Did you miss me?

I hope you did. It's been a crazy week at work and this blog is currently #4 on the priority list. 1-3 tangentially related to wedding stuff.

Anyways, to mark the return of the blog post, it's a full pictorial tour of my Lollapalooza weekend.

Since I'm lazy, here's the wiki info on "Lollapalooza".

Lollapalooza (/ˌlɒləpəˈluːzə/) is an annual music festival featuring popular alternative rock, heavy metal, punk rock and hip hop bands, dance and comedyperformances, and craft booths. It has also provided a platform for non-profit and political groups. Lollapalooza has featured a diverse range of bands and has helped expose and popularize artists such as Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, The Latin (Manny and Gil), The Cure, Primus, The Killers, Rage Against the Machine, Arcade Fire, Nine Inch Nails, Jane's Addiction, Metallica, X Japan, Soundgarden, Siouxsie & the Banshees, The Smashing Pumpkins, Muse,Alice in Chains, Tool, Hole, 30 Seconds to Mars, The Strokes, The Foo Fighters, Lady Gaga and the Starlight Revue, and Green Day.

It's basically a big ass music festival and since 2005 it's been held at Grant Park in Chicago.

Side note: The word Lollapalooza, a shibboleth, was also used by the American Army to ferret out possible Japanese spies. Apparently the "L's" were too hard to pronounce and it sounded like Rorraparooza. I'm totally raffing out roud.

Anyways, I bounced out of work at 1pm to head out to Chicago to meet up with the SO and her sister. I've mentioned it before but the SO is a gigantic Muse fan. She's been to like umpteen concerts and keeps talking about Matt Bellamy. Apparently I'm still #1 but the margin between Matt and I keeps shrinking. That bastard.

It was the 20th anniversary of the festival so the nifty wristbands made sure to let us know.

The Rorraparooza, ahem, I mean Lollapalooza sign outside the main entrance.

The Chicago skyline. This was my 2nd visit to Chicago and we've been pretty lucky with the weather. This time around it was humid but highs topped out in the mid 80s and it was pretty spectacular until Sunday afternoon. Chicago in the summer is amazing and I love the city. It's too bad 90% of the time the weather sucks harder than a Dyson.

AMERICUHH*!!

*Courtesy of the Belgians and Brazilians.

Because we were primarily there to see Muse we made sure to line up early to get a good viewing spot. The roadies were doing the sound check while desperately hoping that some groupie comes up to them for some "backstage access".

The crowd was starting to get bigger as we approached showtime. It was a LOT of white people. Now I know what it feels like to be the white guy at UC Irvine. 

In case you were wondering what event this was. With the amount of weed wafting through the air I thought it was the Up in Smoke tour. 

We were were pretty close to the stage but if you wanted to check out the pores of the artists they had huge HD screens. 

And the show begins.....

Matt Bellamy admiring his work.

Clap Clap Clap Clap. Everyone in unison!!

Turn down your speakers on this one. We were so close to the speakers that it totally overwhelmed my phone's mic. 

I wasn't a big fan of Muse before this concert. To be honest I thought their music was just okay and I made fun of the SO for liking them so much. This concert totally changed things for me. I absolutely loved their music. I set my Pandora station to include Muse and I'm totally digging songs like City of Delusion. Anyways, it was an awesome concert and as the SO put it, "Best Muse concert ever". Since it was the only one I've seen I guess I have to agree. 

To cap the night we had some healthy food. Steak quesadillas, buffalo wings, nachos and beer. Why? That's how we roll. Fatties through and through. 

The day lineup for Lollapalooza wasn't spectacular so we combined a walking tour with lunch at Gibsons Steakhouse. 

You can imagine where most people stood when they took a picture. The best was an older gentleman who decided to look up and open his mouth real wide. Why would you want those juices?!?!

The Chicago Tribue building has these rocks from various famous sites. Basically the reporters from the Tribune stole historical pieces and brought them back to be incorporated into the building. Nice. 

Hey look Egyptian government. Here's a rock from your Great Pyramid. What are you going to do about it? Cry and whine? The Tribune is like the douchebag frat brother taunting the Tri-Lambs.

Finally arrived at Gibsons hungry and ready to chow down. But first...

A ginger beer and vodka cocktail. Delicious. 

Goose Island beer. 

Some sort of mint infused cocktail. I forgot what it was. It was sweet and vodka-y. 

Started off with some oysters. You know, to get the appetite going. 

Guess which fatty decided to get a filet mignon at 1pm. Yeah the SO. 

I, of course, was not going to be upstaged by the SO and the SO's sister's French Dip sandwich so I got a steak sandwich.  

5 minutes later...

After "lunch", which probably had enough nutritional value for two days, we were off to Grant Park to start the 2nd day of festivities....To be Lollapalooza'ed till midweek.