Yes, I know it's been almost three weeks since Lollapalooza ended, but I've taken a well deserved break after two music super-fests (and a weekend at Party Cove). I think I'm finally "back" though, as I've spent my morning combing venue schedules and entering shows into Gapers Block's "Slowdown" calendar.
My Lolla music and general fest coverage is up here, here and here, but GB is not is not the place for me to brag about all the parties I went to, all the access I had, and all my celebrity sightings--this is. So here it goes... (disclosure--parts of this have been written over the last three weeks, and I'm really just tired of looking at it, so it's posted as-was)
We kicked off the weekend Thursday night at Perez Hilton's "One Night In Chicago" Party at the Hard Rock Hotel (where we began and ended most days). Free drinks and lots of "important" people looking to be seen. Local lady Kid Sister performed, among others, and of course there was a Gaga rumor that didn't come to fruition.
Our first daytime stop at the Hard Rock's Music Lounge we heard the lounge area was closed off because Ke$ha was inside--which isn't really worth mentioning except to link to this. That same day we hitched a ride back to the festival grounds that afternoon on the Vitamin Water bus, where Stars were guest DJing on-board. There was Vitamin Water and vodka, and a bottle of tequila, which led to fuzzy memories of Lady Gaga's set (with a little help from a bottle of wine that Sam's dad bought us) and a massive Saturday hangover.
During my first stop in the press area I found myself walking right past The Black Keys' drummer Pat Carney, and then I realized there are musicians all over doing interviews and the like. On Saturday we even saw what I'll call a pop-up acoustic performance by Phoenix for FUSE. You never know what your're going to see back there, from an interview with Erykah Badu, to a bunch of kids bum rushing the fence in an attempted break-in. Britt Daniel (Spoon) was even hanging out back there during the performance (who I was constantly running into for the rest of the weekend, and no, I never talked to him, and yes, I will be made fun of forever for it).
Tankboy took part in a Celebrity Kickball game early Saturday, which if nothing else was entertaining. I took a ton of pictures (yes, that's a picture of Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul, and no, I didn't talk to him either).
That night was my photo pit debut at The Black Keys show at Metro. Tankboy was kind enough to let me shoot the band (based on an earlier deal we had) and well, it was awesome. I was so nervous. I don't know that my shots were that amazing, but you can't help but get some good ones with just two performers on stage, plenty of lighting and only one other guy in the pit.
Oh, and on the final day, there was a rumor started via Twitter by Time Out that David Bowie would be joining Arcade Fire on stage. I chose not to address the "disappointment of no Bowie" in my official coverage because I felt it took away from Arcade Fire's moving performance, which was amazing all on it's own.
And then I slept.
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