Concert Contrasts

OK...on with non-house stuff. I lucked into some semi-VIP tix to Lollapalooza this weekend (many thanks Sally!). Believe it or not, my first time since the fest has taken up residence in Grant Park.

Pretty interesting to compare it to the other weekend-long, all-day music festival I attended this summer: the Pitchfork Music Festival. Aside from being dusty, the two had little in common.

While both cater to a pretty obvious young, white, male audience both tried to at least seem eclectic. Pitchfork is far more focused on emerging "indie" bands but managed to squeeze a pair of African groups into the mix of rock, electonic, and hip hop (and truth be told, I really enjoyed both Extra Golden and the Occidental Dance Band). Lolla was a bit more white bread despite the Kanye headlining show.

In scale, Lolla dwarfed Pitchfork. 75,000 to about 10,000. Not sure that is a good thing. In fact, it is not. Perhaps I am old, but I am sort of sick of being a part of the sweaty masses and don't want to be surrounded by 74,999 smelly shirtless yokels screaming and stomping.

And that leads to the most conflicting part...accommodations for privileged rich folks... I got hooked up with a wristband that got me into the "artists area," a fenced off area where I shared free drinks and slightly less smelly porta-potties with various roadies and aging industry execs. And on Saturday, I was able to sneak into the Shangri-lollapalooza that was the "Lolla-Lounge." Another fenced off area with free drinks, wine tasting, free food, and an entire private hillside with unobstructed views. As I looked out onto the vast concert ground before us, the Lolla-Lounge felt elitist and horrible. It felt like I was looking out at Soweto in front of the stage. Or was on some private third world beach walled off from the local population. I did not feel very comfortable...

...and then the music started...

Rage Against the Machine thundered into action and in less than 10 minutes the vast plains surged with testosterone below us as the unfortunate concertgoers in front of the stage were slowly having their lives squeezed out of them...

...and it did not seem so bad in the Lolla Lounge...

The shaggy guy pictured to the left was shaking the fence to the pulsing beat. It seemed like a protest---Tear this wall down!---until he shook it so hard he actually flipped onto "our side." I jumped around to the music with him until he accidentally punched me in the eye.

Maybe the Lolla fence was not so bad...but I kept thinking of this King Khan performance at Pitchfork:



So, umm, class issues at both fests. Not necessarily healthy in either case, but despite the lesser production value and "no name" artists---the folks who take things less seriously always have more fun.