What I Did Over My Summer Vacation Part II

In August I flew to Chicago to visit my friend Melissa and attend the Lollapallooza music festival. The entire weekend was, without a doubt, one of my tip-top mountain top moments of the summer. It would be impossible for me to really talk about the whole thing without becoming a crazy rambling person. So... just a few notes.

1. There were somewhere upward of a hundred bands, musicians and groups that performed during these three days. We were able to see about twenty of these including: The National, The New Pornographers, Lady Gaga, Arcade Fire, Frightened Rabbit, B.o.B., Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, Mumford & Sons, The Temper Trap, Matt and Kim, Green Day, Rogue Wave, Grizzly Bear, Switchfoot and Hockey (these are just the ones I can name off the top of my head). Anyone paying attention to some of my music playlists over the past year should know that all those names together were enough to throw me into fits of glee.

2. I don't like humidity. My hair specifically does not like humidity and I ended up having to wear it curly for almost the entire weekend.

3. I could have handled the humidity on it's own but couple that with being outside ALL DAY surrounded by thousands of people who are equally sweaty and sticky? Gross. At the end of each day, the moment we re-entered my friend's air-conditioned apartment it was all I could to not not throw myself into the shower weeping with joy.

4. Cicadas are creepy. And loud. But kind of perfect.

5. Say what you will about her, Lady Gaga puts on a pretty damn good show.

6. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes are one part sixties-throwback, two parts pure love. I fell in love with this band when I first heard “Home” on Community and that song still fills me with lovely fits of joy. And now I think I know why.  Of all the bands I saw that weekend they were the one that seemed to best exemplify the spirit of a music festival. And I do believe that the organizers underestimated the size of the crowd they could draw because we ended up packed in with a couple thousand sweaty fans into a too small venue. (Other than the Lady Gaga concert it was the most "crowded" I felt all weekend). But somehow it just became part of the experience.

And at the end of the show, it was obvious that the crowd didn’t want it to be over and the band ended up coming back out for an encore (the only time I saw this happen over the weekend with a band that wasn’t headlining). The lead singer asked everyone to sit down and miracle of miracles people found a way to do so. He then walked out into the crowd and sang the song “Brother.” It was moving and lovely and for a moment I could almost imagine that it was forty years ago and we were in the middle of the Summer of Love at Woodstock. 

7. It rained on Saturday morning, which made for some pretty muddy conditions. Honestly, I wasn't too horrifed by it through because it felt like a nice respite from the heat (plus it made for thinner crowds) Unfortunately, the clouds burned off fairly early and we were once again left with suffocating humidity and and sweaty crowds of Lollapalooza revelers.

8. Another favorite Lollapallooza moment came at the very end. Arcade Fire closed out Sunday night and it was, for lack of a better term, epic. I can’t imagine another band being more suited for the moment. Arcade Fire already has a grand quality about them with their seven members switching off violin, cello, guitar, drum, keyboard (and on and on) playing duties. When they’re on stage they exude an energy that is completely infectious. Although, I have a feeling that the crowd of thousands they were playing for contributed to the energy on that field. It was the end of three long, hot and tiring days and yet for that hour we all seemed to gather the energy to dance and sway and scream the lyrics together. They last song played at the end of their encore was "Wake Up" and it was absolutely beautiful. Hearing thousands of people belt out in unison the "Oh-ooohs" with crazy abandon was nothing short of breathtaking. And as luck would have it I found a YouTube video of the moment. 



9. I love Chicago. Not that I would ever live there because again - Humidity + My hair = Frightening. But it really is a lovely city. The Thursday before Lollapalooza Melisa and I took the entire day to walk around the city, find some good food and hit up Sprinkles for some yummy cupcakes (yeah, I live in L.A. but it took a trip to Chicago for me to have my first Sprinkles cupcakes).

Perhaps one of my favorite aspects of the city is that it actually has a dependent and useful transportation system. Sounds like a weird thing to love right? But it lends to an unmistakable energy about the city - rumblings of different train lines, the footsteps and chatter of commuters walking to work, blaring taxi horns...  there's life in all that.

Each day we took the train into the city and spent the commute listening to music and watching episodes of Community on our iPhones (and I would choose this over an hours worth of freeway traffic in a heartbeat.) And each night, after an exhausting day of walking and standing around, there was nothing like the relief of sliding into those vinyl train seats and curling up to enjoy the ride home. Saturday may have been my favorite night because we were on the 12:30 am train and most of our riding companions were fellow Lollapallooza-goers or drunk bar crawlers. As you might imagine, this lead to some highly entertaining antics. And lots of singing.

10. Each night of Lollapalooza closes out with dueling headliners. Friday it was Lady Gaga/The Strokes, Saturday it was Green Day/Phoenix, and Sunday it was Arcade Fire/Soundgarden. The acts would play until 10:00 at which time the entire park would spill out onto the streets of Chicago. I'm almost positive that the regular citizens of the city did not much appreciate having tens of thousands of crazy drunk people screaming and singing down the streets. But for me? It pretty much cemented this weekend as one of the most epically beautiful ever.

The last night, after the final strains of Arcade Fire's "Wake Up" drifted off into the night, we directed our achy and tired feet toward the exits. We were sweaty and sticky and covered in beer and mud but we were exhilarated after three days of music and fun and laughter. As we moved with the crowd onto the streets I even half wondered if we would even make it the twelve or so blocks back to the train station (I had been on my feet so long that they were actually swollen in pain). There was a sense of bittersweet melancholy as we walked away from the park for the last time but even blocks away we could still hear the swell of people singing the "Oh-Oh's" chorus of "Wake Up." Maybe it's cheesy but at that moment I felt a sense of camaraderie with these strangers and I knew that I would never forget that moment or the entire three days preceding.

Thanks for the memories Lollapalooza 2010.