If I had to sum up the past five days of my hot half-life in but one brief song lyric, I would quote the Hold Steady and say "Killer parties almost killed me."
While I didn't go to a single party in the traditional sense, every day of my life for the past week has been consumed by music, one band after another, after another and that's like a party, right? It all went a little something like this:
- Hot Half favorite Kevin Devine started the madness off perfectly with an unofficial Lollapalooza preshow in DeKalb, Illinois. Round 3 with K.D. was understated, acoustic and gorgeous. Just the way I like it.
- The next day brought the Decemberists official Lolla-preshow at the Metro, a place I'm seeing more of these days than my own home.
- The celebration really got underway on the 7th in a very rainy, extremely muddy Grant Park with Day 1 of Lollapalooza.
- Day 2 of Lolla had me at the brink of insanity. Rest? What's rest?
- By the time my alarm buzzed me awake on Day 3, I was so deliriously exhausted that I could barely keep track of what bands I was seeing. Thank goodness for my trusty notebook.
- After a moment of relaxation which saw my return to the "day job" (or, as I affectionately refer to it as, "hell"), it was back for more music in Chicago parks and on the 10th, I got to see longtime favorites Shearwater live for the first time in Millennium Park.
Top 5 highlights of the whole ordeal?
- Kevin Devine. If the man needed my kidney, I'd probably give it to him. Heck, if he simply wanted my kidney just for fun, I'd seriously consider it. That probably makes me sound like a creep because it's out of context but in context... Well, it still might be creepy. A proper write up of K.D. Round 3 is en route to The Hot Half Life.
- Getting to finally experience the Decemberists live. I wasn't impressed by their Lollapalooza set, a conceptual start-to-finish delivery of The Hazards of Love but regardless, getting to see them in person twice in the span of two days was remarkable.
- Getting a fancy new musical obsession via Langhorne Slim. I have the same feverish desire for his music that I did upon first listen to M. Ward, quite a few years back and aside from Bad Veins, it's been a while since an act had me as excited as Slim does.
- Finally seeing what the big deal is about Andrew Bird. It's been said before but that doesn't make it any less true: That man is Chicago's finest whistler. It's damn hard to win someone over in a festival setting but Bird managed to snag my heart even after a too-long, too-rainy, too-tiring Day 1.
- Being dangerously close to former Okkervil River right hand man, current Shearwater
ringleader Jonathan Meiburg, whose voice is just as unearthly and impossibly beautiful in person as it is on record. Don't believe me? Check out a sample of what I got to experience this evening, via a live SXSW video.
While I didn't go to a single party in the traditional sense, every day of my life for the past week has been consumed by music, one band after another, after another and that's like a party, right? It all went a little something like this:
- Hot Half favorite Kevin Devine started the madness off perfectly with an unofficial Lollapalooza preshow in DeKalb, Illinois. Round 3 with K.D. was understated, acoustic and gorgeous. Just the way I like it.
- The next day brought the Decemberists official Lolla-preshow at the Metro, a place I'm seeing more of these days than my own home.
- The celebration really got underway on the 7th in a very rainy, extremely muddy Grant Park with Day 1 of Lollapalooza.
- Day 2 of Lolla had me at the brink of insanity. Rest? What's rest?
- By the time my alarm buzzed me awake on Day 3, I was so deliriously exhausted that I could barely keep track of what bands I was seeing. Thank goodness for my trusty notebook.
- After a moment of relaxation which saw my return to the "day job" (or, as I affectionately refer to it as, "hell"), it was back for more music in Chicago parks and on the 10th, I got to see longtime favorites Shearwater live for the first time in Millennium Park.
Top 5 highlights of the whole ordeal?
- Kevin Devine. If the man needed my kidney, I'd probably give it to him. Heck, if he simply wanted my kidney just for fun, I'd seriously consider it. That probably makes me sound like a creep because it's out of context but in context... Well, it still might be creepy. A proper write up of K.D. Round 3 is en route to The Hot Half Life.
- Getting to finally experience the Decemberists live. I wasn't impressed by their Lollapalooza set, a conceptual start-to-finish delivery of The Hazards of Love but regardless, getting to see them in person twice in the span of two days was remarkable.
- Getting a fancy new musical obsession via Langhorne Slim. I have the same feverish desire for his music that I did upon first listen to M. Ward, quite a few years back and aside from Bad Veins, it's been a while since an act had me as excited as Slim does.
- Finally seeing what the big deal is about Andrew Bird. It's been said before but that doesn't make it any less true: That man is Chicago's finest whistler. It's damn hard to win someone over in a festival setting but Bird managed to snag my heart even after a too-long, too-rainy, too-tiring Day 1.
- Being dangerously close to former Okkervil River right hand man, current Shearwater
ringleader Jonathan Meiburg, whose voice is just as unearthly and impossibly beautiful in person as it is on record. Don't believe me? Check out a sample of what I got to experience this evening, via a live SXSW video.
A pathetic sidenote: That ridiculous nervousness I develop around Will Sheff? It seems to have spread to Jonathan Meiburg as well, exemplifying something I now refer to as "The Okkervil River affect". Those two gentlemen are remarkably similar in the way they carry themselves and something about extremely well kept men who are tall, well spoken and very kind makes me jittery. Sorry, Dallas Green, but Jonathan's taking your spot.
