i was there : lollapalooza (sunday)

Show: Lollapalooza (Sunday)

Sigur Rós

Big Gigantic

Florence & the Machine

Miike Snow

Kaskade

Justice

Location: Grant Park

Date: 8.5.12

Favorite Song: Florence & the Machine killed it. I didn't catch her whole set, but what I saw was very entertaining & boy, did she bring in the crowds. I wish I had been a little bit closer to the stage, especially during songs like "Shake It Out" & "Dog Days Are Over" because the crowd was going nuts. I really hope she makes her way back to Chicago again soon.

Memorable Moment: People often talk about having an emotional connection with music & for me Sigur Rós would be the epitome of that. Too many great memories & moments of complete peacefulness come to mind when I think of their music. I was even at a wedding once when the bride walked down the aisle to "Hoppipolla." I'm all about being an original, but I'm fairly certain I'm going to steal this idea, except use "( ) 6" (after the 6:30 mark) as my song of choice. There are certainly things that I would have wanted to see differently with this set (like the time, location, etc), but I am so happy I finally got to see them perform.

Biggest Letdown: This is more of an overall letdown for the whole weekend, but I really hated being at the festival with zero phone signal (thanks AT&T). Lollapalooza is huge, ginormous even. And that is both the physical size & the number of performances. I obviously want to be in the company of my friends, but their is bound to be conflicts. When it comes to live music, I get my way. Festivals are about the only thing I'm actually decisive on & there were definitely times I wanted to sneak away to see performances, but didn't out of fear of losing my friends for the day.

This Show: This whole weekend really made me feel like a festival nomad. I just want to spend my weekend wandering around from stage to stage with no sense of commitment. There are certainly the sets I want to see from start to finish, but to me, the purpose of festivals is to get a little taste of everything. Majority of these artists make their way back to Chicago in the months following Lollapalooza, so I go into these festivals wanting to get a preview of the music to help me decide if it's really worth if for me to go to a solo show as well. I think Lollapalooza did this to a certain extent. For example, I'm not sure I would actually shell out & go to a Florence & the Machine concert if I hadn't gotten a feel for her Lollapalooza set. On the other hand, I've already seen many of these artists prior to Lollapalooza weekend, so that whole "preview" aspect wasn't as relevant.