I love you Chicago in the summer

Another weekend, another amazing music festival here in Chicago. I'm beginning to believe all the hype about Chicago summers; the sheer number of block parties, festivals, and places to go in general is mind-boggling. This weekend was Lollapalooza. Last year, Lollapalooza was supposed to be held in Ventura county (I think) and had the most amazing line-up this side of Coachella. I had my tickets all ready and then the entire thing got cancelled. Well, in an amazing turn of my Lollapalooza luck, it was relocated to Chicago's Grant Park this year, and some of the parts of last year's line-up were left in tact. In the end, I had tickets that probably cost somewhere around 5x last week's intonation tickets (since the intonation tickets were priced extremely cheap, it still didn't cost THAT much) for which I got to see some of my favorite bands past and present.

I started off Saturday badly - I missed the m83 and ...and you will know us by the trail of dead performances because they were scheduled earlier in the day when I was still sleeping off my fairly debaucherous night before (part of which was spent at a strange birthday party in naperville, which is a suburb 45 minutes southwest of the city). However, upon arriving, I was immediately treated to a set by Blonde Redhead, an amazing band that has this skinny Japanese lead singer who is either pretty and fashionable or an alien. I'm not sure. She is apparently dating the guitarist, because they would play guitar facing each other while kind of dancing with each other and almost making out. It was cool, but it was also pretty awkward. It also rained a bit during the set, which was nice since it was humid and hot. They closed with my favorite song by them - "Elephant woman" - which marked yet another time in the last week I've seen a favorite band play a favorite song.

Right after that, I watched the Black Keys, who are kind of like the oppositely-named White Stripes only more conventional, before heading over to one of the two large stages to wait for the Pixies to come on. I had wanted to see the Pixies ever since they reunited last year or the year before or whenever it was, and last year's Lollapalooza was supposed to be the chance. So it was amazing to finally get to see them in person, and have it be at Lollapalooza. It was really weird watching them because they are all so old now and their families were in the bleachers watching from the side of the stage - and there was like Grandparents and little kids sitting there while Frank Black was singing about slicing up eyeballs and shit. It's also weird because Frank Black is now just this fat guy that looks kind of like Matt Pinfield. And Kim Deal had this weird, medicated grin on her face the entire time she was playing. Fortunately, everyone's voices are still in tact and they sounded great. The highlights were naturally Debaser and Where is My Mind?, which was the encore. Everyone went nuts when Frank hit those beginning chords.

After Pixies, Weezer, closed out the Saturday show. They started off well - with nothing but songs from the Blue Album and Pinkerton - but then they slipped into a series of songs off the last three albums, and it was kind of sad. They are so boring now and about 70% of the songs they play live are shitty songs. It was nice to see them, but I don't think I'll ever pay to see one of their shows again.

Saturday night was culminated by me going out with James the Brit again and me losing my keys, probably in a cab between bars. Which is, as James might say, absolute shit mate. I've been spending too much time with that guy.

Sunday at Lollapalooza occurred around time in the office for me. Luckily, Grant Park is just East of the Loop, so it was like a 15 minute walk from my desk to the stages. Unfortunately, today was the hottest day I've experienced in Chicago thus far. It felt like it was somewhere between 105-110 degrees. This wasn't helped by the fact that I decided to stand at the front of the East stage for an hour, packed in with hipsters waiting for the Arcade Fire to perform. We were all dousing each other with water, drinking water getting passed around by security, and just trying to not pass out. Some of the water that got passed around already felt like it had been heated on a stove when it came around. But all that sacrifice was worth it because I was in the front section for one of the greatest live shows I've ever seen. The band was going nuts and was absolutely drenched in sweat by about three songs in (which was aided by the fact that they were wearing men's formal wear). Watching them writhe around on stage pounding their instruments, sometimes pounding each other, and jumping from instrument to instrument was extremely entertaining. Especially when the tall guy that looks like Napoleon Dynamite and the other guy who looks like Brent Slonecker started getting into a fight and when Brent would hit Napoleon on the head with drumsticks when he was wearing a motorcycle helmet. The guy that looked like Brent also went so nuts that he almost fell off the stage and then nearly passed out during the second to last song, but stumbled back on his feet just in time to play tambourine. I was generally impressed with how many instruments those people know how to play - everyone seemingly can play guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards, and some of the others play things like accordion and stand up bass. When they played Neighborhood #3 (power out) everyone on stage and in the crowd went insane. They were absolutely incredible.

