Revisited: My Lollapalooza 2011

10 Aug

Sweet home Chicago!  What can I say except the 20th Anniversary of Lollapalooza far exceeded any experience I could have ever imagined. More photos will be coming soon but wow what a good time and so many great bands/artists performing.  If you wanted to discover new music, hear some great bands of the past 20+ years or just come and hang out, Grant Park was the place to be.

My First Show: Ryan Leslie

My Final Show: Deadmau5

My Favorite Show: GROUPLOVE

Who I Saw:

Day One of Lolla: Ryan Leslie, Tab The Band, Young The Giant, Naked & Famous, Delta Spirit, Foster The People, White Lies, Two Door Cinema Club, Skrillex, Afrojack, Muse, Coldplay and late night CULTS show at the Hard Rock.

Day Two of Lolla: GROUPLOVE, Walk The Moon, Maps & Atlases, Friendly Fires, Black Lips, Big Audio Dynamite, Joachim Garraud, Local Natives, My Morning Jacket, Eminem, My Morning Jacket. Night show: Skylar Grey, Mia Moretti & Caitlin Moe, Black Lips.

Day Three of Lolla: Rival Schools, little hurricane, The Cool Kids, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, The Cars, Flogging Molly, Boy & Bear, Nas & Damian Marley, Deadmau5

Best Bud Light Stage Show: Young The Giant or Friendly Fires

Best Music Unlimited Stage Show:
Muse

Best Sony Stage Show: GROUPLOVE

Best Google+ Stage Show: little hurricane

Best BMI Stage Show: Boy & Bear

Biggest Surprise: Maps & Atlases and Tab The Band

Overall Stage With The Best Performances: Sony Stage

Most Entertaining Show: Deadmau5 – debut of his new rig extravaganza

Most Disappointing Moment: the police during Eminem not caring about kids who were comatose from whatever got them into that state

Next Big Thing:  Young The Giant, these guys drew over 20,000 people at 1 p.m. and Foster The People, man in six months these guys are doing it!

Band Redemption In My Book: My Morning Jacket – I’ve seen them a handful of times and never really dug their shows, I did this time

Bands I Was Sad To Miss: Fitz & The Tantrums, City & Colour, Ween and Foo Fighters plus Portugal. The Man, again – just too hard to be two places at once

Late Night Show: CULTS at the Hard Rock

Angriest Performer: again, Eminem.  The crowd was pretty angry too

What Would Have Been Great: a fourth day of the festival

Top Lolla’er: The dude dressed in a watermelon costume crowd surfing

Random Moment Of Awesomeness: mud wrestling taking center stage after the first downpour on Sunday

Best Festival Eats: the guy who brought in Garrett Popcorn in with him.  Thanks for sharing!

Best Place To Cool Off: didn’t find one

Biggest Waste of Time: Food lines or anyone who waited for a cooling bandana from Toyota

Best Marketing at Festival: Outside a street team was handing out Foster The People “Pumped Up Kicks” shoelaces and of course I got some

Worst Part: not having a poncho or jacket when the rain came pouring down on Sunday

Clutch Move: running straight for the port o johns and finding a new garbage bag to make a poncho

Tips For Next Year: carry a poncho – when it rains it pours, drink as much water as possible, don’t try to go swimming in Buckingham Fountain – I witnessed a few beat downs, ice cream is your friend in August, make a list of bands you want to see but don’t stick to it, comfortable shoes, you will walk a lot

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9 Responses to “Revisited: My Lollapalooza 2011”

  1. justanotherinsomniac August 10, 2011 at 8:26 pm #

    I watched the livestream on youtube Pretty amazing show Foo Fighters put on there. I think the rain adds more excitement to it. Hah.

    Also deadmau5 live on stage with a huge open crowd is interesting.

    • Craig August 17, 2011 at 11:38 am #

      the crowd for Deadmau5 was crazy and the (second) rain literally came down just as he went on. All in Lolla was a great festival!

  2. Morgan Scholl August 11, 2011 at 2:48 pm #

    Lolla was amazing this year. Great times and good people. I did notice that you didn’t really see any of the acts in Perry’s tent. That place was out of control! Next year I guess. Till then it was great meeting you and see ya in Vegas.

    • Craig August 12, 2011 at 7:18 am #

      Great people and great times indeed!

      As for Perry’s, I think my time was spent at the Red Bull bar since it was so nuts in there. I also learned on day one not to head to the west side of the tent where the 16yr olds were congregated. They need to make that ten bigger next year.

      See you in Vegas or Austin soon (if I can swing ACL)!

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