LollapaHOLYSHITEa

Oh. My. God. I had the most insanely fun time this past weekend @ Lollapalooza. Holy crap. And strangely enough, I owe that to Thievery Corporation, of all bands! And to Manu Chao, whose music I had not heard prior to Saturday at 8:30. We were in the front row at Thievery Corporation's concert on Saturday evening, and it was f-ing unbelievable. I have not had that much uninhibited, spontaneous fun in a long, long time. Too long. We danced, yelled, screamed, helped the reggae rappers body surf, found our faces on the jumbotron, met fun (and cute!) people, laughed, and just had an unbelievable time. They were incredible performers. You would think a chill, loungey act would be boring at an outdoor concert, but they put on a fantastic show with live bongoes and tonga drums, a sitar, guitarists, live horns, a bassist, gorgeous, lively dancers, the reggae rappers, and it was just insane. There is something about being in the front, where you can see the expressions on the musicians' faces and feel their energy and collaboration and be among other rabid fans of the music that just combines to create a fantastic energy. The musicians, including the two synth guys who make up TC, sincerely looked like they were having a blast. I actually feel like I'm detracting from how f-ing cool it was by writing about it and trying to describe it with words. Even the setting sun and dusk contributed to creating the perfect atmosphere. It was f-ing amazing -- a beautiful, natural high.

I also owe this guy for giving one of the most energetic, crazy, fun, outstanding concerts I've been to. I'd never heard his music before, but he still had me and the rest of the crowd dancing, screaming, singing along, and completely forgetting about everything else but how much fun we were having. Amazing. His set was seamless, and he went from reggae to punk to reggae/hip-hop to rock to punk/hip-hop without stopping; "energetic" does not give him justice to the kind of performer he was. Fantastic. Incredible. 100% sincere. I don't regret missing Kanye in the least. On top of that, Feist and Gnarls Barkley and the Flaming Lips were pretty cool, but nothing compared to TC and Manu Chao.

All in all, an unforgettable, experience, 1000 times more fun and more memorable than last year. I didn't even care about the heat! Well, not after Thievery Corporation started. : ) It also made me appreciate how incredible a city Chicago is. An amazing outdoor, world-class concert like that with that incredible skyline as a backdrop is something only Chicago can offer.