Devo: Some Lollapalooza.cl afterthoughts

I'm TIRED!! Is it the near-33-years-old experience?
Maybe it's the diving into the realms of alcohol on Friday and Saturday nights, at my friends' houses?
Or the 2-day, 10-hour Lollapalooza experience?
The thing is that waking up this morning was an issue still unresolved.

So this is my 3rd Lollapalooza, but the first one actually staying the full time in. And the first one in Chile, of course! The story was more or less like this:

Saturday, noon:We picked the tickets. I put them in my wallet. Sarah asked me right away: "do you have the tickets" and I showed them to her and put them back in the wallet. My brain was remembering the piscola exuberance of the previous night.

Saturday, 12:03. Sarah speaking. "Do you have the tickets". Guess the answer.

Saturday, 12:07. Sarah speaking. "Do you have the tickets". It wasn't the third time. I finally said the obvious. "No". A 2-minute fight began. No consequences to lament.

Saturday, 12:15. In the metro (subway) with our friend Loreto

Saturday. 12:45. An uber-excited me jumps out of the metro wagon. The two ladies followed the bunny. Last "do you have the tickets" question of the day.

Saturday, 1:00. We made it in! First band, the Chilean Los Bunkers. Quite solid, didn't know them very well but enjoyed them. Kind of New Pornographers in sound, classic power pop. I like it.

2:15 PM: Anita Tijoux's hip hop began in the smallest venue, so ridiculously small that became an issue for every other show there. Imagine an 800-people venue with poor access in a festival where everyone walks in and out, all the time, and put shows that might interest... thousands of people. A call to chaos! By the way, Anita's show was awesome!

4:00 PM: James' show began. Nice adult music. The band was quite formally dressed while the lead singer came back straight from a trip to buddha land with pirate pants, so revered by Sarah in previous posts. Cypress hill played before, It was kinda nice to listen them from far.

5:15 PM: Ben Harper began playing. Great voice and solid slide guitar. Mostly unknown for the audience, he won the audience.

6:15 PM: The National began an amazing show, in spite of one of the twin guitarists saying "gracias" after every song. Better "thank you". Sarah and I realized that one "gracias" is OK, the tenth sounds like "I wanna be your friend, you little indian from down south of rio grande who doesn't speak a word of english". Plus, as Sarah points out, it sounds like "Grassy ass". The National guy reached 5, but they put one of the most solid concerts in the whole festival. "Mistaken for strangers" sounded particularly good, but in general all their layered strings rocked throughout all songs. The singer showed her wine drinking skills, yet he still need to learn from Jane's Addiction's Perry Farrell.

8:00 PM: Sarah and Loreto waited for The Killers. I sneaked into Empire of the Sun, an electronic-80's-2020's band with a neat stage presence, quite fun to watch. A picture is better than a few words. The music was fun and danceable, too. Before that, I saw one Deftones song. There were a lot of loyal fans, judging by the massive Deftones t-shirts around. Still, for non-Deftonians like me, they sounded tight and powerful.

9:50 PM: Fatboy Slim began his show at 9:15 and the arena became a dance party. I stayed until listening to "Right Here, Right Now". I felt complete. I promised to myself to stop annoying Sarah by singing "Right here, right now" every 2 minutes, as it happened earlier during the day. By this time, Sarah and Loreto were being squeezed out like ketchup from the first rows of people as soon as the killers began playing.

10:00: I watched The Killlers for 30 minutes. Absolutely unimpressed, better in album than live for sure.

11:00: The night began and so did the drinking at my friend Cristobal's birthday. THERE WAS NO BEER BEING SOLD AT THE FESTIVAL... unless you pay twice the admission and became a VIP concertgoer. Barf barf for that... but happy birthday Cristobal!!

Sunday, 11:00: "Holly cow!!! time to wake up and see Mala Rodriguez at 12:30!

noon: Got up, finally. The day before we got wristbands. No 'were are the tickets' questions. No fights between Sarah and I.

1:30 PM: Back at the festival. Mala ('bad') Rodriguez was late so we were right on time to see her show. Great performance, we actually listened to the music in spite of being distracted by her legs... not mala at all.

3:30: After a hiatus in the shade, listening to Todos tus Muertos and breathing hard to withstand 311, time for one of the funnest concerts, the cumbia/ska/party monsters Chico Trujillo. 20,000 of us dancing with 86 degrees F (30 C). Nobody cared about our lack of dancing skills because nearly everybody sucks as much as we do in the dancing business. There's a reason why we're not on stage!

4:30 PM: We couldn't see Cat Power, The Drums nor Cold War Kids. They were put in the small stage that I mentioned earlier so getting there meant losing 1 hour at least doing a line. Instead, we saw some Flaming Lips, doing their show. I'm not as impressed as I was the first time... and this was my third. Still, they put new songs and an overall good mood. They're pretty good band for this kind of festivals, I have to say

5:15: This is Fisherspooner! Madonna meets Boy George in a dance club.

7:15: I saw 45 minutes of 30 Seconds to Mars and didn't vomit by luck. I did my best, but I couldn't like their music. Plus, the singer Jared Leto didn't stop himself by saying "Gracias" over the 10-time limit, but he asked the audience "how many of you think you know English?" after asking "How many of you know english?". Plus, the "it's my first time in south america and it's the best ever" kind of phrase came of of his lungs as teenagers scream his name. in addition to a few "I love you" to those girls. New rule: if you hear little girls screaming when a roadie comes out with something on stage before the concert starts. Escape!

7:25: Met my friend Ariel and took the required picture!

7:30: Jane's Addiction began playing. This was the view. Hanging ballerinas not optional, it's Jane's Addiction! Bring on the testosterone! Perry Farrell chugged a bottle of wine. Way more macho than the softy of The National's lead singer, who even had a glass cup! Still, the concert was incredibly fun, although we missed the last 30 minutes to get a good place for Kanye West

8:45: My cousins Jaime and Sebastián found me among thousands of people. How? The hair.

9:00: Kanye West began. I know, he's not a great singer but he's one of the best performers! You get the feeling he's given everything for the show and you've jumped and sung as much as you could. Ask Sarah...

I got a nice pic of Kanye from few feet... uuuh!