The Boy in the Bubble

There are times in your life where you have to make choices; sacrifices if you will. The second day of Lollapalooza was one of those days. The lineup was a bit of torture. Gnarles Barkley v. Sonic Youth; Common v. Flaming Lips; Kanye West v. Manu Chau. And all of these bands were playing on stages about 1/2 a mile from each other. Lollapalooza Map.

I picked the latter of each group, due to the fact that Wolfmother was playing at 3:30. We had to leave Built To Spill after thier first song (which ended up being ten minutes long, and slightly anti-climactic) in order to get to the venue Wolfmother was playing at for a good spot. Apparently, everyone else had the same idea.

A realization made during this event was that I used to be one of those girls at these concerts that annoys everyone. To a point. I knew every word to the album of the bands I was seeing. I had enough disposable income to buy each album the day it came out, and enough extra time to research everything about the band. I knew everything about them, and not in a teenage crush sort of way, it was more like "i'm a tough girl for being 16. And I snowboard." Yes. I thought I was amazing. Still do, but now I'm 29 and snowboard and surf. I've upped the anty.

Anyway, Kev and I wanted to be the first people around for Wolfmother so we went over 45 minutes early to get a spot... with the rest of the people who decided they also wanted to see Wolfmother. When we got there we were halfway out. There were a lot of Austrailians that came to watch, and they kept chanting "Aussie Aussie Aussie OY! OY! OY!" Pretty entertaining.

Wolfmother rocked. And reminded me again, of why I love shows and what I want to see when I shell out money. I like rock. I like energy. I like crazy. Wolfmother is all three. No wimpy love songs just straight up rock. A mix of Floyd and Zepplin with a twist. They were my Saturday.

Sonic Youth bored me. I've never been a huge fan, so oh well.

Flaming Lips? Great! Energetic, colorful, happy, silly, and worth getting stepped on and listening to girls piss and moan about how hot they are, and how people are stepping on their blankets. UH! Sweetheart... you are in the middle of the crowd in front of the soundstage. This is not a beach party. Stand up like the rest of us. Man, I'm glad I grew up in the grunge era, when people wore their crappiest clothes to a show because they knew they would lose their shoes, their pants would get super muddy and maybe even ripped. No stillettos, no heels, no mini skirts... ok, maybe mini skirts, but that was different.

The Flaming Lips started out by putting the lead singer in a plastic bubble so that he could walk over the crowd like a big hamster in a wheel. He profusely apologized before he went out onto the for stepping on people's heads and the like. It was great. Then the confetti kept coming along with oversized balloons and more singalongs... happiness galore. It put a good sized smile on my face.

Manu Chau followed up Flaming Lips set with the mexican jumpin bean impression of 311. Very energized, and when he started doing split leaps on stage... it was all I could do to stop laughing. Kanye was playing at the same time on the other side of the park, and apparently lost sound at one point which got the crowd nice and angry, but I'd seen him at Sasquatch two years ago, and would have liked to have seen another person, in case I could have found another favorite.

Saturday was a low key day. Wolfmother rocked. For the rest of it, people watching was more entertaining than some of the shows. Kevin was the photographer for the day, and his images can be seen here: http://meankatie.smugmug.com/gallery/1748222/4/86543978. This is also the reason most of the pictures look like I'm standing on a stool in the middle of the crowd. This is my brother's perspective.


OH! If anyone knows this man....he's beautiful. We should have children. They'd have great genes.