After Arcade Fire, I closed up the night with sets by Spoon, The Killers (who were pretty good live even though I'm not a huge fan of theirs) and Death Cab for Cutie. The biggest disappointment of the weekend, other than having to miss M83, Trail of Dead, Ben Kweller, and The Walkmen (the last two because they were booked simultaneously with other bands I love), was the last act of the weekend. As you may or may not be aware, Parry Farrell is the organizer and host of the show, so all weekend we were repeatedly treated to his awkward on stage introductions (for example, he described Weezer as "combining the genius of songwriting with the intellect of a James Bond". I'm still not sure what that means in the context of Rivers Cuomo) and his repeated and strange appeals to join a "virtual march" on washington to stop global warming. Granted, it was a good weekend to promote stopping global warming since it was fucking ass-hot, but it was still strange. He also performed with his new band "Satellite Party", which is just another weird Parry Farrell rockfest, this time featuring Tony Kanal of No Doubt on bass. Anyway, the point is, Parry Farrell, lead singer of Jane's Addiction was there. And on the bill for this concert, Widespread Panic was booked TWICE on Sunday night. Widespread panic is a tye-dye Phish-like band that fits very well with Hippies and not so well at a concert aimed at Indie rockers. So some of us were figuring that second billing had to be the surprise act of the weekend. Maybe some huge band we wouldn't expect to be at Lollapalooza, maybe a Chicago act like Kanye West, or most likely, Jane's Addiction. So after the Killers, I waltz over to that stage fully expecting a surprise. And there was like about a thousand hippies spread out on the grass there waiting and no one else. Since Hippies are a laid back people, it was pretty easy to cut up to the front. Perry Farrell comes out, and says the following when introducing the band: "We are so happy to have this next band here. They are a huge band and we weren't sure if they were going to be able to participate, but we've been talking to them for weeks and it seemed like we'd be able to get them and at the last minute we were able to get them. They were the first band we wanted for Lollapalooza 2005 and we have them for you." So at this point, I'm like "YES IT IS A SURPRISE AND I AM GOING TO BE IN FRONT TO WITNESS IT". But then Parry, says the following fateful words: "One of the greatest OUTDOOR bands of all time" - oh no please no - "Wide. Spread. PANIC!!!" Huge chunks of the crowd immediately started turning to leave in disappointment. Poor hippies. Poor Widespread Panic. Nobody wants you. But seriously, who schedules them twice in one night to close the show??

I watched Death Cab for Cutie for half-an-hour and went back to the office to get dinner and do some work. Sunday night dinners in the office are actually some of the best of the week. Well, in terms of flavor. Not in terms of circumstanec.

Speaking of which. Work soon. Bye.

Intonation.

Last weekend was nutso. Friday night in particular was strange - involving many, many things I just can't mention here because the fistful can't handle the heat, but I will say that the evening ended with me kicking five germans and a brit out of my apartment at 6 AM. Where did they come from?

