right now. $750 a month for places that they were trying to get $500,000 for three years ago. crazy.

Wow, that is cheap!

[Salt Peanuts]

Finally got the dryer hooked up so started what will be the never-ending-loads-of-laundry. At least the new dryer looks nice.

[Beefy]

it's not for a big place, so really the lease is right. condo prices just went insane in Cincinnati a few years ago.

And we can thank all of these people for the GFC. People (and governments) going batshit insane on cheap credit for nothing but speculative investing.

*

Not today specifically, but I decided to start playing chess again. I haven't played since I was 15, some 17 years ago. So I bought Shredder for Android and it is kicking my arse in approximately 63000 different ways. Still, I've worked my way up from 1000 to 1250 ELO in a few days which I am fairly happy with......

[Dreadhead]

Go smoothly?

Edit: this was about the dryer install.

Edited August 7, 2011 by Dreadhead

[Salt Peanuts]

^ Yep. It took the plumber about ~40 minutes or so to hook it up. It took him a bit longer since he decided to add fastener to secure the gas line better to the wall. FWIW, I did have all the parts that were needed (save for couple fitting which the plumber had on hand) and the gas shut-off valve was located within the required distance.

Even if you needed to route a new gas line to your dyer, I can't imagine it taking too long since we had to do that for our gas stove (we already had gas in house, but not gas connection for stove in kitchen) and it was done in couple of hours.

Edited August 7, 2011 by Salt Peanuts

[Aura]

Well I made it through all of Lolla. I was so exhausted from day 2 that I couldn't bring myself to post impressions on Saturday night, so here goes -

-------

Day 2:

Started out as only a music festival could when we saw a punkass kid tell a religious activist that "jesus could suck on his balls, dude!" while we were walking towards one of the entry gates. Allison and I went to Perry's right at the start of the day to check out some early electronic stuff by L1ght. We also got to witness the aftermath from Girl Talk's closing set at that stage the night before, where apparently 20,000 people crammed into a tent the size of a football field. It was already fairly muddy and beat up, as you can imagine.

Anywho, we left Perry's within 25-30 minutes because the music was pretty generic and headed to the main field. We picked a nice spot to lay out on the blanket and listened to Walk The Moon from a distance. They were a lot of fun and have a pretty creative combination of vocalists including one who plays a single drum for most of the songs. They said that they'll have an album out soon and I'll be sure to check that one out after hearing them live. After they finished, Phantogram started playing on the opposite stage across the field. We both really like this group so we decided to walk up to the crowd in front of the stage. They might have had the best sound quality of any band for the entire weekend and kept my head bobbing the entire time. They also have an album coming out soon (September) and the new stuff they played was obviously rehearsed and already refined. Great execution all the way... I highly recommend them.

My friends met up with us at the end of Phantogram and we all headed back to Perry's for Super Mash Bros. I really was looking forward to these guys after grabbing their first two albums; they sound better to me than Girl Talk. The tent was as crazy and suffocatingly-humid as day 1 and we ended up only staying in there for 20 or so minutes, then went outside and listened to them in the shade.

The next couple hours are kinda of a blur. We went through 2 or 3 bottles of pinot grigio and saw Local Natives at one of the larger stages. I was fairly tipsy throughout their set but they are a great band with a lot of potential. 4 of the 5 members share group vocals for most of their songs and they have a great percussion setup. For having only one album out so far they really had a massive crowd, but I guess it doesn't take much when 90,000 people are moving throughout the grounds. But yeah, Local Natives finished and Cee Lo Green started, but he was so fucking bizarre that we decided to skip him and walked over to Lykkie Li. She was pretty decent and played some of her really popular stuff first. She has solid stage presence and really worked the crowd up when it was clear that we were getting tired. We stuck around for about 30 minutes and left for Eminem.

Now, I'm a bit of an anomaly when it comes to Eminem. I'm not at all familiar with his material and rap really isn't my thing, so I was a little unsure about going to see him. The crowd was huge, I would guess at least 60,000 crammed in (I heard that the other headliner playing opposite, My Morning Jacket, had barely anyone show up). His set ended up being a lot of fun even though I was totally out of my element. The crowd had a great vibe without him really having to put much energy forward.

-------

Day 3:

We left for Grant Park a few hours later than the first two days just out of laziness. Decided to stop walking all over the grounds and opted to camp out between two main stages so we could listen to the groups as they rotated back and forth. First up was Noah & The Whale. They were far more upbeat than I was expecting (think modern Johnny Cash) and had some great instrumental americana sections in a majority of their songs. City And Colour followed them. They were very very generic and I don't recall much about their stuff.

Flogging Molly was our third band, and by this point we could start to see come clouds moving in to the city. It got darker and darker as they played. The irish guys are awesome, really fun and had the best energy out of any of the bands I saw throughout the event that had a daytime slot. By the time they finished, it looked as though we were about to get a monsoon. The temperature dropped about 15 degrees within 30 minutes while Cage The Elephant played. They were alright and have some okay mainstream rock songs. Their lead singer is nuts and was crowd surfing within the first 5 minutes of playing, which is fun to see.

