Lollapalooza day 1

Saturday, March 31^st, 2012

**A disclaimer. As anyone who has gone to a concert before knows, it's impossible to convey the greatness of music through words. I thought about going into more depth with my descriptions, but then decided it was worthless. 

Everybody and their hipster best friend was in Santiago for Lollapalooza, it seemed. And I can’t say I blame them because what a lineup! Although we were already running late, it was incredible the amount of people waiting for the subway to O’Higgins park where it was all going down. We mobbed like cattle to get into our respective car and were whisked away. I must say the subway system in Santiago makes the ol’ Subte here in Buenos Aires look like, well, what it is—some grimy trains that sound like they could explode any second. The trains in Santiago ran a tight schedule with a multitude of trains. 

 This, in addition to the fact that they moved so sleekly made me feel like I was back in Korea. But the real madness started when we got off the train:

REMERAS! Pósters! PANCHO! EMPANADA! GASEOSAS! REMERAS! ENTRADAS! LOLLAPALOOZA!

Wow. Maybe the subway did take me back to Asia. That was the only way to describe the billions of hawkers waiting outside the station. Even if I did want a t-shirt (which I actually really did), there would have been no way to buy it because the crowd was too big and the space too small. We finally made it to the entrance and picked up our tickets hassle free from will-call just as the last notes of Gogol Bordello echoed into the hot afternoon air. Poor Ryan…Maybe had our bus not arrived two hours late and had our hostel actually understood “reservations”, we could have made it. But there’s no use crying over spoiled milk. Or missed sets of Ukrainian gypsy punk music…

While we missed Gogol, we did find our Norwegian friends from the bus by an absolute stroke of random luck. They were on the hunt for beer. There was no beer at Lollapalooza. What!? I mean, I wouldn’t have drank any, but don’t they see the huge profit margin on that? They must be crazy. But then again, had the Lolla attendees gotten everything they wanted, there would have been a weed/acid stand every other step…

We eventually meandered over to where Thievery Corporation was playing and while the band almost has somewhat of a dual personality thing going on (with one side being the jah mon rasta songs, and the other side being incredibly chill world music) they definitely went with the jah mon jams, throwing me a bone every couple of songs to appease my inner Indian Hindu goddess.

After their set finished, we headed over to where Pretty Lights was in the indoor arena. While it was a beautiful day, I didn’t mind this because my sunscreen had run out before the trip and I didn’t think spending 5 solid hours under a hot sun would be too good for my poor little shoulders and nose. Pretty Lights also seems to have a dual personality (one side mellow electronic masterpieces, the other side a little heavier, on the border of dub). Of course he was riding the dub out, because that’s what gets a crowd going. I didn’t hear any of my favorite songs, but he of course played Finally Moving whose sample seems to be showing up everywhere. Living up to his name, he has some very pretty lights going on during his set that enhanced the music with colors and designs.

Then it was time for Bassnectar, who played in the same arena. Towards the beginning of the set there were relatively few people so we made our way up to about the third row. But before we got there, I had to nom an apple and chug some water. Leave it to me to be the only person being healthy in a crowd of people tripping on acid. Even though the photo suggests otherwise:

Bassnectar really does lay on the bass, but for some reason I can’t explain, I felt like his set was a little soft. I was still jumping like crazy, but I wasn’t rendered deaf after the show, nor did my colon rupture from all the bass. Come on!

We dialed it back on the electricity meter and headed over to Arctic Monkeys. I tried to like them when I was a sophomore in high school, but then realized that all the hype must be because they’re called Arctic Monkeys. They’re pretty genero rock in my book, but there were hundreds, if not thousands of people there in the crowd there to disagree with me. Ryan was riding a wave of nostalgia all the way to the watering trough where we filled up on water from god knows where. Don’t think. Just drink.

Then finally, it was time for Björk. She’s a cute little Icelandic Asian woman who’s known for her wacky costumes as much as she is for her obscure voice. Say what you want about Björk, but her music has solid production values in addition to the fact that she brings something new and interesting to the table. She’s got more albums than I can name and has been going strong for more than a decade. I was surprised by the number of Latin American fans she had who knew the lyrics even better than I did. And quite frankly if English is your second language and you’re singing along to Björk, you can be considered fluent. The best part of her set? Her screaming GRACIAAAAAAAAS after every song. It's a sound that can never be recreated. Every time I say the word, I can't help my desire to move up about 8 pitches and add 39 A's to the word...

The cool air disguised the sweat of the day and refreshed me as we walked away from the echoes of Björk’s unique croon. Viva Lollapalooza.