Thursday 11 August 2011

Music: Lolla Recap!

Hello everyone! 

Now that the Lollapalooza Music Festival is over, I finally am able to look back onto the weekend and make sense of all that happened in that short period of time, and hopefully understand what was good and what was bad about the weekend.


The Good
  • Chicago was a lovely city to hold a festival. Most festivals are stranded far from civilization, but as Lollapalooza is hosted right in the middle of downtown Chicago, there is plenty to do both in and out of the park.
  • Grant Park, the location of the festival, was a perfectly sized mega-park that provided plenty of room for park activities, while never seeming like it was TOO big (travel time, desolation, etc). 
  • Plenty of selection was provided in the food category. It wasn't like some events where all you can buy is Pizza Pizza and Pepsi, or whatnot. Instead, local vendors bid to have a booth in what they deemed "Chow Town", resulting in hundreds of unique food options.
  • The transportation system in Chicago was spectacular, removing any sort of panic that usually follows a late arrival or big crowd.
  • There were thousands and thousands of porta-potties. No lines. Ever. 'Nuff said.
  • With over a hundred bands to choose from, every genre was covered and everyone could see and hear their own unique lineup of bands over 8 stages throughout the three day fest.
  • Every band that was booked played, save one smaller band, which is a rarity when dealing with talent.
  • The headliners were balanced very well considering how every night featured two major headliners (as well as cult headliners for smaller audiences), ie. My Morning Jacket vs. Eminem and Foo Fighters vs. Deadmau5.
  • The front of the stages weren't saved for the rich people, as their were no restrictions in front of the stage for where you could or could not go. 
  • The rain.


The Bad
  • As a negative to the first point in The Good section, because the festival is hosted in the city, you are forced to rent overpriced Chicago accommodations, as opposed to relatively inexpensive country-festival camping.
  • Against the fourth point in The Good, because of the complex schedule, many similar bands were impossible to see due to lack of travel time, crowds, among other factors between the many far off stages.
  • A few bands were off their mark over the weekend, namely Ce Lo Green and Noah & The Whale. Ce Lo, as expected, came late, and he was very rude to the crowd once he realized that they were not happy. All he did were covers and almost completely ignored his own songs. I didn't actually see him first hand, but according to some, he thought he was being smart by trying to say he was not going to do his hit Fuck You (and then surprise them at the end), but it turned on him as the audience got rowdy. 
  • Noah & The Whale on the other hand, just really didn't fit well into the live experience. Mainly, their songs are odd because nobody and I mean nobody (at least in North America) likes their folky stuff, and the only reason people saw them was for their synth pop-hits. However, their folky songs are so bad, namely the whole violin thing, that it actually turned off the audience to the point were most people were leaving before their popular songs were played.
  • The only disappointing headliner clash was Coldplay vs. Muse, both being successful European rockers. I guess one is lighter rock and one is a more heavier experience, but that being said, its still a close choice.
  • The rain.

Well, it was a fun weekend to say the least! Make sure to check the free videos of the shows on Youtube.

  • Did anyone else go?
  • Have you ever gone to a outdoor music event?
  • Any questions that I could answer about the event?

Let me know below!

9 comments:

  1. And where's the ugly? :D
    Also, yeah, not cool clashing Coldplay and Muse. Which one did you pick?

    ReplyDelete
  2. @my day in a sentence - I went to Coldplay. I guess it was the right choice because some people said that Muse wasn't in their element.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I hate rain on concerts. Makes you drink so much more just to keep warm.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I've been to a few festivals, I don't happen to remember them very clearly though...what did I do for three days?

    ReplyDelete
  5. excellent review hon. :) keep writing.

    ReplyDelete
  6. awesome! so many people!!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. sucks about the rain but it sounds like it was mostly a good event.

    ReplyDelete