The Lolla Post

So last Saturday was Lollapalooza!!! In one word?? FANTASTIC. Seriously. But my GOD, it was a long day!

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Lolla was held at Grant Park and was HUGE. The size of the park dictated most of what I would see for the rest of the day because it literally took 20mins to walk from one side to the other. Luckily though, the acts that I came to see were all on the same section of the park.

I only saw three acts in full (saw lots of bits of different ones) but the three I saw were amazing.

ACT 1- WOLFMOTHER!!!!!



They went OFF!! Oh my god, they were awesome!! The crowd was insane and the band was so GOOD. Proud Aussie moment for me. :) There were people on the other side of the crowd and they were draped in Aussie flags and kept doing the Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie chant. I felt like a tool, but couldn't help joining in with the OI OI OI! Seriously, it must be built in or something- they start, I respond. The guy next to me goes, huh? And I'm like, "sorry, it's an aussie thing" and he's like, "oh, I thought you were Jewish or something." :P Hehehe. He was kidding. But then later he pokes me and yells, "Aussie Oi Aussie Oi!" Lol!! I obviously had to correct him.





It was great. I wasn't too far from the front- close enough to see them all properly, but not be in the mosh pit. Seriously, there were people with bloody noses and stuff. They were crazy.

Straight after was Gnarles Barkley. Everyone knows that they get dressed in costumes for every performance, so I was expecting something cool, but they were just dressed as 70s tennis players. Yawn.



You can't see anything really but their backdrop cos of the distance (and crappy camera). I dunno. Their set didn't really interest me too much. It's hard to get into it when you're so far away and the people around you aren't all into it.

I decided to leave after 15 mins and then I realised that Wolfmother were signing autographs in 45mins. I thought, great! Enough time to buy their album and line up. Apparently everyone else had the same idea. I went to the Virgin store tent to buy their CD and it was NOWHERE. I searched high and low, and then I overheard someone asking about it and they were told there were none left. Well, I wouldn't stand for that! I kept looking and finally spied one on the stand at the counter and nabbed it! I was so happy, and it only took me 15 minutes. :P So I took the CD and joined the line and waited. That was until one of the girls that worked there said that only people with blue wristbands could be on the line. I asked where I could get a wristband, only to be told that I needed to have bought their album today but they'd run out. I felt so bummed. :( It's all good though - I still managed to get their album for only $10!

So I hung around awhile more watching some random bands. My head was killing me though and my feet and legs ached. I was covered in dirt, and it was such a humid day that I was so sweaty and most likely covered in everyone else's sweat. So nasty. :S

The next act was Common.



If you squint, he's the guy in the green shirt.

Honestly, he was FANTASTIC. He freestyled so much of his act, it was awesome. He is very skilled. :) I just wish I knew more of his songs so I could have gotten into it more, but there were a couple I surprisingly knew. I didn't know they were by him.

There was an hour between his set and Kanye, so thinking I was brilliant I decided that instead of going to see the other bands, I would start making my way to the front of the stage and wait out the hour before Kanye.

It seems that everyone else that had gone to Common had the same idea. Lol! In the end, I got closer to the stage, but was still quite far back. But I was still closer that the THOUSANDS of people behind me. :) Unfortch, everyone infront of me was taller, and when their hands were all up I could only catch glimpses of Kanye.



That's not from my camera. That's from the Lolla site. My camera cannot take photos at night. they just come out all blurry and weird, even in night mode. Luckily during the hour-long wait I got chatting to this girl named Jill who was so nice and had a good camera, you know, the type that can actually take photos? Here is the link to the photos she took. To see the rest you'll need to use the linky thing on the right of the photo which has little caps of the photos and click more, then click on the photo itself. Note how red my face is. THAT IS SUNBURN. Lol. Andrea had these wet towelettes to refresh ourselves. It also took my sunscreen off. Lol. You can kind of notice that only half my cheeks are red due to my sunnies.

Did anyone else know that Kanye West has a signature hand thing? Everyone in the crowd knew this and acted appropriately:



That's also how he opened his show: just the camera zoomed in on his hands like that and the first song was Diamonds from Sierra Leone. Love that song.

The set got off the a rocky start cos his mike wasn't loud enough. He was so cranky and kept hitting it and saying, "Turn my f**king mike up!" After the first song it was all fixed, but he was saying, "Someone here won't have a job tomorrow." ;) The best quote of the entire day was when Kanye was talking about how when he wanted to go from producing to rapping his own material, "No one wanted to sign a guy that dresses like Carlton." [Banks, from the Fresh Prince of Bell Air.] Too funny.

I cannot stress enough how awesome Kanye West was. After the initial hiccups he did all his most famous songs and others that I didn't know cos I don't have his albums. Note to self: go to library and put on ipod.

Oh! And he brought Lupe out with him and he did Kick, Push, as well as Touch the Sky with Kanye, and he also brought Twista out. He also played a lot of the songs he's written an produced. I didn't know he did half of them, like Izzo by Jay Z, Encore, Slow Jams among others.

Honestly, even though I felt like I was going to throw up from the nastiness that was me by the end of the night, I was picked up so much by seeing Kanye. He is just AWESOME.

So yeah. That was last week.

This week is my holiday of sorts. J and his dad drove to Pennsylvania yesterday and the family will be at camp there for the rest of the week. I'm off to Vermont tomorrow to see my friend Jennifer.

Ciao!!