So we left and started a garage band

I interrupt your regularly scheduled programming (my Chicago tale of disaster) to discuss my latest music obsession. I've been reading music blogs and felt the need to share my own latest find.

I was able to catch a Metric show on Tuesday and walked away feeling the need to revive my teenage "I wanna be a rockstar" dreams. The show was really fun thanks to Emily Haines' energy and her awesome sequined dress. She bounced, danced, and at one point, threw herself into the crowd before running in front of the stage and giving everyone high fives. The rest of the band smiled and played like they were *gasp* having fun. Twice during the set, there were pauses where Emily talked to the crowd. It wasn't the same "thanks for being a great crowd" lines, either. She talked about how excited they were to actually hear their music on the radio, her parents, and how she didn't really understand the effect of music (to paraphrase: "If we were all on the Subway right now, we'd be giving each other dirty looks."). It was nice to go to a show with actual interaction.


After being wowed by the show, I did a little research on Metric and ended up finding out more about Emily Haines. She has collaborated with, among others, Broken Social Scene (and on my favorite song!) and Stars and has two solo albums under the name Emily Haines + the Soft Skeleton. If you haven't heard her solo work or seen the (awesome) video below, be sure to check her out!

It happened

Chicago: Day 2

After our Lollapalooza day of music and rain, we headed out to see Chicago. All of Chicago. While the day started out cloudy, it quickly turned very sunny and veerry muggy. I started removing layers after about an hour and my sweater and scarf became awkward weights in my bag for the next ten hours of walking. By the end of the day, I had an impressive sunburn and several blisters on each foot. I had also seen some of the best spots in the city.


We started by train-hopping over to a great little cafe in Wicker Park called Cipollina. Right under the tracks, this place had awesome food/coffee/atmosphere. We walked around the neighborhood a bit before heading over to the Steppenwolf theater. On the way there, I saw Cynthia Rowley's store. In case you are unaware, I looove Cynthia Rowley's stuff. My sweaty grossness, Puma's, and bag full of discarded clothing kept me from going in. A few hours later (I might add that I was tired/hot/thirsty/cranky by this point) we ate an amazing lunch at Costello's. This was one of my friend's favorite spots when she lived in Chicago, so it was a nice return for her.



We followed this up with more walking, heading down to sit by the lake for a while. We took some really awkward photos and tried to avoid looking at the Speedo-sporting sunbathers nearby.


After heading to the apartment and cleaning up, we headed out for dinner at Wishbone. After our day of public transportation, we decided to drive my car and find a parking spot. We had made plans to meet up with some friends for an aftershow, but our plans fell through (ah, so much confusion) and we decided to drive around a bit and find some dessert.

And that's when it happened.

My car started shaking. The whole car. We happened to be right by Shell station with a service center (this does not happen!) so we pulled in and tried to figure it out. Half an hour and one phone call to my sleeping parents later, we decided to leave the car there. Assured that the mechanic was in on Sundays, we left with his number in hand and a renewed sense of hope.

Then, we took the right train. In the wrong direction. We realized this at 12:15, after three stops had passed us by. We got off the train at the most desolate and distant stop we had been to yet. This is when we realized that the trains had possibly stopped running for the night, meaning we could be stuck in a not-so-awesome part of Chicago at 12:30. We ended up catching the second to last train of the night and made it home, exhausted, at about 1:30. Little did we know what was ahead...

Lollapalooza 2009

We survived our Chicago trip. That is, in fact, impressive.

Day 1: Lollapalooza
We had an awesome time at Lolla, as expected. We started out with Hockey, who made it into their second song when they lost power completely. They handled it well by playing drums and then handing beer out to the crowd. We wandered to the next stage and saw a great set by Manchester Orchestra. I wasn't a huge fan, but they are great live. We caught some of Gringo Starr and The Knux (loud, but great energy), and The Builders and the Butchers. Then, we headed to Bon Iver. Bon Iver is one of the few artists I would happily stand in the pouring rain to hear. He is one of even fewer artists who is actually better in the rain. After his amazing set, we caught Ben Folds, Fleet Foxes, and then, The Decemberists. I don't claim to be a Decemberists fan, but they won me over this weekend. They were easily my favorite and put on an impressive show! After that, we waited (and waited) for Kings of Leon. I'm really sad to have missed Depeche Mode, but it's nice to say that I've seen Kings live. I had the advantage of standing by an awesome guy for this show, and we danced and sang the whole time.

