Chicago (update) and Lollapalooza
I’m in Chicago now, landed about an hour ago. Just sorting myself out for Lollapalooza ! 
Yesterday in New York, did Liberty and Ellis Island. Not that impressed, you have to book months ahead for the Statue Tickets and wait 3 hours in line to get up to the Crown, and I don’t think it’s really worth it. Alas, the only things left to do here now are the museums and galleries, which I will go to next time I’m in town.
The last couple of days I’ve been somewhat offline, and unable to post anything. The internet in the hotel room drops out all the time, which means I can’t actually post any photos up. This weekend was huge, Lollapalooza happened.
We realised soon after landing in Chicago that we aren’t anywhere near downtown or northside, and that walking to the station was 40 minutes, and the train itself takes 30 minutes but comes every 1 hour. With this knowledge, I organised with a friend from Chicago to stay at hers because it was far closer to the venue and would save me the 2 or so hours travelling a week.
Friday at Lollapalooza I spent pretty much by myself, got there in the afternoon and it was terrible weather, lots of rain. I stayed around for White Lies, and with the beauty of the 3 day pass, left the venue to get some hot coffee, and went back for Crystal Castles. The stage was reminiscent of all points west, lots of mud, and lots of ruined shoes. Alice was drunk and being obnoxious on stage, jumping into the crowd, getting groped and yelling at people, and giving shots to the crowd. Still, not a great live band and I much prefer their album work. Walking from south side to north side to see the Decemberists, a bit of Peter, Bjorn and John (since I missed them twice when they supported Depeche Mode; turns out they do a Joy Division cover of Transmission), Of Montreal and finally Depeche Mode (again). Same setlist from the Mode, with less one encore and no Strangelove. I met up with Liz for dM and we had a great time watching the mode, and afterwards went out to a bar (or what we would call a pub) and some club with her friends. They played pretty much rnb and hiphop, rock/metal isn’t really popular in chicago.
Saturday morning we walked through the north side of town, going into some adventure stores as I was looking for a cheap winter jacket. Discovering North Chicago one street at time. Saturday had Tool headlining, I didn’t spent much time at any one band before then, just moving around and looking at the stalls and art installations they have there at the festival. Liz went to the arctic monkeys, who I saw at APW and thought were rubbish, so instead I got a free shirt cleaning up rubbish, and another Tool poster. The weather was a total change from the day before, it was stinking hot. Tool was Tool, and once again, same setlist, same awesomeness.
Sunday we went to the famous Portillos for an Italian Sandwich, Navy pier and through Lakeshore Drive and Millennium Park. Caught Boysnoize, some MSTRKRFT (seemed more like a DJ set and not an album set), Silversun Pickups, Deadmau5 and Jane’s Addiction. Lollapalooza is such an awesome festival and I had a rad time at the festival, it was located in a great part of town with the Chicago skyline in the background, simply beautiful.
Pictures soon.
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such a hater of nyc, fuck you it’s the best place in the world.
granted, the touristy sites are shitty.
meh, chicago rips it