Lollapalooza 2013
Written August 2013. Just a few thoughts from Sunday of that year.
Didn't you always want to be a rock star? I wore out the full-length mirror in my bedroom as a teen, rocking out to Triumph or Judas Priest, and later, to Squeeze and The Cure. I'm not interested in being out on the road touring with a band for months on end, that does not appeal, but being up on stage would be pretty cool. There was a band playing on a small, side stage early one morning at the festival living out this dream, but I bet it didn't happen on this day like it played out in their fantasies.
I've forgotten their name, but remember it being very high school "battle of the bands" sounding. There were maybe fifty people in the audience and I'm guessing they were mostly family and friends. The singer shouted to the crowd, "Who here likes music?!", to which I'm sure he expected a roar of approval, but since the crowd was so tiny, they didn't yell back at all, they raised their hands. I found this to be so uncomfortably funny, I'm sort of embarrassed. The guitar player then launched into the first song and his guitar fell off of his strap onto the floor. I couldn't watch anymore, it was too awkward to witness, even looking through my fingers. Let me say that it takes a lot of courage to go up onto any stage and put yourself out there for all to see. Good for them, they got a lot further than their bedroom mirrors.
A little while after that band finished playing, we went back to that same side stage to see Family of the Year, but the schedule was juggled and some band from Wisconsin, named Phox, was inserted. They were an eclectic and somewhat nerdy-looking bunch. There were several multi-instrumentalists and a singer not quite ready for the big stage. "Big" might be a stretch. There were about 250 people in the audience. Maybe. The front woman's stage banter was a little lacking, but she was sweet. Cam and I went up close to watch them. We enjoyed it, but decided to go sit down in the shade. When the crowd is that small, I hate to walk away from the stage because the performers notice, so I sort of backed away from them slowly, like moving away from a house of cards or some other delicate thing.
Bands that surprise me are a welcome sight. We had just seen Two Door Cinema Club and had an hour to kill before Vampire Weekend. We chose to hang out exactly where we were - Petrillo, stage left. Others were doing the same, including one girl with the best shirt of the fest - it read, "Johnny Fucking Marr". There was a decent crowd to see The Vaccines, although clearly not a well-known act. From their first song on, it was a crazy dance party with everyone going bonkers. Actually, it was more like I imagined a sock hop to be from the late fifties. They had an old-time rock n' roll quality to them. The crowds that were starting to arrive for Vampire Weekend had to file past the Petrillo Stage. So many of them were just staring as they walked by, I'm sure thinking, "Whoa, what's going on here?" It turned out to be one of our favorite shows on our favorite day of the fest. The next day, their album was downloaded on our devices.
There was so much great music this year, but this is all that I could find written about the experience. Write things down, people. Always write things down. Otherwise, it is lost forever.
