As I write this, my ears still ring, the brain hurts and the body is sore and exhausted. Why would I do this to myself? I’m not sure, but it was worth every minute! I’ll recap through the groggyness caused by much consumption of alcohol.

We all thought last Junes NIN show was the final nail in the coffin for Chicago, everyone said it was so. But nooo, they decided to throw in some last minute gigs at the Aragon Ballroom and of course this is an extremely impossible ticket to get. Lucky for me my old friend and college buddy Scott came up with the goods. We’re in baby, book that flight to Chicago!

I’ll summarize the experience in a couple of words… Sweaty mayhem.

In a few more words.. Met up with Douglass around 3PM in the city, where it was in fact Miller time so we had a few and something to eat to celebrate Scotts triumphant return to the Windy City. Well, ok fine we didn’t have an excuse. Then, took the Red Line to the venue, my first time ever using the CTA and hey it works quite well! We arrived at The Aragon and much to our dismay there was a huge line snaking around the building, the block, and into the parking lot of a strip mall. It was the literal March Of The Pigs! So, we got in line like the sheep we are and then find out we’re at the wrong door. No problem, we go back outside and in the right door, no waiting! We’re in baby.

A few drinks later, Mew comes on and plays for a bit. Doesn’t sound that great live I have to admit, although I do like their music from what I’ve heard online. A couple of more drinks while we await the main event. Actually, it started quite quickly. We secured a great spot in front of the soundboard so we can take photos and videos of the show. But, when it did start the crowd surged forward and I wasn’t paying attention and Scott got lost in the crowd. No problem, I’ll find him later and enjoy the show. My mistake! Why do mosh pits always form right where I stand? Fine, this time I figured I would join in a little, although some of these guys were built like tanks. Hey at 36 I can still hold my own somewhat! As the night went on, we became a huge mass of sweating and screaming animals, it was almost tribal. But still really cool, everyone had nothing but good vibes. Nobody got hurt, I’ve seen the worst at other shows. After a while though my luck did run out and I got slammed when I wasn’t ready and it jarred my arm where I have an old injury. Dammit!

It was a blistering set, including an appearance by Peter Murphy, who must have been really whacked out of his mind because he screwed up the lyrics to Reptile and started improvising on some other songs. Whatever. This was probably one of the best concert experiences I’ve ever had. Thanks Scott for bringing me along, and thanks Trent for kicking my ass.

Update: Today it was pointed out I have a black eye! Whoops! No idea how that happened, did not notice getting jabbed in the face. Still worth it!

Here is the night’s setlist:

Home
The Beginning Of The End
Survivalism
Heresy
March Of The Pigs
Piggy
Metal
Ruiner
I’m Afraid Of Americans
Burn
Gave Up
La Mer
The Frail
I Do Not Want This
Gone, Still
Right Where It Belongs v2.0
The Way Out Is Through
Wish
Mr Self Destruct
Suck
Echoplex
The Good Soldier
Dead Souls
Reptile (with Peter Murphy)
Strange Kind Of Love / Bela Lugosi’s Dead – Bauhaus covers with Peter Murphy
Final Solution – Pere Ubu cover with Peter Murphy
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like A Hole
Hurt

Well, it came and went. Dammit I can’t believe its over already. Yes I know, seems like I’m always going to these NIN concerts the last 3 years, hey I missed seeing them live for about 10 years beforehand so nyah! Anyways, this time I was accompanied by my lovely wife for a night out with Mr Reznor on his final tour (supposedly, I hope not for long). First we made a pit stop at 5 Guys for a burger in Oak Park, mmmmm good stuff. After navigating the rush hour traffic on the Ike, we made it to  the beautiful downtown Charter One Pavilion. Not a bad place, fairly small and right on the lakefront with a fantastic vantage of the city. We had seats that were fairly decent (no more mosh pits for me thanks) off stage left.  For this last tour, Nails went without the elaborate staging (nothing could ever top Lights In The Sky Tour from last year anyway). It was simply lit, white lights, smoke and strobes, the energy was provided solely by the music. Holy crap, they rocked out the house, with a setlist that was surprising and satisfying. This was a show for the hardcore fans, playing stuff that has been unheard live since the early nineties. Check out this list:

Somewhat Damaged
Terrible Lie
Heresy
March of the Pigs
Piggy (regular)
Metal
The Becoming
I’m Afraid of Americans
Burn
Gave Up
La Mer
The Fragile
Gone, Still
The Way Out is Through
Wish
Survivalism
Mr. Self Destruct
Suck
The Day the World Went Away
Hurt
The Hand that Feeds
Head like a Hole

I was kinda hoping for the Now I’m Nothing opener which I have never heard myself but I cannot complain with this list. For a final farewell, this was awesome.

