Lollapalooza @ Grant Park!!! (Chicago, Worth, Cornell: how much, buy, school)

[Spartanacus]

Okay gang, I'm hoping one of you went to this last year to offer me some advice for this year. The line-up won't be officially announced until the 12th, but as a Ten Club member, I was informed that the greatest band in the world, Pearl Jam, will be headlining on Sunday, August 5th.

Early bird tickets are available right now for $165 for all three days. After the 12th that will go up to $195. If I didn't have any kids I'd probably just make a weekend out of it and go all three days (I hear Beck is playing too), but I can't swing that, so I have two questions.

1) When may I expect single day tickets to go on sale, and for how much?

2) Are there seats or is it totally general admission, with people standing and cramming into the front? Basically...what is the "venue" like?

Thank you and long live the "Jam."

[Bart0415]

I went to Lollapalooza last year (day 2). The Grand Park venue was huge; there were at least four main stages. There is no reserved seating so basically you get people cramming in front of the stage for the best viewing. However there are also big video screens above some of the stages so you don't need to be too close.

One problem might be moving between stages: there is a long break (about an hour) between acts at a given stage, so theoretically you can walk to a different stage, watch an act there and then come back to the previous stage and catch the next act. However in practice this may not always work due to the crowds involved and the risk of losing a good spot in the case of the most popular acts.

Another problem is sound bleeding from one stage to the adjacent one. I hope they fix that this year.

My own experience last year: I went on Day 2 on a whim (I decided it the same morning). I bought a ticket at the entrance and got in easily (no big lines) at around 2 pm. I hung out mainly at the "Bud Lite" stage (which was mostly alternative rock). When I arrived there was a big crowd watching "Built to Spill". I found a place next to the sound engineer's booth leaning on the fence surrounding it, which gave me a compfortable spot and a good but rather remote view. The sound good have been louder, because there was bass thumping bleeding from an adjacent stage ("AT&T"), which was mostly hip-hop. The sound got better and louder with the next act "Sonic Youth", who were terrific (one of the main reasons I went that day). The crowd got more dense as people started flowing in to watch the next act "The Flaming Lips" which gave a great show with balloons, clowns, etc. At the same time, interesting shows were going on at the Hip-Hop/electronica (AT&T) stage with Gnarls Barkley and Common , who I unfortunately missed because they were taking place at exactly the same time as THe Sonic Youth and the Lips. But I had the opportunity to catch part of the shows going on at the "Adidas" stage behind me , which did not have exact overlap with my "main" stage. That actually was he most eclectic stage with most of the "hard to categorize" or weird stuff like Calexico and the Dresden Dolls.

The fourth stage that I did not mention so far was all the way to the other end of the festival grounds (seemed like a quarter mile away or so) so it seemed impossible to walk there between the 1-hr breaks at my "main" stage. That had more of a punk rock flavor. If I could I would have tried to see the the "Smoking Popes" who were playing in the interval between the Youth and the Lips and the "New Pornographers" who were playing between the Lips and the final act at the "Bud" stage, Manu Chao, whom I did not want to miss, since he rarely tours the States.

So definitely go there, have fun but don't expect to be able to see every performance. You will certainly have to sacrifice a few acts that you would want to see, so plan carefully !

[Spartanacus]

Thanks Bart...sounds like fun, but also some work! I'm anxious to see the line-up a week from today, but I have a feeling that I won't know who many are besides Pearl Jam of course. I'm a product (college years) of the early to mid 90's grunge movement, so I've been pretty much stuck in that "rut" since then. For example, nobody besides PJ, Audioslave (RIP) and Chris Cornell (excited for June 5th!) makes me want to run out and buy a CD the day it comes out.

I dig Lenny Kravitz, and the "old" acts like Beck, the Beastie Boys, NIN, and I'll always like old school gangsta rap and it's immediate family tree...NWA/Snoop/Eminem/50 Cent. But there's not much new music I really like too much.

I've got one White Stripes album and a Vines album, and they're okay. I tried to get into Radiohead and I'm forgetting the name of another huge English band who is just okay to me.

I am excited the Smashing Pumpkins are getting back together and that would be AWESOME if they made it to Lolla again (I saw them and Beck in a mushroom induced haze at Lolla years ago...LOL).

I'm glad to hear there are no seats though and that I shouldn't have a problem getting single day tickets later (even though there are a ton of us PJ fanatics).

Thanks again.

[d-iron]

Their coming back did anyone go in 06? Worth it?

[dragoro]

One of the few bands I haven't seen. Been to over 350 shows. I'd bet they'd be pretty good. One of the few true artists these days.

[d-iron]

Originally Posted by dragoro

One of the few bands I haven't seen. Been to over 350 shows. I'd bet they'd be pretty good. One of the few true artists these days.

Damn dude 350! You put me to shame.

[neonwattagelimit]

Originally Posted by d-iron

Their coming back did anyone go in 06? Worth it?

When is this happening? Because I am seriously getting tickets ASAP. Radiohead puts on a fantastic live show, I've seen them four times.

[jdiddy]

Originally Posted by neonwattagelimit

When is this happening? Because I am seriously getting tickets ASAP. Radiohead puts on a fantastic live show, I've seen them four times.

They're coming to Chicago in the second leg of their US tour. No official dates have been announced yet, except that it will likely be in August.

[neonwattagelimit]

Originally Posted by jdiddy

They're coming to Chicago in the second leg of their US tour. No official dates have been announced yet.

Ah, okay. I did hear about that. I thought maybe some dates were just announced.

[jdiddy]

Originally Posted by neonwattagelimit

Ah, okay. I did hear about that. I thought maybe some dates were just announced.

Sorry I just edited my post. They have announced dates for the first US leg. You can check them out here.

http://www.ateaseweb.com/live/2008/ (broken link)