Lollapalooza Days Two and Three: A little rain then heat never hurt nobody.

Well. Sadly my title of this post is a lie. People were passing out left and right on Sunday (Day Three) from the heat, dehydration, drinking, drugs and the like. Yikes. So, I suppose I should reword it to say "A little rain then heat didn't hurt us." But I'm not going to do that. Much like my laziness in editing the title to make it a true statement, I am not going to write separate entries about Days Two and Three at Lollapalooza. Why? Same reason: sheer laziness. Let's get on with it, shall we?

Day Two was hectic. We literally walked from the northern-most stages to the southern-most stages six times. At least. It's a hike. We saw a ton of bands. Rather than stay for entire sets, we popped in and out of shows to hear a song or two. My favorites included Gogol Bordello, a crazy gypsy band that had the entire crowd in a dancing frenzy and Green Day. Apparently, I also decided to start taking pictures of guys in Ed Hardy t-shirts.

Here's one:

We had fully intended to go catch the end of Phoenix, but we were having way too much fun at Green Day. Their show was insane and included pulling people up on stage, Billie Joe Armstrong giving away a guitar (!!!), fireworks and massive singalongs. It was incredible. And I'm not even a huge Green Day fan. We got home from Day Two, showered, and passed out as if we'd been knocked unconscious by a frying pan.

Day Three arrived with some rain. No ponchos for us, we toughed out the rainy time by hiding under the trees and scoffing at those who felt the need to ponch up at a couple of drips. Not gonna lie, I felt pretty rock and roll. (Yeah. I'm a nerd.) We started with a London-based girl called Neon Hitch. She was very energetic and fun. At that moment, I decided Day Three would be a dance party. That is, until we walked over to see another band and decided to set up shop for a little sitting and listening to music in the background. We learned that when we were tired, we could set our blanket out between the Budweiser stage and the Playstation stage and listen to each band pretty clearly. Since the rain had long-gone and the sun had come out, it was hot and very humid. My grand notions of a dance party had faded for the time being.

We walked around a bit, found our Brooklyn buds (who had nearly received concussions from the MGMT crowd surfing), and found our places for the final show of the night: Arcade Fire. P.I.C. made it down to the south end for a bit of Soundgarden and then joined us later. The show was amazing. Truly amazing.

Honestly, I expected to go to Lollapalooza 2010, have a good time, reaffirm my self-diagnosed case of agoraphobia and say "That was fun. Don't think I'll do it again." I thought I'd have funny little stories about drunk people and people with poor social skills and funny outfits. While I do have those stories, those are not the ones that ring clearest in my head. The music has stayed with me.

Surprisingly, I want to do it again. I want to experience the crowds and the sweat and the filth. I really loved it more than I ever thought I would. Despite the dirt, the sweat and the obnoxious people, the uniting power of music is a beautiful thing. It is almost like discovering you have 95,000 new best friends, all who came together to experience music in a most amazing way.

Not to worry, I'm not going to go music snob. P.I.C. has dibs on that moniker. But it's really nice to know that I have a greater appreciation after three intense days of music.

(I'm sure I'll be back to my snarky self tomorrow. And listening to the new Enrique Iglesias song. Judge me. I don't care.)