It's worth pointing out here that:
:: It started raining an hour after the gates opened and stopped about an hour before KoL came on. We were soaked.
::For the record, it is not okay to use an umbrella at a music festival, ever. People will kill you, and they will be justified.
:: We only used the bathroom once all day, we ate twice that day, and we were on our feet for 17 hours straight. Lolla will crush the weak.
:: Most creative way of sneaking alcohol in: guy had taped small bottles of whiskey all over his body.

Check back in - our trip didn't get interesting until the next day...

Ready or not

It's late and I should not be typing. I always leave out (more) words when I write late and it never ends well. Feel free to abandon this post now.

I'm leaving tomorrow for Chicago and Lollapalooza. My bags are not packed, my bed is not made, my car has not been cleaned, and I have no idea what I will wear. I did, however, manage to: have some minor repairs done to my car, arrange my health insurance, set up house sitters, interview for a job, work on a freelance project, make a much-needed Target run, and get some road-worthy music lined up. Oh yeah, and I got an iPhone (!).

It's been a busy week, and I think I need this trip more now than I did even a few days ago. My perspective has changed this week (and from more the iPhone, thank you). I learned to say "no", a lot. To reconsider. To be (even more) careful. I learned how to deal with difficult people, and that I need to appreciate the really rare and good people around me more. Always more. I feel a sense of calm in the midst of knowing that I have very little control over what happens next. I will be ready again, come Monday, for the next step/hop/jump/dive.

So, friends, you can catch my live-from-Lolla updates on Twitter, and rest assured, there will be plenty of photos here soon. Cheers!

I may or may not be counting down the minutes

Chicago is two days away and I haven't been this excited for a very long time. The actual purpose of the trip is to go to Lollapalooza, but that almost seems to fade in comparison to the thought of just getting away. We decided to extend our trip an extra day (thanks to our amazing guests) and I am looking forward to a blissful four (4!) whole days away. Take me Chicago, I am yours.

Oh, and here's my Lolla schedule. We are only going for one day, but we are going to see some good acts. I'm so, so sad to be missing the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on Saturday, but who could have seen that coming? The past week has introduced me to some great new people, so I have a whole list of people to meet up with once we get there. There is talk of a meetup on the 95th floor of a building overlooking the park and my inbox might just have a list of green room entrances and venues to catch some not-so-advertised aftershows. And, even if the music is horrible, and even if we don't meet up with anyone, we are going to have an awesome time.

Prepping for the trip has been quite the task. I've had to sign up for various insurances, have my car repaired, planned out a house-sitter for my apartment and substitute teacher for my class, and have been working into the morning finishing up projects. By the time we leave I will have gone through two interviews, a couple of meetings, and a photo/video shoot. Despite all of this, the question running in the background the whole time remains: What am I going to wear?!

I'm hoping to update throughout the trip (via my new iPhone!). You should check out (the always fabulous) Joy's post on Lolla to make you either more excited or more envious. See you on the other side!

Let the show begin...

Another busy and fun weekend over here. All of the males in my family (3 generations) have birthdays only days apart, so we got together today to celebrate. This family time (extended family, for the record) further convinced me that I will elope should a marriage grace my future.

Now, I'm heading out to The Dead Weather show. I debated for about a month about whether or not I should go to this show. By the time I decided to just go solo, tickets were sold out. Thanks to the magic that is Twitter, I'm now going to with one fab friend. While the album does not blow me away, it's pretty good and I have a feeling that it's going to be a great live show. Good times are most certainly ahead. I'll try to get a few decent photos.

Lolla is right around the corner! I'm currently really enjoying the music of April Smith:

What was golden went gray

Let yourself get over the vocals (or better yet, let yourself like them in their own weird way) and enjoy. Judge me if you must, but this is one my favorite songs. I love it even more with the video: