La La Palooza

from the land and air

08/08/2011 2:38 PM

By Bonnie McGrath

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photos by Bonnie McGrath

The first music I heard from Lollapalooza 2011 was Thursday night as I strolled along Michigan Avenue in the vicinity of Jackson. And it was canned. Some of the music I recognized was that of Sheryl Crow, for sure. But she wasn't on the list of performers. But then I found out from a friend of mine whose late husband was in a band that that's how you do a sound check. With recorded music. There were lots of sounds checks going on with lots of different kinds of canned music on the night before Lollapalooza opened.


Friday, I heard snippets as I went here and there along Michigan Avenue, from Roosevelt to downtown. But nothing I recognized or particularly liked.

Same with Saturday.

On Sunday, I had a chance to sit for a bit on the balcony of a friend's condo at The Columbian at Roosevelt and Michigan. She'd been treating herself all weekend to various sets. She was looking forward to The Cars at 4 PM, but I had to leave before that. A lot of the music was conflicting with itself when we sat on her balcony--was it the way the wind was blowing? The fact that the volume was balanced between the acts? Or what?

Sunday night, a friend cajoled me into trying to hear Eminem from the sidelines of the fest area--like I did with Lady Gaga last year. We roamed around. I could have sworn I heard him. But alas, we asked security and they said Eminem was the night before. That in fact, we were listening as we spoke to Foo Fighters, which sounded when he said it like fruitflyers.

The most interesting thing I saw, however, was hundreds of legs of Lollapaloozers covered in mud on Sunday night as they left Grant Park. Legs, shoes, pants--even shirts--drenched in mud. From the sudden downpour and its effect on the sod from Hutchinson Field to Buckingham Fountain to Butler Field. Walking down the street, on the 'el,' no matter where they were when they left the big show, mud--not t-shirts, tickets or anything else--was the way to tell if someone attended Lollapalooza 2011.



3 Comments - Add Your Comment



By Really Bonnie? from South Loop
Posted: 08/10/2011 4:27 PM

So...your Lollapalooza article is about how you didn't go, couldn't hear any of the music, and got the line-ups mixed up? Seriously Bonnie, your column needs to be renamed "Completely Pointless South Loop Observations."


By Fluffy de Crossharbour from Winnetka
Posted: 08/10/2011 5:28 AM

Part II. Their old stomping grounds were once so poor and rundown, relics of Chicago's segregation era. I used to see the Duke at 26 & Cal, before Judge Earl Strayhorn. Any plaques dedicated to their music? Pilgrim Baptist Church, where once Rev. Junius Austin preached, is still under reconstruction Tsk.


By Fluffy de Crossharbour from Winnetka
Posted: 08/10/2011 5:25 AM

Serendipitously, I and some friends had our own south Loop Sunday experience,on the Devil in the White City tour, in magnificent weather. We stopped at 1836 S. Michigan. OMIGOD, what fabulous refinement and arbor vitae. In the 70s, we used to drive down Michigan Ave., and Indiana Ave. from South Shore, and it was rundown, dusty and forgettable. A little further was the expansive, equally impressive Bronzeville, where once Curtis Mayfield, Jerry "the Iceman" Butler, and the Duke of Earl.