We flew into O'Hare that afternoon with many things on our minds, including music, food and friends. O'Hare stinks ... but it was nice to be taking the blue line in as it deposited us nicely on the ride in at Smoque, a Chicago BBQ joint that a friend had recommended and which was, of course, then featured on Drive-Ins, Diners and Dives on the Food Network. It felt goofy hauling our luggage in, but hey, it's a haul out there from downtown. And it was good. You can see some of Noelle's pork sandwich here along with a bag of fries, cole slaw, etc. Their mac and cheese was to die for as was their brisket. A nice start.We checked into the Hard Rock (apropos, I know) thereafter, met up with our peeps, had a quick beer at the Cobra Lounge (if you click on the link, you get to hear "Waiting Room" by Fugazi, which is awesome), and then headed into the festival under gray skies and very mild temperatures (it stayed about 70 degrees all weekend - killer).
Tortoise was up first, and I've been a fan of them for a while, first seeing them back in 1998 on the TNT tour in Munich, Germany. They were of course a bit noodly at times, but it was a fan-created setlist, and they pulled out some gems including the song "TNT," which I haven't heard them play in a very long time. A nice, chill start to the proceedings. I should mention that beers were a reasonable $5 (and were good - Goose Island products), so that factored in mightily each day/evening.After Tortoise came Yo La Tengo, who were a bit uneven and, again, plagued by some sound problems. In fairness, their stage was too quiet the whole festival, while the other stage was straight up perfect the whole time. But it was a fun show with, as expected, a lot of "hits" and about 1000x better than my last time seeing them. Partial setlist:
???
Autumn Sweater
Let's Save Tony Orlando's House
Cherry Chapstick
Stockholm Syndrome
"new song"
Mr. Tough
???
Tom Courtenay
Pass the Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind
Sugarcube
Oddly, the Jesus Lizard knocked it out of the park and got me very excited for seeing them at All Tomorrow's Parties in September. I can only name a few of their songs though I used to own multiple albums by them (and still rock their live opus Show from time to time), but they sounded great and were a veritable machine on stage.
Built to Spill rounded out the evening and were, as usual in their festival settings, awesome. I firmly believe that they skipped some fan requests ("Car" and "The Plan" come instantly to mind), but it was awesome aside from the sound again being too quiet. (Noting a them?) Setlist:
Liar
Stab
Strange
You Were Right
Kicked It In the Sun
Conventional Wisdom
Else
Big Dipper
Virginia Reel Around the Fountain
Goin' Against Yr Mind
Carry the Zero
We were leaving as "Carry the Zero" started due to being old people who can no longer hang, but it was a promising start. We had a couple beers and some food at a fairly tacky but convenient place near our respective hotels, but we of course faded fast.
Saturday 7/18/2009 - Day Two
So we kicked today off with what may be the most epic aspect of this trip ... a journey to Hot Doug's Sausage Superstore and Encased Meat Emporium. It was recommended to me by a friend and then, similar to Smoque, was featured on TV (Anthony Bourdain, actually) . It has apparently been a mad house ever since. Let me sum this up quickly ... we arrived around 10:45 AM and waited in line for almost 2 hours. Was it worth it? Um, yes ... it was epic. We shared a straight up Chicago dog all the way, a hot sausage with kraut, a duck sausage with foie gras (sinful), regular fries and fries cooked in rendered duck fat. It was ridiculously good. I am still dreaming about it. Seriously.We headed back in to start the rock a little later in the day. First up was the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, which was kind of so-so. I like the record, but the live show doesn't bring a whole lot to the table. We kind of hung back and sort of listened to Final Fantasy, but this did nothing for me at all. Seemed like a poor man's Andrew Bird without the good songs. We finally wandered over the non-main stage to catch the end of Ponytail (crazy, Yoko Ono-style awesome-ness) and then Wavves (I don't get the hype on this at all). We then basically hung back for a nice, lilting set from Beirut and ended with a typically epic show from the National. What can you say about them? Most compelling band in the land right now for me ...
And what a setlist (see below) ... the hits, some rarities ("All the Wine," "Green Gloves") ... it's a formula that they do over and over again nightly, but it's so damn good ...
Setlist:
Runaway (new song)
Start a War
Mistaken for Strangers
Brainy
Secret Meeting
Baby We'll Be Fine
Slow Show
(new song)
Squalor Victoria
Abel
All the Wine
Apartment Story
Ada
Green Gloves
Fake Empire
(new song)
Mr. Novemeber
- encore -
About Today
Again tried to stay out afterward ... again nearly feel asleep at the table and regretted such decisions the next day ...
Sunday 7/19/2009 - Day Three
Another strong meal to start the day out ... Southport Grocery. We totally pigged out again on omelets, grilled coffee cake, and "a pancake made with gooey bread pudding topped with cinnamon-sugar butter & a side of vanilla custard sauce." It was wrong.
We got an early start today, as there were many bands we wanted to see. First off was a highlight of the whole festival for most everyone, Frightened Rabbit. They sounded great, played a huge chunk of The Midnight Organ Fight, and just won everyone over. We hung back and kind of halfway listened to Blitzen Trapper, who opened with a nice "Wild Mountain Nation" and just kind of did their folky/rocky thing. We also kind of hung around for Pharoah Monch, which was not everyone's cup of tea but was at least entertaining.
Then it was the killer, non-stop lineup. The Thermals were OK and played an odd assortment of covers, but the sound was (again) way too low. Then the Walkmen straight up brought it. I love these guys more and more, and their songwriting continues to just blow up. Wow ...
???new song???
In the New Year
On the Water
Postcards from Tiny Islands
Canadian Girl
The Rat
Red Moon
Donde Esta La Playa
I Lost You
Louisiana
All Hands on the Cook
(new song)
We again hung back for M83, who sounded good (but were of course too quiet on the A stage) but kept our spot for Grizzly Bear, whom I find to be a simply fantastic live band. It's intricate, challenging music, and some people seem put off by that, but their live show really won me over (as it did at Bonnaroo last month). The highlight again for me was "Fine for Now," but they played all the big tunes off Veckatimist and sounded unreal. Their musicianship is just jaw-dropping.
Only my girlfriend and I stuck around for the Flaming Lips, and it was a big letdown as usual. Just not even really worth writing about except to say that it was very meh.
It's a bummer to have ended so many epic sets on such a bum note, but wow ... $75 for all that music and $5 beer and mild Chicago summer days. Sign me up again ...