Saturday and Sunday I spent jumping between the office and the Intonation festival, Pitchfork's pretentious indie rock extravaganza. Incredibly, the festival was extremely well run, never had any issues, managed to stay perfectly on schedule, and by alternating between two stages, managed to have bands play back-to-back-to-back with no set-up delays. That was amazing. I went with James on Saturday (the british guy) and it was blazing hot outside. Let me tell you, I've seen a lot of large groups of disinterested, skinny indie rock kids wearing huge sunglasses, vintage t-shirts, and artsy, greasy hairdos, but this was like the Indie National Convention. Lots of messenger bags with pins. Lots of old pants that fit funny. Lots of ugly, ugly people. This is my musical world. It was really hot both days, so it was actually nice that everyone was in such constant apathetic repose. At the typical concert, you get all dirty, people keep pushing you, and you always almost fall or get injured, especially with so many people. But these kids could barely be bothered to tap their feet to a song. Though there was the occasional weirdo who was rocking out to the music, and invariably that guy dances so weird that everyone around feels uncomfortable. Case in point, this gay guy and his friends who's favorite move was to make both hands into pistols (with the barrel doubled up with both the index finger AND middle finger) and pointing every now and then on beat while making up the scrunched musical orgy face. Everyone was doing the wide-eyed "uhhh does anyone else see this guy?" face behind him. James and I wandered around most of day 1 since he wasn't too into the bands. We checked out the booths, stood in line for 30 minutes to get a large pizza, 1 corndog, and 1 pulled pork sandwich (that was WAY too much food but it seemed like a good idea at the time). I didn't see every performance that day, but I saw the ones I wanted to see - A.C. Newman, Broken Social Scene, The Go Team!, Magnolia Electric Co. - and also incidentally took in Four Tet. Four Tet was terrible - I like laptop glitch just as much as the next guy (which, come to think of it, probably isn't much according to most of the guys I'm around all day), but this was pretty much just some guy standing over a laptop making noises that sounded like a broken arcade game. Only it didn't sound as cool as it seems that would. The best performances of the day were definitely A.C. Newman and Broken Social Scene, two bands that sound just unbelievable live. Broken Social Scene had about ten more people in the band than I thought playing tons of instruments and usually about 6 guitars at once. For those who don't know, that's a lot of guitars. A.C. Newman played all his great songs, which is to be expected since he only has one album, and he had about two people who played random things like harpsichords and recorders and a girl bass player who was great, so basically it was a solid performance. Speaking of the recorder, tons of bands use it; I haven't seen that many recorders played in a two day period since like second grade. Oh yes, and Magnolia Electric Co. played "Simple Again" which was great though Jason Molina did that lame things singers do where they change the melody and cadence of the words just because they are performing live. I hate that. The Go Team! were not as good as I thought they'd be because I didn't realize that (1) they were overly peppy british people, (2) the lead singer is actually rapping on most of the songs (on the album it sounded like cheerleaders cheering usually), but they had two drum sets and every member of the band plays every instrument. And one of the drummers is a Japanese girl who sang this cute song. I fell in love momentarily.

I skipped performances by Death from Above 1979 and Tortoise because I was still tired from the night before. I caught about five minutes of Prefuse 73, which was pretty cool live.

Sunday I got to Union Park (the venue which is west of the Loop, Chicago's highrise district) late so I missed Thunderbirds are Now!, Dungen, Xiu Xiu, Out Hud, Hold Steady, Andrew Bird, and Deerhoof. Most of those I would have only wanted to see out of curiosity, but I was generally disappointed to miss Out Hud and Deerhoof. I did, however, see The Wrens, Les Savy Fav, and The Decemberists, and they more than made up for it. The Wrens were incredible, and their performance was improved by the fact that they are like in their late 30s or early 40s (and thus look like an Eagles reunion tour or like guys from my office starting a band or something) and were incredibly excited to be there. The bass player was most excited, indicated by the fact that he decided to smash the fins off his bass during the FIRST song, rendering him incapable of playing bass for two songs while they scrambled around finding him a new bass. He probably should have waited a bit longer than song ONE to started smashing equipment. He then turned to the audience and started speaking in ridiculous absolutes, confessing that "this is probably going to be the greatest day of our lives" and commending the other bands for being "very different, but also absolutely amazing and incredible in every way". But his energy was really a plus for the show. They closed perfectly with "She Sends Kisses" which is one of my favorite songs. They really do sound almost perfect live both vocally and instrumentally and its too bad they aren't bigger.

