Lollapalooza 2015 {Friday}

On Friday (July 31,2015) we went to Lollapalloza. This was our 3rd time going, and Cris' first time.  The first thing we did was take the obligatory selfie in front of the Lollapalooza sign.
Then we went straight to the "bar"to get beer, aka stay hydrated.
We made it our mission to stay hydrated as well as mix it up with some sweet 8% beverage from bud..
The first set we saw was Sza.
I had not previously heard of Sza before (as I live under a rock most of the time) but she was pretty good and had a nice voice.
After listening to a few of her songs we walked over to Perry's stage for Peking Duk.
Again, I had never heard of Peking Duk before, but they were laying down some nice beats so we stuck around and listened for a while.
Their set was full of energy and really entertaining to listen to.
Then we walked back over to the Samsung stage to hear Glass Animals. I have heard of them before, and do enjoy their music quite a bit and was very excited to hear them play live. And I was so happy to hear songs performed live that i've only heard on my ipod.
Next up was Tove Lo and I was excited to hear her perform too. (Friday had a bunch of bands I wanted to hear!!) We ended up too close to the stage and suddenly we were in a mob of people. Also, the sound quality was terrible for her. She kept gesturing to the microphone (to get the attention of the folks in the sound booth) but they didnt see her and consequently we could barely hear her singing.
After a few songs of Tove Lo, we got out of the crowd, took a deep breath and then started walking around.
I started taking artsy photos.
And then we watched Cold War Kids- ANOTHER band I wanted to see! (Maybe I dont live under a rock after all)
Cold War Kids was awesome. I saw a guy with a Chicago flag and had to go take a photo.
All of this listening to music got us hungry so we decided we needed food- and after hearing Pete mention a lobster corndog earlier in the week, we knew exactly what to order for lunch. And it was so OMG DELICIOUS.
Next up was the band I was *most* excited to see: Alt-J!!!! I own several of their albums and love the creativity in their music.
Their set was AMAZING! I knew all of the songs they played and had a huge grin on my face the entire time.
Post Alt-J we walked back to the other side of Grand Park to see Sir Paul McCartney (who I was also super excited to see.)
The field was filling up fast and we found a nice place near the back to avoid being trampled.
And then this living legend began to play. It was so incredible to hear someone who has had such an influence on music over so many years perform. He is so ridiculously talented- playing guitar, ukulele, piano without blinking an eye when switching from one to another.
He began making jokes about the loud bass music playing from the stage near us. Which after more songs devolved into the loud bass music being called shit- (and I couldn't have agreed more).
He sang Beatles songs as well as his own music. I was in awe listening to Paul McCartney perform live- a guy I grew up listening to thanks to my daad's love of the Beatles. I had the biggest smile on my face singing along to "let it be," "Paper back Writer," and many other favorites.
He sang "Live and Let Die" and there were fireworks. It was so damn cool.
Then he performed "Hey Jude." I got emotional during this song-remembering that I played the piano part to it while I was in 8th grade jazz band. I never thought I would hear it performed live, by freaking Paul McCartney!!
Paul encouraged the crowd to sing along for "Hey Jude" and it was amazing and everything I could have ever hoped out of a Lolla experience. We left after that song because I had a raging headache due to dehydration. Plus, I couldn't imagine how the show could have gotten any more perfect after that (I'm sure the rest was equally as amazing!)
It was a fantastic day where I got to hear some of my favorite bands perform, and I was so ridiculously happy.
I had one hell of a day getting to spend time with some of my favorite people in the world (L and Cris) while listening to some kick ass music.  I can't wait for next year!

