Best Summer Rock Festival: The Excuse

I'm sorry I'm taking so long to post Lollapalooza. But it's not easy captioning like more than 70 pictures and putting in all the proper links and whatnot. Maybe I'll be done by Thursday night? Or Friday? We'll see.

Best Summer Rock Festival: The Prologue

Last Thursday I took a cab to La Guardia to fly to Chicago. It was the worst cab in the world. The airconditioner broke and the driver drove really jerky. The result: I was carsick all through the ride, all through the 2 1/2 wait for my late flight, all through my flight, and pretty much up until the next morning.



But it was nice to get to Chicago and see the new stuff at Midway Airport.



Mom picked me up and we made a late night stop at Inos for some brilliant Mexican food.



The next morning we picked up Kelsi from the dog groomer. I couldn't believe how good she looked. Kelsi really cleans up nice.



It was absolutely impossible to get her to pose for a photo.



She just would not look at the camera.



We went downtown to pick up our wristbands for Lollapalooza. While it seemed a little silly to go all the way downtown to exchange tickets for wristbands a day before the concert, this proved to be a good move on our part . . . (as you'll see in my next post, which is taking forever to make)



The bean at Millennium Park still eludes me, but insists on taunting me with it's shiny little rear end.



That night we went to Benihana's to celebrate Greg's half-birthday.



During the meal I revealed to my family that New York had turned me into a devourer of sushi. This was not easy for my family to accept.



Dad had the prime seat at the table. Not only did he get the best view of the chef, but he also got to listen in on the conversation of the couple sharing the table with us. Apparently the fellow's mom is so fat that her liver turned into fois gras and she had to get a liver transplant.



There was a minor malfunction with the onion volcano.



And here we are, Mother and I once again.

Best Surprise Upon Returning to New York

Are you kidding me? It wasn't this clean when I moved in!



Lollapalooza? Sometime tomorrow, at the earliest.

Best Filler Material I've Got

Last Wednesday Karisa and I found ourselves on a subway platform with a couple of stools.



Which is a silly situation to be in, depending on your definition of "silly".



It can be pretty hard to get a picture of yourself sitting on a stool, riding on the train.



Ms. Holyoak's work has been known to push the boundaries of conceptual camera phone photography.



I'm sorry if you stopped by today in hopes of my exhaustive Lollapalooza report. It's a lot of work writing an exhaustive report on anything, let alone a Lollapalooza. I've got like, I don't know, 50 photos to caption, so just hold on. I hope for it to be ready on Tuesday.

Best Calm Before the Storm

I just got in to Chicago. I'm here to take my brother to Lollapalooza. We're only going to day one. Funny how I sacrificed a Redwalls/Cribs/Kaiser Chiefs ticket I had for a show tonight to fly out here and two out of those three bands (Redwalls and Kaiser Chiefs, if you aren't into clicking links and reading) are playing on Saturday. Too bad I'll probably miss the Redwalls to line up for the Egg & Spoon race.

But speaking of too bad, too bad the Walkmen are playing at the same time as the Pixies. I don't mean that in the "too bad that I have to choose between the Walkmen and the Pixies" I mean "too bad for the Walkmen."

Wait a second. I should be going to bed.

Best Monday Evening Activity

Monday night the Union Square 3rd Ward descended upon the new 7-11 like a swarm of Mormon crickets.



While most chose to get Slurpees, Ryan and Emily purchased sensible bottles of water.



After looting the store the crowd slowly came out to the street.



I pretty much had the worst Slurpee ever that night.



Here Natalie shows off her funky vintage copy of Harry Potter 5.



Then Erin shows up with her shiny new Harry Potter 6.



We then headed over to Madison Square Park. I bought a Shack Burger from the famous Shake Shack. Despite what many say, the Shake Shack burger is certainly NOT the best burger in the city.



It got darker as it got later. Maybe that's the worst caption I ever wrote?



But it's true, it got darker as it got later.



It can be hard captioning photos.

Best Night Out in Brooklyn City

All right. Saturday night? Crazy. I had received word of a rock show for the ages, so I headed to Williamsburg with Mike to catch the excitement. Lexia and Lauren met up with us at the Sweetwater Bar & Grill (I can't say I recommend it). Here Lexia shows off her new camera/video phone.



Then we headed over to North Six, which wasn't very crowded at all when we got there at 11.



We totally missed the Alabama Black Snakes. Maybe it was for the best.



This is Mike and me.



I think there was a reason that I was pointing in this photo. But I don't remember.



Do you remember the Arrested Development where they hire a publicist . . .



. . . and she tells Buster to "Stay out of the spotlight"?



The first important band of the evening was Hair Supply, the Tri-State Area's Greatest Heavy Metal Air Supply Tribute Band.



At first I thought I didn't know any Air Supply songs.



But then it turns out I recognized almost everything that they played.



Their level of professionalism was astounding.



I can't possibly think of something to say for each of these photos.



And they had these backup singers/dancers that just kept raising and lowering their arms through the entire set.



And they rocked and rocked and rocked . . .



Until they were all done.



And then it was time for the night's main attraction, Mr. Brownstone, a Guns N Roses tribute band of incredible exactitude.



Also, the band was made up of members of established indie-rock outfits. For example, "Axl" was the drummer from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.



Unlike with Hair Supply, I was excited for Mr. Brownstone because I thought I knew lots of Guns N Roses songs.



It turns out I only know a handful and for most of the show I was like "What song is this?"



As the set began, a mass of frat boys appeared from nowhere and spread through the floor.



The show featured many very ill-conceived stage dives where the diver jumped directly from the stage to the hard floor with the force of thunder and speed of lightning.



And if you wanted to be pressed between sweaty, shirtless interns, the front of the stage was the place to be.



Not only did the band perform GnR's trademark rock-outs, but they produced very authentic reproductions of the band's ballads, even (or should I say "especiall") November Rain.



The crowd worked itself up into a real suspension-of-disbelief frenzy and as far as everyone knew we were either on the Sunset Strip in the mid-80s or in some enormous stadium in Eastern Europe in the early-90s.



The band itself consumed a fairly rock n roll amount of alcohol during the performance, as you can see from the bottles at the front of the stage.



Our little group slunk off to the side of the stage as the fratboy mass grew and grew.



But Axl left no side of the stage under-performed to.



Eventually the show became too amazing (and by "amazing" I also mean "LONG") to stand. With a sufficient notion of what sort of awesomeness Mr. Brownstone was about, Mike and I called it a night while Lexia and Lauren just couldn't stop rockin'.