Lollapalooza
Every year staying home I get really jealous reading reports of all the festivals I’m missing: Coachella, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits, Outside Lands, Sasquatch, etc. etc. etc. So this year, with the promise of The Strokes and Arcade Fire as headliners I decided to check out my first real festival in over a decade. I saw those bands along with Spoon, New Pornographers, MGMT, Grizzly Bear, The Walkmen, The Black Keys and even my 8th grade heroes Green Day over 3 days in Chicago. Looking through the pictures and videos I posted last week it’d be easy to assume you missed a really fun time.
Lollapalooza is a lot of things but I’m not sure “fun” is one of them. The thing I realized during the first day of this festival is that I am too old for this shit. Not because Lollapalooza isn’t well run (it is), or there weren’t enough bands to see (there are), just that the process of trying to actually see those bands is not something I have any desire to do again, nor am I suited for it.
The bands I love are the reason I’m going to this festival so as much as I’d like to check out bands I don’t know much about, I’m not going to miss a band I really want to see in order to do it. And when you are there with 240,000 other people seeing the bands you want to see is not as easy as just wandering towards the stage a few minutes before they go on. It can take planning.
The first disappointment comes when the set times are announced, because that’s when the list of bands you wanted to see gets cut in half. Morning Benders are playing at noon (not happening!), Devo is playing against New Pornographers (sorry Devo!) and The National are playing directly before Arcade Fire…on a different stage (*sigh, I love those guys!) Tons of these decisions are made until you’ve now whittled down your list of 25 hopeful acts to catch to about 12. When the heat and exhaustion of the weekend hits it actually ends up being more like 9.
Friday’s agenda pretty much revolved around seeing The Strokes at 8:30. This involved making our way towards the stage at about 3:30 in order to get a good spot. Luckily The New Pornographers and The Black Keys were playing that stage beforehand so it seemed to make some sort of sense to have to stand in one place for 5 hours inching forward as space became available. Unfortunately by the time The Black Keys finished, none of the crowd seemed to disapate during the 90 minutes before The Strokes, instead it got uncomfortably crowded where you could not move your two feet more than a few inches. (We literally had to take turns sitting down because there was not enough space for both of us to sit at the same time.) It was only then that I started to realize we were probably about to be enveloped by a crush of people as soon as the band went on.
Which is exactly what happened. This was not people jumping in place and dancing to the band, this was thousands of bodies crushing forward forcing the entire front of the crowd to sway side to side. I hadn’t experienced anything like this since Rage Against The Machine at Woodstock ‘99, I had no idea people would still even behave like this let alone to The Strokes. I planted my feet apart and formed a human cage to protect my girlfriend from being crushed by the masses hoping that in a song or two it would subside. It didn’t. About 4 songs in we realized this was not an enjoyable experience and ended up going further to the side of the stage on the bar. I almost could have enjoyed it at that point if my ears had not been blown out by the sound. Instead, I was pretty angry.
Saturday we were back at it again and decided to take a more relaxed approach. We didn’t have to be up front for these bands so maybe we could enjoy ourselves in the back. But the back sucks too. The sound goes in and out anytime someone walks in front of you, you can barely see the band so end up watching them on a giant monitor and are surrounded by bros talking through the set. For a band you really like, this is not a fun way to see them. (Sorry, Grizzly Bear.) We tried to find a middle ground for the rest of the weekend and ended up getting decent spots to see most of the bands. Arcade Fire we were on the bar, but far to the right of the stage so we could only see the front line poking out. (We actually did have a lot of fun during them though.)
The thing I kept trying to figure out during the weekend is “who is this for?” The AV Club posted an article that basically asks the same question. I realize as a music fan I’m probably spoiled. Most of the bands I saw last weekend I’d seen previously (and repeatedly) in much smaller settings so the crowds and heat and endurance were too much for me. I really admire the people who have the endurance to go to one of these and get the most out of it. Just remember the next time you read about one of these festivals and start to get jealous of what you’re missing, it’s not as amazing as it looks.