Birthday/ Lollapalooza hangover

So if going to The Aviary and the Beer Camp Across America wasn't enough, we continued birthday celebrations into the following week. Monday was a delicious dinner at Tapas Valencia, followed by a surprise party for the birthday boy.  I've never organized a surprise party before and it turned out wonderful! So much fun was had. Maybe too much fun and beers and pinball that lasted waaaay too late into Tuesday night (or early Wednesday morning) but who's keeping track?
Wednesday night we went to "Jazzin at the Shedd." It was fun seeing the animals in a more relaxed environment. I mean we walked around lamenting on how sad the animals looked with wine and beer in our hands. It was fun, really.
My favorite attraction at any and all aquariums are the Jellies!
Piranha!
The sawtooth shark even came out for a rare swim around the tank.

Thursday was a much needed rest day only to be followed by 3 days of LOLLA.
We kicked off the start of Lolla in proper fashion- with shitty Bud Straw-ber-itas. Cheers y'all.

Only to be followed up by my worst nightmare. A near panic attack at the first show.

I hate crowds. I hate people bumping into me. I get ragey. And I should have known better than to stand halfway back in the Iggy Azalea show. Suddenly we found ourselves completely surrounded with more people pushing to get to WHERE?!? because there was NO ROOM! I felt like I was drowning. I had to get out.
Iggy Azalea set And we pushed our way through the crowds to get out.

More Iggy

After my freak out moment at the Iggy set, we decided to stay out of the crowds and enjoy the music and headed to a much less rowdy Interpol concert set.

We saw Lorde from a safe distance. She was AMAZING!
Next we saw Sander Kleinenburg. I liked their electronic music a lot.
And to wrap up day 1, we saw the Arctic Monkeys.

Day 2 came up waaaay too fast.
We watched: The Districts and Jungle. Both of which I've never heard of prior, but were good.
Then we listened to some Wildcat Wildcat before heading to RatKing.
Ratking was full of energy. We enjoyed a few of their songs before heading to watch Kate Nash.
We had VIP tickets. THANK YOU L. Which meant ALL THE DRINKS AND FOODS, a covered viewing area, and air conditioned bathrooms. Oh, it also meant we could use the shuttle service to get from one end of the park to the other. We only used the shuttle service once.

SO FUN ON THE SHUTTLE!

We saw Gramatik in a monster dust cloud and ran into Pete B.
We caught some of Nas before finishing out the day with Spoon.

Day 3 was probably my favorite.
We started out watching Kongos. They had a huge crowd which was surprising since it was so early in the morning.
Just as Kongos were finishing, we were finishing up our drinks and tacos in the VIP area to head out into the herd to watch the next group when it started POURING FREAKING RAINING.
Like torrential crazy downpour. I was so bummed because after researching Bomba Estereo in the morning, I really wanted to go up to the stage to watch them perform. I figured, the crowd would not be nearly as crazy for this Colombian rap/pop/electronic group as other groups performing. 
And it rained and rained and rained. And Bomba Estereo was killing their set with some awesome tunes. including an awesome verison of "Pump up the Jam."

And with 10 minutes to go the rain stopped and we went up to the stage.
The energy of this group was amazing. Their music was so fun.
Bomba Estereo was my favorite act out of the 3 days.
I was initially bummed that I only recognized 5-8 bands out of 100+ on the Lolla lineup a month ago.

But after researching many of the bands, and going to the Lolla concerts I found many more groups to add to my play lists.  It seems like a festival like this would be a great place to discover "new to you" bands. At least it was for me. I know Bomba Estereo will make me cycle faster and eventually run faster with their sick beats :)
Sunday was full of rain, and after watching Cage the Elephant and some of the Avett Brothers, the sky opened up again and showed no signs of stopping. We decided to take off and go home.
It was an amazing weekend with wonderful friends and great music and too many sweet memories to write down.

And I learned that despite my extreme aversion to crowds and wanting a seat in an air conditioned theater, that Lollapalooza is super fun.  Gosh, the people watching, the diversity of the bands, and the whole atmosphere is just something so crazy cool (and super difficult to put into words to effectively describe the experience.) You just have to go and experience it with an open mind.
Until next year, Lolla.