dispatches from chicago: lollapalooza day 1

hello, there.

so i am indeed safe and sound, writing this from my hostel in the great metropolitan city of chicago. aside from the surliest bus driver i've ever encountered (and that's saying something, given how many american bus drivers i've dealt with) and folding myself into something roughly resembling a pretzel in order to get a meager couple hours of sleep on the greyhound, the ride was decent enough. i was even awake to see the creepy blue pillar of flame while going through indianapolis! seeing that fire is how i always know i'm en route to chitown once again.

but i guess you want to hear about lollapalooza so far, yeah?



given that i have eight minutes left on the clock here, i'll sum it up as best i can: hot. not as bad as expected, though, and there's a thankful bit of breeze up, but the sun was burning like crazy all day and i'm in the midst of finally abolishing my cadaver-like skin tone (even though that means the general public has to suffer through the sight of my bare, pasty-white stomach and back, as all i wore today - and will be wearing all weekend long - was a bikini top and miniskirt). hurrah!

first band i caught was the almighty editors, whose toronto show i missed on wednesday night and decided to make up for it today. it's a hell of a weird thing to see those brooders play in broad daylight - sunny daylight, no less - but that just made for even better viewing of frontman tom smith's distorted guitar faces and crazy histrionics. some cases in point:







you da man, tom.

i was also found by chart editor noah, who was there to take photos of the band. his comment: "how did i know i'd find you in front row at the editors' set?" yeah, i dunno either. :P

the only other full set i saw today was lady sovereign, which i wandered over to see mostly out of curious. i'm one of those who despises hip-hop and rap on principle, but the idea of a 5'1" british white girl spouting off grimey rhymes was irresistable. and i'm glad i went -- that kid tore the fucking place down. she's dj-ing tonight with greg at sonotheque, but i haven't found any of my friends yet so i don't exactly want to show up alone. :( blah.





i also saw bits of the raconteurs (okay, just "steady as she goes") and ryan adams (okay, just because i was trying to find bre), but other than that, it was mostly conserving my energy and getting myself settled in for the weekend. right now i feel like running amok through downtown chicago, but i'm pretty sure that's the doppio espresso i just drank at the nearest starbucks talking. (i'm likely going to be living at that particular `bucks this weekend -- it will be my cheapest source of "nutrition", thanks to my 30% discount)

one minute left! i'm flying. time to go meet the five roommates for the weekend...cheers from the land of americans :)

[ music death cab for cutie, "such great heights" ]