Rain pattering against the wet cement outside is never a reassuring way to be woken up on the first day of Lollapalooza. But that's how my dreams were broken on that damp Friday morning in Chicago. The rain wasn't cold, luckily, but it was still coming down to see the show.
Shortly after The Knux, London's White Lies took the Budweiser stage...along with the rain. But a little bit of rain never hurt anyone, and this was proven during their performance. The rain actually just seemed to turn everyone on, and singing 'To Lose My Life' with thousands of your new best-friends is definitely a sexual experience. The down pour wasn't even at it's peak yet and already everyone looked they had just jumped out of the best shower they've ever had.
By the time Crystal Castles came on everyone who had been there for more than ten minutes was drenched; some even decided to cut straight to the chase and do somersaults through the mud. At the VitaminWater stage where they performed there was no longer a lawn, it had been trampled into a pit of mud, rain, sand, beer, and sweat. It didn't slow down the party though, by the time the set was over my shoes and pants were no longer black, but covered in a brown paste of what other than: mud, rain, sand, beer, and sweat. I might as well have joined those doing somersaults.
During The Knux performance the rain actually let up long enough to allow flocks of hipsters and passer-bys sporting transparent-neon ponchos to gather around the Citi stage at one 0'clock that after noon. The collage of people in the crowd danced, drank, and smoked to songs like 'Powder Room', 'Cappuccino', and of course, 'Bang Bang'. While the set winded down, the party winded up; and the rappers left the crowd jumping around to, what else, Chumbawumba's 'Jump Around'. It seemed like the brother had their own party backstage before the show, though. They were clearly fucked-up and had no problem preaching it to the crowd. But hey, this was a party damnit, and they were bringing it.
Shortly after The Knux, London's White Lies took the Budweiser stage...along with the rain. But a little bit of rain never hurt anyone, and this was proven during their performance. The rain actually just seemed to turn everyone on, and singing 'To Lose My Life' with thousands of your new best-friends is definitely a sexual experience. The down pour wasn't even at it's peak yet and already everyone looked they had just jumped out of the best shower they've ever had.
By the time Crystal Castles came on everyone who had been there for more than ten minutes was drenched; some even decided to cut straight to the chase and do somersaults through the mud. At the VitaminWater stage where they performed there was no longer a lawn, it had been trampled into a pit of mud, rain, sand, beer, and sweat. It didn't slow down the party though, by the time the set was over my shoes and pants were no longer black, but covered in a brown paste of what other than: mud, rain, sand, beer, and sweat. I might as well have joined those doing somersaults.
By night fall I found myself trapped in the lights beaming off of Perry's, Lolla's techno stage. Anyone there when the sun goes down will tell you it is impossible to leave that stage at that point, for any reason. That first night of 'Palooza at Perry's was headlined by Crookers and KiD CuDi; and they went together like Kentucky and Fried Chicken. Crookers tweeted out their signature up-beat, silly, clap induced beats to the 270 degree semi-circle of people who had skipped both Kings of Leon and Depeche Mode in order to party a little harder. Crookers was not lacking a crowd though, by any means; and it stayed strong while CuDi hit the stage. He's still a rookie though, and it showed. The Brooklyn-based rapper powered through his hits 'Day 'n' Nite' and 'Make Her Say'; but seemed less pumped during his other songs when no one knew the words.
Neither rain nor mud nor dwindling alcohol supplies could keep the first day 'Paloozers down. And overall, Friday was an extremely exciting foreshadow into what the rest of the Lollapalooza '09 weekend held.
No comments:
Post a Comment