About 15 minutes before Damien Marley and Nas were scheduled to start the sky opened up and soaked the every-living crap out of every single person in the park. Allison had an umbrella and managed to keep our shit dry but we might as well have jumped in a pool. The rain felt kind of nice, but it made everyone a little nuts. All of the fields were turned to mud and there was garbage everywhere. Before the weekend I was hoping nothing at this event would make me think of Woodstock, but this was pretty much Woodstock through and through. Anyway, Marley and Nas played once it cleared up a little and I chilled out to some pretty decent reggae and rap tunes. Just like Eminem, I was totally out of my standard music fair with these guys but it was fun.

The weekend ended with Deadmau5. He is seriously a badass motherfucker. He started his set 20 minutes early because it began downpouring for the second time (didn't last for too long luckily) and I think he was afraid people would get fed up with the weather and take off before he finished. I really doubt that, because his set was a single giant rave party the entire time. His dubstep breakdown during "Raise Your Weapon" was probably the highlight of the entire weekend for me. I heard that Foo Fighters had a great show and had a much larger crowd than the mouse, but I don't regret going to see him. Good stuff.

--------

I've already made plans to be at Lollapalooza 2012. It is very commercialized and there are way too many people, but the organizers have done well logistically and planned out the event pretty damn well. I do hope for a better selection of artists next year. Day 3's lineup was really weak and I honestly could have skipped everyone except for Deadmau5, but for my first Lolla experience it was a lot of fun. I'm also planning on wearing shoes that can handle mud next year.

[MoonShine]

Still can't believe you skipped Muse for Coldplay.

[Aura]

Still can't believe you skipped Muse for Coldplay.

Heh, a lot of people would disagree with that pick. My friends are big Coldplay fans though and I honestly am not very familiar with Muse. You gotta sacrifice throughout the event because it is absolutely impossible to see every band.

[Pars]

Glad you had fun Bryan. Can't believe you missed The Kills on Friday though

Muse vs. Coldplay? meh, not big fans of either, though I guess seeing either of them would be cool. I wish I could have gone a couple of years ago when Radiohead played. Might try to go next year, depending upon who is going to be there.

[grawk]

I saw the first few:

1991

Location: North America

Dates: July 18, 1991 – August 28, 1991

Main Stage: Jane's Addiction, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Nine Inch Nails, Living Colour, Ice-T & Body Count, Butthole Surfers, Rollins Band, Violent Femmes, Fishbone,Emergency Broadcast Network

Side Stage: Othello's Revenge

[edit]1992

Location: North America

Dates: July 18, 1992 – September 13, 1992

Main Stage: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ministry, Ice Cube, Soundgarden, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Pearl Jam, Lush

Side Stage: Jim Rose Circus, Sharkbait, Archie Bell, Porno for Pyros, Basehead, Cypress Hill, House of Pain, Sweaty Nipples, Arson Garden, Seaweed, Seam, Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E., The Look People, Stone Temple Pilots, The Vulgar Boatmen, Truly, Skrew, Tribe, The Authority, Samba Hell, Café Tacuba, Rage Against the Machine, Ice T & Body Count, Luscious Jackson, Shrunken Head.

[edit]1993

Location: North America

Dates: June 18, 1993 – August 7, 1993

Main Stage: Primus, Alice in Chains, Dinosaur Jr., Fishbone, Arrested Development, Front 242, Babes in Toyland, Rage Against the Machine

Side Stage: Tool, Sebadoh, Cell, Unrest, Mercury Rev, Mosquito, Free Kitten, Royal Trux, Tsunami, Mutabaruka, Coctails, Scrawl, Luscious Jackson, Genitorturers, Truly,Eggs, Girls Against Boys, Thurston Moore, A Lighter Shade of Brown, Glue, The Karl Hendricks Trio, Hurl, The Goats, The Runties

[edit]1994

Location: North America

Dates: July 7, 1994 – September 5, 1994

Main Stage: The Smashing Pumpkins, Beastie Boys, George Clinton & the P-Funk All Stars, The Breeders, A Tribe Called Quest, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, L7,Boredoms (first half of tour), Green Day (second half)

Side Stage: The Flaming Lips, The Verve, The Boo Radleys, The Frogs (first six dates only), Guided by Voices, Lambchop, Girls Against Boys, Rollerskate Skinny, Palace Songs, Stereolab, Fu-Schnickens, The Pharcyde, Shudder to Think, Luscious Jackson, God Lives Underwater, King Kong, Charlie Hunter Trio, Shonen Knife, Blast Off Country Style, Souls of Mischief, Cypress Hill, The Black Crowes

[Aura]

I'm really envious that you saw Tool that early on Dan.

[Voltron]

I'm really envious that you saw Tool that early on Dan.

It's ok to just come out and say you can't believe how old Dan is. You don't have to beat around the bush.

[grawk]

that show is probably why it took until last year before I could listen to tool again.

[Pars]

Who stood out at the early Lollapaloozas, at least to you Dan? Some bands in there that I would have liked to have seen...

[grawk]

janes, soundgarden, Primus, the flips, body count, nick cave, pfunk, nin, front 242, uhm others

[grawk]

janes, soundgarden, Primus, the flips, body count, nick cave, pfunk, nin, front 242, stereolab, jim rose, more

[Fitz]

I had a radar detector, which maybe the best investment I've made in a long time. Imitrex is dealing with the migraine.

I've really been meaning to get one for a few weeks now (after miraculously getting off ticket-free), but no idea where to even start.