the joy of music outdoors

Upon (still) recovering from last weekend's fantastic, magic-carpet-ride-of-a-festival, 10KLF*,I am in obsessive-ready-to-go-right-fucking-now to my next Big Journey: Lollapalooza in Chicago!

*a quick, quick explanation of why 10KLF was such a wonderful experience full of pleasant surprises:

~stumbling upon kickin' performances

~feeling part of a "scene" that is simply really positive and TOTALLY different from anything I've seen in the 20-plus years of shows I've gone to...a refreshing and inspiring experience: people were...NICE to each other.

~the wonderful company I was with.

~ hearing these covers and LOVING the new, fresh versions of them:

When The Stars Go Blue: Joan Osborne and her sexy/soulful voice with Phil Lesh doing the duet of the Ryan Adams-penned song. (This was a phenomenal version, and I am a big fan of the Bono/Corrs rendition, so that's saying a lot)

Tangerine: Big Head Todd and the Monsters did one of my all-time fave Zeppelin tunes justice and then rocked the-fuck-out of another number straight afterwards. Totally shocking, totally rocking.

Who Are You? Friggin' Trey Anastasio JOYFULLY pumped this Who staple out (this guy *might* be one of the happiest musicians I have ever seen on stage, next to John Fogerty)
the last song Trey played was Get Back , so fitting and an ultimate-crowd-sing-along...Wotta rooftop song. ;)

Rain Song & Won't Get Fooled Again The Big Wu cranked these heavies out and the crowd lapped it up. I was beaming.

Hell's Bells: walked by this one, the most unfortunately-named-band-ever: String Cheese Incident [shudder] rolled into this one. Nothing spectacular, but it represented the fact that our camp site, (our peeps, that is) were blasting AC/DC into the wee hours of the Detroit Lakes night. I think we scared some hippies. Fuck 'em. ("look out! It's rough and mean")

Back to Lollapalooza thoughts...
My mind continues to fixate on ALL THE BANDS that are gonna be there; it's extremely overwhelming. Thank gawd for Jessica, because she really gave me a great primer on what she would see if she was there, and she knows a shit-ton about Indie bands I don't know shit about. Come to think about it--I really, really need to go over the line-up with Paul, again, for that very same reason.)

The only real bummer appears to be the (inevitable) double-booking of two (or more) bands at the samefuckingtime. Grr. SO frustrating! (130 bands, EIGHT STAGES) Of course, my plan is to check out both sets, even though the thought of leaving Manu Chao in order to see at least *some* of Kanye West's set seems like an impossibility. (how can one leave a Chao dance party!?)

check it: (my MUSTS & try-to's in yellow.)

Red Hot Chili Peppers
Kanye West
Manu Chao
Wilco
Death Cab For Cutie
The Raconteurs
The Flaming Lips
Ween
Queens of the Stone Age
The Shins
Common
Matisyahu
Ryan Adams
Umphrey's McGee
Sonic Youth
Thievery Corporation
Sleater-Kinney
Nickel Creek
Blues Traveler
Broken Social Scene
The New Pornographers
Iron & Wine
Poi Dog Pondering
The Secret Machines
Built To Spill
Eels
Panic! At the Disco
The Disco Biscuits
Reverend Horton Heat
The Smoking Popes
Andrew Bird
Gnarls Barkley
Stars
Cursive
Blackalicious
Editors
Lyrics Born
Lady Sovereign
Hard-Fi
Calexico
Nada Surf
Feist
Aqualung
The Frames
The Hold Steady
The Go! Team
Mates of State
Pepper
Particle
The Redwalls
Mute Math
Wolfmother
Sparta
The Subways
Of Montreal
Blue October
Jeremy Enigk
Living Things
Sound Team
The M's
Hot Chip
The Benevento-Russo Duo
Matt Costa
The New Amsterdams
deadboy & the Elephantmen
Sybris
Anathallo
The Burden Brothers
What Made Milwaukee Famous
Manishevitz
Husky Rescue
The Towers of London
Ohmega Watts
Boy Kill Boy
Jim Noir
The Standard
Be Your Own Pet
Elvis Perkins
Trevor Hall
Midlake
Katie Todd Band
The Candy Band (Kidz)