10:00am
Thursday morning, August 2nd we boarded a plane at LaGuardia airport
& made the 2-hour flight from New York to Chicago touching down at O’Hare airport, just north of Chicago city, at 2:00pm. A
shuttle drove us to our hotel & we checked into The Blackstone Renaissance
around 3:00pm. Beautiful hotel & located literally across the road from
Grant Park where Lollapalooza was to begin tomorrow morning. We were both
starving hungry, having eaten nothing but dirty breakfast baguettes at NYC
airport before leaving & we knew exactly where we wanted to eat. On our
second week in the states, whilst traveling on the Amtrak from LA to San
Francisco, we watched a show we’d downloaded called Man VS
Food whereby the host eats his way around the US attempting ridiculous eating
challenges. He does however, visit an array of iconic restaurants that sounded
great to eat at, so we’d been taking note of where
they’re situated & eating there
when we roll into town. Places like Pinks Hotdogs in Hollywood, Phil’s BBQ in San Diego, Alice Coopertown in Phoenix & we
were on our way to Al’s Beef in Chicago. Al’s Beef is famous for their 8inch slow-cooked, shaved roast
beef, hot peppers & cheddar cheese sub which is then dipped in the juices
that the beef has roasted in. It took a good 15 minutes, 20 plus napkins, some
loud encouragement & gold-medal persistence to stomach both subs, but we
both triumphed. We both agreed, they were the most delicious subs we’d ever had & were ever likely to have again. This wasn’t to be our last visit. So full that we almost needed
walking frames, we wandered down to the foreshore where we could begin to hear
bands doing sound checks. Noticing a large line at the front gate, we enquired
as to the reason, to be told that people were collecting their wristbands so
they didn’t have to wait in line when
gates opened tomorrow. Brilliant timing. We got in line & received our
3-day Pass Wristbands. Afterwards we walked through the Grant Park Gardens
around the perimeter of the festival gates & listened to Black Sabbath
& NERO doing their sound checks. It was a really exciting experience. We
were getting goose bumps in anticipation for all the incredible bands we were
about to witness in the days to come. On our way back to the hotel we stopped
by a liquor store where we found a 6 pack of Chocolate Stouts! We returned to
the hotel to have a couple of beers & listen on the computer to all the
bands we were seeing tomorrow. I barely slept a wink that night. I was so
excited.
Friday
morning we leapt out of bed did a couple of star-jumps & air-kicks before
slapping on our Lollapalooza wristbands. An epic moment right there. We’d decided that it’d be a good idea to get in a
good hearty breakfast as is a sensible idea before attending any festival, so
we went to the hotel restaurant downstairs & shared an Eggs Benedict &
Fruit salad. Top notch. Complete redemption. This was the breakfast I was
searching for in New York city! After breakfast we smothered ourselves in
sunscreen, loaded all our essentials into the fanny-pack & set off to
Lollapalooza. It was 36 degrees & each day was completely sold out, 300,00
punters over the course of 3 days. Absolutely massive, however everything was
completely catered for. The festival was so well organized unlike the ones in
Australia. There were more than enough portable toilets, there were at least 60
different food & drink stalls –all of which were local
restaurants selling their signature dishes at an average price of $5! Water
cost $2 & was sold in biodegradable cardboard containers (plus free water
filling stations around the park), beers were $6 a stubby or $8 for a 16oz cup,
although we didn’t drink. Merch was $20-$30!
They had countless vegan, green & gourmet stalls setup, art markets,
clothing & absolutely everything else you could imagine. Another fantastic
idea too was an activity called Rock & Recycle whereby if you filled a
gigantic plastic bag with cans, bottles & recyclables you’d receive a free t-shirt & go in the draw to win some
wicked prize. At the end of the first day, the park was still immaculate &
litter-free. Brilliant idea. The festival organizers in Oz could learn a lot
from these guys here in the states that have to accommodate such large numbers
of punters & therefore compensate with essential facilities. Throughout
Friday we ate amazing Pizza-Pie, Steak Nachos, Pulled Pork Sandwiches & Ice
Cream, drank Ice Tea & bared witness to incredible performances by The
Black Angels, The War On Drugs, Tame Impala, Metric, Die Antwoord, NERO, Black
Sabbath, Bassnectar & The Black Keys. We arrived back at the hotel around
10pm, showered, did a heap of stretches to prevent almost certain injuries
after cutting loose during NERO's set, had a cup of tea & went straight to
sleep.
