Before I left my place yesterday I was listening to a song called "The Knife" by Grizzly Bear, which was then stuck in my head for the hour long journey to the music festival. Having arrived I stepped off the train, walked down the stairs, crossed the street...and Grizzly Bear was on stage playing "The Knife" Holy Shit! That was so fucking cool. Very gratifying.
Since Battles was setting up on another stage I walked over and situated myself behind 3 hotties (two of which had insanely nice asses) and listened to Grizzly Bear finish up while gearing myself up for what became one of the most mind blowing sets of music I have ever seen in my life. Earlier I complained about how Sonic Youth's sound was less than intense. Not so with Battles. They played loud, fast and hard. Their drummer is fucking insane! The $50 I dropped on tickets was worth it based solely on this set. This is officially my new favorite band.
Here's a concert they played at the Empty Bottle in Chicago last year. It's about an hour long but totally worth checking out. Someone from yesterday's show needs to post a video.
Iron & Wine came on soon after and the same issues I had with Sonic Youth's sound reared it's ugly head once more. Way to quiet. Someone in the crowd remarked that it sounded like we were listening to someones Walkman. Towards the end of the set they finally hit the sweet spot and they sounded great. During this set I started chatting (actually bitching about the sound) to a cute guy in a backwards baseball hot. To me this unfortunate fashion decision is the equivalent of popping one's collar but he pulled the look off surprisingly well. Too bad to left to meet his friends after the set was over...
Mastodon was next and although I'm really not into heavy metal, they were great. Shit was loud as hell and got the crowd going. Since I'm really not familiar with their music (not like my brother - he loves that shit) I was eager for the next act...
...which was Clipse. Whoa. People always say that live hip-hop pales in comparison to recorded hip-hop but I've been lucky this year. I saw Talib Kweli a few months ago, then Lupe Fiasco. Both guys were tight but Clipse was outright siiick. You wouldn't think 2 black guys from Virgina rapping about slinging coke would make for a great live show but it did.
OK - so now comes a bit of bitching. The festival is setup really well. There's lots of space, it's easy to get to and the prices for beer, food and water are very reasonable. That being said every time I went to get food and the lines were at least 50+ deep. Not cool. Since the beer lines were super short I opted to drink rather than eat. Usually this is not an issue but it was fucking hot out (granted, it wasn't as bad as other music festivals I've been too) and after 5 hours of music and sunshine I was done. Sorry, Yoko, I'm sure your set was magnificent.
Good thing my friend happened to be BBQ-ing so I headed over to his place and drank vodka and ate a brat. It was lovely. Since there was yet another music festival taking place (in my 'hood) we walked over and saw a bit of the last act, but frankly, I was wasted at this point and remember little of it. My friend's friend was kind enough to drive me home. Thank you friend's friend!
There should be laws against having this much fun. Thankfully I live in Chicago and there are not...
Since Battles was setting up on another stage I walked over and situated myself behind 3 hotties (two of which had insanely nice asses) and listened to Grizzly Bear finish up while gearing myself up for what became one of the most mind blowing sets of music I have ever seen in my life. Earlier I complained about how Sonic Youth's sound was less than intense. Not so with Battles. They played loud, fast and hard. Their drummer is fucking insane! The $50 I dropped on tickets was worth it based solely on this set. This is officially my new favorite band.
Here's a concert they played at the Empty Bottle in Chicago last year. It's about an hour long but totally worth checking out. Someone from yesterday's show needs to post a video.
Iron & Wine came on soon after and the same issues I had with Sonic Youth's sound reared it's ugly head once more. Way to quiet. Someone in the crowd remarked that it sounded like we were listening to someones Walkman. Towards the end of the set they finally hit the sweet spot and they sounded great. During this set I started chatting (actually bitching about the sound) to a cute guy in a backwards baseball hot. To me this unfortunate fashion decision is the equivalent of popping one's collar but he pulled the look off surprisingly well. Too bad to left to meet his friends after the set was over...
Mastodon was next and although I'm really not into heavy metal, they were great. Shit was loud as hell and got the crowd going. Since I'm really not familiar with their music (not like my brother - he loves that shit) I was eager for the next act...
...which was Clipse. Whoa. People always say that live hip-hop pales in comparison to recorded hip-hop but I've been lucky this year. I saw Talib Kweli a few months ago, then Lupe Fiasco. Both guys were tight but Clipse was outright siiick. You wouldn't think 2 black guys from Virgina rapping about slinging coke would make for a great live show but it did.
OK - so now comes a bit of bitching. The festival is setup really well. There's lots of space, it's easy to get to and the prices for beer, food and water are very reasonable. That being said every time I went to get food and the lines were at least 50+ deep. Not cool. Since the beer lines were super short I opted to drink rather than eat. Usually this is not an issue but it was fucking hot out (granted, it wasn't as bad as other music festivals I've been too) and after 5 hours of music and sunshine I was done. Sorry, Yoko, I'm sure your set was magnificent.
Good thing my friend happened to be BBQ-ing so I headed over to his place and drank vodka and ate a brat. It was lovely. Since there was yet another music festival taking place (in my 'hood) we walked over and saw a bit of the last act, but frankly, I was wasted at this point and remember little of it. My friend's friend was kind enough to drive me home. Thank you friend's friend!
There should be laws against having this much fun. Thankfully I live in Chicago and there are not...
1 comment:
No fair. Laws like that exist here in Pittsburgh.
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