Its that time of year again when I bring you the latest installment of Lollapalooza. Definitely was not the same this time, kind of a bummer actually as the usual cronies who come into town could not make it this year. What, you getting to old Swifty? Oh right, you have family obligations now. Growing up sucks doesn’t it. So not one to miss an opportunity, I decided I would go regardless on the last day of the 3 day festival. I don’t think I could handle much more than that anyway, the physical hangover is just too much.

Maybe its lost its charm, or it could have been because I trekked alone, or I was completely sober, but flying solo sorta sucks its not like going to the movies alone. The show sold out all three days, and much to my disappointment I could not get a one day walk in ticket. So after a long train ride I was just about to turn back and come home. Dammit, the one year I really wanted to see a headliner and I can’t get in. Somehow, as luck would have it, this dude asked me if I had a ticket. I said nope, and he offered to sell me a spare, and as any good oppurtunist he tacked on a premium for himself and wouldn’t budge on the price. “See I can be a dick about it, it is sold out you know.” Fine dammit, so I bought it from him. It was as if we were doing a drug deal on the street, money exchanged hands and I got the ticket. After the guy took off I couldn’t help but wonder if he sold me a fake ticket. It looked nothing like last years, no fancy logo, no nothing, just a plain stub.  Walking all the way to the gate I was looking feverishly for others who had tickets so I could compare them. Nope, everyone had the wristbands. Crap, would I be turned away from the gate and be out a hundred bucks?

After going through ’security’ (laughable actually), the gate person scanned my ticket and..bingo! I was in, whew! The first thing I noticed was it was crowded, really really crowded. Definitely not like the last few times. Traversing anywhere meant merging into the river of traffic. Oy this was going to be a hot one with all these sweaty bodies. But I made it in, groovey.

I texted Brad a few times to see where he was at, naturally the odds of finding a single person in a crowd of 75,000 people are slim. I wandered around to the north end to see if I could find him. No such luck, so instead since I didn’t have lunch I grabbed something to eat. Not bad, and price was reasonable. So after more back and forth texting I wandered around from stage to stage and didn’t hang around long to listen. Although I did catch the tail end of Perry Ferrell and Slash playing the Kidapalooza stage. That was…strange to see these two rock legends playing Jane’s Addiction songs with a bunch of kids.

I wandered over to the Playstation stage and it was between acts so I had a chance to harrass Jen Howard who was working camera for Lolla. I wandered around some more while Iron and Wine was playing the main stage at the north end. Meh, a style of music thats just too mellow for me. I took a seat and waited for Flogging Molly to start, people watching is certainly interesting at these sorts of things. I saw everything from drunken shirtless concert idiots, mohawk punkers, card carrying AARP members to a kid in a stroller with green hair. This place has everything.

Flogging Molly was awesome. From Ireland, this group takes the traditional Irish drinking music and adds some punk rock riffs that creates a distinct sound. Heavy Metal meets the fiddle, accordion and banjo. Aye, the local Irishmen in the crowd were going nuts.

I made the executive decision that I would get dinner and bathroom out of the way afterwards so that I could claim good real estate for Love and Rockets and Nine Inch Nails for the evening. One hamburger and portapotty visit later I was making my way to the main stage. Wouldn’t you know it, there was Brad. So we enjoyed the goth retro stylings of Love and Rockets for a bit. It was like reanimating the dead, who let these guys out of long term storage? It was a good set though, the wall of noise was deafening but familiar. Brad and his posse didn’t want to stick around for NIN, probably a good choice for them, and we exchanged goodbyes.