Saturday
we did much the same. Shared the exact same hearty breakfast, lathered up our
sunscreen then joined the festivities. It was a little cooler today which we
were thankful for & even the possibility of an afternoon thunderstorm. We
arrived to see Aloe Blacc play a killer set then headed off to grab a bite to
eat. Mac n Cheese with Australian Truffle & a Chicken Burrito. Whilst we
were eating ‘Cheese On A Stick’ around 2:30pm Jacy received a notification on her phone
from Lollapalooza saying “A very large thunderstorm is
heading towards Chicago City. Everyone must evacuate, please proceed to your
nearest exit.” We chatted with an official
who assured us this is correct & that everyone must evacuate immediately.
It was hard to believe, as the sky didn’t look all that threatening
but they were very serious about it. So within 30 minutes, 100,000 people were
ushered out the gates & onto the streets. It was absolute chaos. The
streets stopped moving, pubs, restaurants & underground car parks flooded
with people, it was utterly insane. Jacy & I went back up to our hotel
room, cracked & beer & just waited it out. Moments after we’d reached our room the sky opened up. Lightening, thunder,
gale-force winds & torrential rain pummelled the city & anyone out in
the open. After nearly a solid hour the sky cleared up & a glimmer of hope
returned. Nobody knew if the festival would continue at this stage & the
network was complete jammed so we couldn’t find anything out on the
interweb. At around 5:30pm we decided we’d go for a walk down there. As
we did so, the gates reopened & started allowing everyone back in. As soon
as we walked in, the bands started playing again & everything resumed as
normal. They pushed all the time slots back an hour to compensate, slightly
shortened a couple of sets & unfortunately cancelled The Temper Trap. The
park was a mess. Puddles, mud & lakes of soggy slush had appeared
everywhere & kids were loving it. There were people in their bathers
completely black, covered from head to toe in mud. Hilarious. We found a great
spot between our two main ovals atop a large hill with a great view & from
there we watched Bloc Party & Red Hot Chili Peppers, drank Iced Tea &
ate Grilled Chicken Burgers & Lobster Dagwood Dogs. It was a great day,
thunderstorm aside & testament as to how organized this event really is, to
be able to successfully execute a masses evacuation & readmission. Kudos
Perry Farrel & co.
Sunday we
repeated our routine with our usual Eggs Benedict & fruit salad breakfast.
We decided to hang at the hotel for a little while before heading into the
festival today as our first band started at 2pm. At around 12pm we took a
stroll up the street & revisited our good friend Al & dined on another
of his Dipped Roast Beef Subs. 6 inches sandwiches this time though. So
delicious. From there we went to Lolla & throughout the day, had the
pleasure of seeing White Rabbits, Gary Clark Jnr, Little Dragon, Sigur Ros,
Gaslight Anthem, At The Drive-in, Florence + The Machine & Jack White. Our
food delights of the evening were Pizza Pies, Burritos, Ice Tea & my first
ever Wheat Grass Shot. Funky. As we strolled through the markets that afternoon
we stopped by a particular stall that did portraits of musicians. The artist
William “Bill” Stidham, pointed to the TOOL shirt I was wearing &
exclaimed how he’d be painting Maynard next.
Upon discovering we were Australian, he introduced us to his friend sitting
behind him: Trent. We discussed how we had visited Maynard’s Cellar door at Caduceus & Arizona Stronghold to which
we discovered that he was the owner of “Sip n Listen” on the Gold Coast, the only company in Australia
exclusively allowed to import Maynard’s wines! He was setting up a
business venture with Bill & his art to be distributed around Australia. We
all exchanged emails & Trent asked us to get in touch with him when we’re home, should we want to purchase art & wine. We went
back to the stall later that afternoon & bought a heap of drink coasters
off Bill & chatted about him having his art on display at Big Day Out 2013
in Perth. We offered our services should he need workers & we swapped
contact details. We left that evening feeling rather exhausted but accomplished
with the fact that we’d just experienced the biggest
music festival of our lives. So many incredible bands, foods & a couple of
cool new friends in the art & wine business. We packed our suitcases that
night, had a cup of Earl Grey & watched the Olympics until we fell asleep.
Monday
morning was our time to say goodbye to Chicago. A short but sweet visit. One
that will never be forgotten & a handful of bands that we had the pleasure
of discovering & will be investing in upon returning home. For festival
goers & music enthusiasts, Lollapalooza is just one of those events you
have to experience at least once in your life. It completely exceeded our
expectations. We smashed in one last Eggs Benedict & Fruit Salad breakfast
(this meal is particularly hard to come by in the US. For some reason
hollandaise is as rare as rocking horse shit over here. As previously
mentioned, they prefer sweet food for breakfast). Our shuttle collected us at
9am & took us to O’Hare airport. Sporting
festival sunglass-tans, Lollapalooza T-shirts & undisguisable
musical-inspired grins from ear to ear, we boarded the 4hour flight to Seattle
to get our grunge on.
