LOLLAPALOOZA 2006

Lollapalooza was many months ago but I still think about it on a weekly, if not daily, basis. It was, hands down, my three favorite days of the year. So, under the guise of looking back at the best of '06, I'm going to mog my heart out about Lollapalooza.It all started one anticipated Thursday morning, August 3, 2006. My dad dropped me off at a friend's house; she (Libby), her mom, and myself hopped in the car; and we drove from the ville to chi-town. It's a fairly boring drive but I learned of the flat-ness of Indiana and occupied my time be creating fantastic pieces of art with sharpie markers and construction paper. As we crossed the stateline between Indiana and Illinois, Sufjan Stevens was bumped in the stereo and we (quite astutely) jammed to "Chicago" as we entered the city's limits. Alas, in Chicago! Thursday night was full of family reunions (or on my part, friendly introductions) and settling into our temporary home, a friend's INCREDIBLE house in the north suburbs. Sometime after 1 we cut short our conversations and calmed ourselves to sleep.August 4, 2006. Lollapalooza day one is upon us. Holy Jesus! Into the car, one hour commute to Grant Park, Sufjan Stevens sing-along, parking, walking, waiting in line-ing, meeting the rest of our crew (Stephanie and Leah), wrist-banding, entering, LOLLAPALOOZA-ing.Band numero uno: The Subways. Charlotte, the basist, had some type of mic and/or earphone problem but they put on a great set. Billy Lunn, the lead singer, was fantastically showy as a front-man of a "punk"-ish band should be. In addition to climbing the stage's rigging, climbing the barricade in front of the crowd, and crowd surfing (he touched my hand, the lucky man) he also delivered the soundbyte of the festival. Please excuse my backtracking: The Subways played the first set and after an hour's break Panic! at the Disco would take the stage. What does this mean? It means that all the "cool" moms and their children had packed their picnic baskets, loaded up the minivan and laid down their blankets as soon as possible to get optimal seats for the P!ATD show. Therefore, this well-mannered crowd was politely sitting around, bidding their time for Panic! to take the stage. Back to the soundbyte: So, Billy, that silly little British punk, takes his mic in hand, pauses for effect, and delivers this gem with utmost sincerity, "You're all fuckin' beautiful . . . " (I'm already smiling as I feel the mom next to me slightly cringe) " . . . and I want to fuck you all." Oh, I am just beaming! Billy is officially my hero! I hope the four year-old crawling at my feet picks up that concert lingo! I've been at Lolla less than 2-hours and it's already filled my music-lovin' heart with joy. Here's more Silly Billy antics. More on Day 1 later . . .