I claimed my spot on the grass, this was the closest I have ever been for a NIN show and I was not about to give it up. An hour passed, the stage was being loaded and the crowd slowly grew thicker. Eventually it was so crowded I had to stand or risk a boot in my face. The time drew nearer, the anticipation grew. Cheering and chants of “Kanye Sucks!” were heard. Then the trademark smoke, which lead to the prerecorded 999,999 track. The crowd surged forward, I had no choice. We were packed in there like sweaty hogs when Trent Reznor and his crew came out to kick our asses. The crowd went nuts, the lights, the sound were in overdrive. Then, the third song in was March Of The Pigs, a classic from the early nineties. This of course was an invitation for meatheads everywhere to start a mosh pit, and naturally it was right next to me. Oh man, I spent quite a bit of the evening in defensive mode from these morons. Thats all well and good though, it is after all a Nine Inch Nails show.  The lighting for this tour is just incredible. They did some really cool stuff with the video walls, it just gets better everytime. The pictures and video do not do it justice.

After two hours of getting my ears pummeled from songs like Wish, Head Like A Hole, Terrible Lie, Only, Survivalism and so forth it was over. Wow, that went by fast. It was time to go home. Like the sweaty lemmings we were, the crowd spilled out of Grant Park into the streets. I had 30 minutes to make the train or have to stay a lot later than I wanted to for the next one. Once again, I ran my ass off to get to the station. Let me tell you, running downtown after spending all day in the sun on your feet is not fun. I passed many others trying to do the same in flip flops. I did make it though, 8 minutes to spare.

I’m getting past my prime for this kind of stuff though. We’ll see about next year.

Can you tell I’m excited?

So its the day after, my legs are sore, I’m tired, and my ears are ringing. This can only mean my return to Lalapalooza. Like last time, although nothing could ever top that one, it was a ton of fun. As usual Swifty came in as well as Scotty’s bro James. One thing is for sure, this time it was sweltering hot, finding shade was at a premium so we were chugging the water (with an occasional fermented brew mixed in).

I had some reservations about going in the first place because I felt the lineup was rather weak. There weren’t too many names on the list that I recognized or had a desire to see. This year, the bill featured a diverse range of music from the usual rock fare, shoegaze, punk, blues and surprisingly electronic music. The short list of the acts we caught:

If the soreness in my neck is any indication, 2 days later, it must have been a good show. This time I dragged Trisha out to the summer tour of Nine Inch Nails. Watch out people, your elders are at the show, we’re here to relive our youth. Damn you kids and your leather bras and nose rings, why don’t you go home and sulk in some dark corner of your parents house in Naperville? What? Yes I saw them in February but decided one more time because I was disappointed with the seating arrangements. On the way there (coming all the way from Durand) we got a flat tire. For sure I thought we were gonna get screwed somehow yet again. OK, spare tire installed, we made it with time to spare. Parking no problem, getting tickets from will call, no problem. Try to bring in my camera, problem. Dammit. OK so back to the car, then back in. Finally.It pays to become a fan club member, as the choice of seating is awesome. We were about 28 rows back in the front section, so the sight lines were perfect. I had some fears about sound issues initially because the show was at the notoriously bad First Midwest Bank Ampitheatre (Formerly known as The World, then Tweeter Center). I have to say the sound crew was able to salvage it and NIN gave us a kick ass show. I thought Bauhaus was pretty cool too, kind of a throwback to the early 80’s. Oh wait a sec, they are from that era. I don’t know much about them, except they are the ones who started the Goth movement. Trent says they are the ones who inspired him to get into music. I find it funny that he likes to tour with his former idols, who have been completely eclipsed by him in terms of popularity (Bowie comes to mind).So without further ado, the evening’s setlist:

Somewhat Damaged You Know What You Are? Sin Terrible Lie March Of The Pigs Something I Can Never Have Closer Burn Gave Up Help Me I Am In Hell Even Deeper Only Wish La Mer Into The Void The Big Come Down Suck Down In It Hurt Final Solution w/Peter Murphy The Hand That Feeds Head Like a Hole

For you hardcore fans out there you will notice the strong presence of tracks from their early works, which will lead me to jump around like an idiot with glee. The lights and stage setup were dazzling as usual, especially that cage thingy that lowered. Oh yeah, you know this is a NIN show when the two dudes a few rows in front of you need to get a room. Once again I leave it to internets to provide the pictures. Especially this link on flickr.com .

Check out this clip from youtube.com, probably the best part of the show when the cage is used. The instrumental Help Me I Am In Hell followed by Even Deeper. Ignore the drunks.

[youtube eTY_S3L6l8Y]