Les Savy Fav was next, and though I was never a fan before, I am now. Their lead singer is a fat bald guy with a huge red beard. He was wearing a tight red tshirt and little red shorts. He was playing with a roll of foil, a bubble machine, and sponges the whole time. He yelled out, "Hey Ladies, make some noise if you like fatties with money!" He took off everything but his underwear and started washing himself on stage. He poured a beer down his pants. He kept muttering things into his microphone. He came down into the crowd and asked everyone in the crowd to sit down, and actually got them to do it. We're talking around 8,000 people here. In other words: great show.

The Decemberists closed out the weekend, and while I'm not a huge, huge fan of theirs, I like their music, and as might be expected of them they were immaculate live. Colin Meloy's voice really does just sound like that, and yes they somehow managed to sing lyrics that use the words "peripet" and "petticoat" before they were through with 3 songs. I left early so I wouldn't have to ride a crowded train home.

All in all, Intonation was almost too hipster for its own good. Really, some of the kids there were so indie they seemed like spoofs of themselves. And I've never seen a more diverse set of incredibly pretentious bands that nobody has ever heard of unless they spend all their time posing with brooding faces and dropping obscure band names like "Neutral Milk Hotel", "Royksopp", and "!!!". I'm not even sure how to pronounce that last one. I think it's chik chik chik. Who knows. It was really weird when people would ask where I was going and ask who was playing. Because I would say "uhh probably no one you've heard of", and when they'd invariably ask me to say anyways, it was true - they hadn't heard of a SINGLE band playing. But you know, I have heard of these bands and I actually care about a few of them, so at least it was still a good time - and at about $11/day you couldn't beat the price.

Okay, sleep->work->repeat. Later.

Fixed it tron. Fuck you.

Chicago at night

One week down. I have a feeling that for a little while this blog is going to become strictly a weekend affair. I'm being worked pretty hard in the sessions we're doing right now and I'm in the office the majority of the day. By which I mean, uhhh, I'm being worked very hard. But it's been pretty good thus far - I just need to adjust to the schedule.

At the advice of most of my colleagues, I have been trying to take advantage of the Chicago summer. I have been trying to go out as much as I can while I don't actually have huge responsibilities at work and while the weather isn't freezing. And things will certainly begin to suck in that respect relatively soon.

Accordingly, I went out each of the last four nights. I alternated each night with different groups of guys from the office, and I'm just starting to get a feel for the Chicago nightlife (I would like to know more about the Chicago day life too, but doesn't look like that will happen this month). It has been only moderately enjoyable so far; it doesn't really hold a candle to Japan though. I miss being back there. Hopefully I'll have the chance to go back sometime in the near future (ahem*); of course, I've only been HERE for a couple weeks, so for now we will be giving the Windy City a chance. It is seriously a beautiful, amazing city, I just wish I was outside long enough to figure out why. I think a month from now I will have the chance to do just that - and I will certainly take advantage while time is running out.

Twenty months in the making?

I spent the last week moving into my apartment here in Chicago. I bought loads of Ikea furniture and decently-priced electronic equipment to fill up my space, went out to dinner with friends a bunch of times, and just generally spent a lot of money setting up my life out here. Things are looking good; once my apartment is finished up (should take another week), I'll have pictures ready.

So, it was about twenty months ago when I was a senior at Penn just starting to interview for full-time positions for after graduation. Tomorrow morning, I'm finally starting the job I got all those months ago. Just to give you an idea of how much has happened in that time, I had a 1.5 year relationship with my now ex-girlfriend, graduated from Penn, lived in Japan, and became a Fulbright finalist, grantee, fellow, and alum since getting the offer.

Tomorrow, I finally am allowed into the office.