Lollapalooza Day 3 > aka the finale, aka Rainy Sunday. It rained hard on Sunday so it's not just a clever name. Being that the finale's details from over a week ago are tough to recall at this point [sorry, I've been in San Francisco for the Outside Lands music festival, pics/vids to follow] and it was a late start to the day's festivities anyway [the third day of a music festival should be brutal or you're not doing the first 2 days correctly] I'll keep this short and sweet.
After a few drinks and a few shots at Congress [courtesy of my credit card roulette shortcomings] the last 4 standing of the Lolla squad finally made it into the festival around 5pm. Daedelus, Flogging Molly and Cage the Elephant were some notable acts we missed per our Lolla-gagging. It only took the 2-minute walk to the first beer tent we saw before a few sparse, friendly drops of rain came down. Upon the purchase of the first beers inside those friendly drops turned into a heavy downpour. Everyone around could be seen scurrying to the nearest tent, tree, potty or whatever to stay dry for what would hopefully be a 10-15 minute shower.
Even the Chicago natives were surprised to see the rain not letting up after 20 minutes. At that point we and seemingly everyone else decided it was pointless to hide from the rain and to celebrate it. The collective ombrophobia lifted and a festival of loonies resurfaced from the mini forests and makeshift shelters. Soon there was singing in the rain, dancing in the rain, stomping in puddles - all mediocre in comparison to what rainy day shenanigans would ensue next: belly flops, puddle surfing, mudslides, human bowling balls knocking over pyramidally arranged recycling bins, etc. Good entertainment while we awaited Arctic Monkeys to go on at the Universal Music stage.
Arctic Monkeys played a great show followed by the headlining Foo Fighters on the same stage. Both played mostly in sporadic bursts of heavy rain and got the thousands and thousands of heads in front to become mudpeople rocking out to some of the most energetic rock of the entire weekend. Dave Grohl is the king. I became even more of a fan after that Foo set, which I only saw an hour of in order to catch 20 minutes of Kid Cudi [pretty good] in the Perry's tent and the last half hour of Deadmau5 [spectacular] on the Bud Light stage. Cold War Kids on the Google+ stage at the same time just wasn't in the cards for us or anyone because 4 conflicting acts is just too tough to manage. But I was really happy with what I saw and really happy it was over. I needed to put myself in the laundry, eat $20 worth of food at the Weiner Circle and begin the 4-day recharging process before the next big music festival: Outside Lands.
I'll definitely be at Lollapalooza again next year. I've already begun packing.
