After all of my whining I felt it was important to talk about how truly awesome Lollapalooza actually was. I love festival shows. There is certainly something to be said for seeing bands at smaller, more intimate venues, but there is something awesome and magical about the magnitude of festival shows. There are so many people there, all having this incredible shared experience. It’s a great setting to discover new music (I’m officially a fan of Freelance Whales and Miniature Tigers, thanks to Lollapalooza) and you are doing your festival shows wrong if you don’t befriend strangers (even if these are only fleeting friendships that end when the sun goes down on the last day — it is probably better this way).

That being said, this is my personal Lollapalooza 2010 highlight reel:

1. Sunday morning rain
2. The fact that The Dodos are just the best
3. The fact that Lady Gaga is just the best
4. Seeing all sorts of people turn up for a band that I didn’t realize was so legit
5. Making my little sister look like the little lion that she is
6. Finding a good place to take a nap
7. Using Buckingham Fountain as a meeting place
8. The Chicago skyline as a backdrop

Sometimes I don’t complain about the weather

Ashley and I walked outside on Sunday morning with only a broken umbrella to protect us from the rain. We made a run to CVS where we purchased ponchos and another umbrella. I was color-coordinating to my own detriment as it turned out that my blue poncho was a junior poncho. My biggest regret of the whole weekend is that we do not have any pictures of us wearing these ponchos. When the rain stopped it became so insufferably hot that there was just no way we could keep them on to take pictures. Goofing around with my sister in our ridiculous ponchos was probably the highlight of the weekend for me. Moreover, it meant that there were a lot of later arrivals that day, so it was relatively easy for us to get close to the stage for The Dodos.

I just want to express my love for The Dodos

I do not actually have much else to say on this subject. I loved their set and I loved the crowd because everyone was so chill and happy and Neko Case was there and I just loved everything about this hour of my weekend.

Gaga brings people together

As I mentioned previously, my friend Abby found us a lovely spot on a hill to watch Gaga and look out at the crowd. After Abby left to go see The Strokes, I sat there by myself looking at the very thing I love most about festivals. To my right there was a family with a few girls who had to be in elementary school. They were rocking out in a way that reminded me of my first concert (The Spice Girls, 98 — very shortly after Ginger Spice broke every fourth grade girl’s heart and quit the group). In front of me was an awesome middle aged gay couple who were also dancing and having fun. Further down in front of me was the hoard, which included my sister and her friend and a sea of drunk kids. It was a very “We Are The World” moment. And then Gaga told us about her big dick. It was a pretty good time.

My school was in the Lollapalooza program!

I have seen Jukebox the Ghost perform in the tiny little venues on campus at GW so I was surprised when I saw them on the Lollapalooza lineup a few months ago. Not only were they at Lolla, everyone in the crowd knew all the words to their songs. GW is not exactly a school that you expect to produce such things. Also, Ashley and I started singing the fight song while we were waiting for their set to start and I tried not to think about the fact that I’m not in college which means I have to figure out my own life and oh my god that is just so scary. Regardless, it was lots of fun.

My sister’s hair is its own life force

Ashley is involved in theater at her school and her hair often influences her casting. While we were relaxing on our hill, waiting for Gaga, Ashley felt that dancing during Bad Romance would be a lot more fun, if her hair reached it’s full lion-status potential. Abby, Ashley, and I then spent the next ten minutes playing with her hair and making her look not all that unlike Albert Einstein. But as a high school girl. We feel that if Gaga could have seen it, she would have approved:

Sometimes I get sleepy

At Coachella, I usually end up passing out on my towel at some point during the weekend. On Day 3 of Lollapalooza, shortly before Ashley’s trampling fiasco, I left MGMT’s set early to go catch The Temper Trap. Just across Columbus from where Temper Trap played, I found a relatively empty little section of the park where I could sit and pseudo-nap. It was nice and shady, but if I stood up and looked around I could see all the crazy outside of this little triangle. However, I could lay down there and hear the festival, and even smell it, without seeing it or feeling it in the same way. It was bizarre, but nice for the 30–45 minutes or so that I was there.

I really love Chicago

The last two items on my list are essentially the same thing. When trying to meet up with my sister, I was able to sit on a park bench at Buckingham Fountain. While watching anything on the Budweiser Stage (Arcade Fire, Phoenix, MGMT, Stars, etc.) I got to see my grandparent’s building behind it. I know that the city creates certain limitations that I complained about last time, but it also contributed to a lot of what makes Lollapalooza great.

Have you been to Lollapalooza or another festival show? What have been the highlights of those experiences for you?